Securing Windows Server 2003

Network Security

The first step most companies take for their physical security is simple: locked doors to keep out potential intruders. Network security plays a similar role in computer security, by simply keeping unauthorized personnel away from your sensitive data. Network security also needs to address the times when data must be transmitted outside of your company’s secure network and should address the possibility of your network’s outer security being compromised. I’ll discuss two kinds of network security in this book: boundary security, which is a technique that protects your network from outside attack and is intended to protect your network from intrusion, and data encryption, which protects data that travels outside your network and provides data protection within your secure network.

Boundary Security

Network security, like physical security, starts with strong walls. Typically, those walls are provided by firewalls, which prevent unauthorized data from traveling to and from your network. Windows Server 2003 doesn’t provide the functionality required of a firewall, although it does provide an excellent platform for firewall products, such as Microsoft’s Internet Security and Acceleration Server.

There are a wide variety of firewall products on the market, including some that are built into or run on various Microsoft operating systems. Other firewalls are implemented as standalone devices. All networks should have one or more firewalls, period. Exactly which firewall ...