Internet has shown its strength during the nineties. Most major corporations are
now connected, and a large fraction of homes will be networked in the next few
years. Though superior in its flexibility, the Internet has shown a major
weakness; The lack of security.
Without encryption, anyone can read and tamper with the data sent over the
network. Secrets can be stolen and mission critical data can be modified to
cause irrepairable harm.
Without proper authentication, anyone can easily lie about identity and it
may be impossible to know who you are doing business with or keep track if
a crime has been committed.
Internet devices without protection are susceptible to external attacks. An
attacker can get into internal data repositories, destroy information, install
viruses, or just simply turn off or prohibit the services.
The obvious demand for a comprehensive security standard has finally been
answered with the network vendor adoption of the IPSec standard.
Refer to the IPSec Plugin homepage
for documentation, downloads and pricing.
IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) is an Internet standard for
interconnected, secure networking devices and the predominant technology in
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
Below, 5 reasons why IPSec holds this position:
- IPSEC has the widest industry support and is supported by e.g. Cisco,
Microsoft, Network Associates, CheckPoint Software, Bay Networks, etc.
This ensures interoperability and availability of secure solutions for all
needs of corporate and private users.
- IPSEC protects traffic transparently on IP packet level, as a completely
transparent operation to the user. No changes in applications, no additional
procedures or learning by the user required.
- IPSEC is a native IP operation, not limited to e.g. operating system
specific solutions. Unlike tunneling protocols that can typically
only be found in specific operating systems, IPSEC will be
everywhere IP is. It will also be a mandatory part of the
forthcoming IPv6 standard.
- IPSEC has a wide variety of strong encryption standards and unlike
previous solutions, IPSEC is a standard where security has been number
one design criteria resulting in unbeatable security.
- IPSEC includes a secure key management solution with digital certificate
support. IPSEC guarantees the ease of management and use, even in large
scale networks and highly secure authentication of parties.
The IPSec Plugin described in the remainder of this document is developed by
F/X Communications in line with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
open framework for Internet Protocol Security (IPSec).
For a general description of the IPSec protocols, features, benefits and
details, refer to the IPSec User's Guide.
Support of the IPSec technology extends the host product with capability
of building VPN's and secure channels to other major vendors on the market.
The IPSec technology is proven to be interoperable and since it is an
international standard, it can negotiate safe communications between
different organizations using different IPSec solutions.
A virtual private network (VPN) is an extension of an enterprise's private
intranet across a public network such as the Internet, creating a secure
private connection, essentially through a private tunnel.
VPNs securely convey information across the Internet connecting remote users,
branch offices, and business partners into an extended corporate network,
as shown below:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer cost-effective access to the Internet
(via direct lines or local telephone numbers), enabling companies to eliminate
their current, expensive leased lines, long-distance calls, and toll-free
telephone numbers.
The InJoy IPSec Plugin can be used with the whole range of InJoy connectivity products: