Virtual Private Networks, Second Edition

Security Risks of the Internet

The risks associated with the Internet are advertised every day by the trade and mainstream media. Whether it’s someone accessing your credit card numbers, prying into your legal troubles, or erasing your files, there’s a new scare every month about the (supposedly) private information someone can find out about you on the Internet. (Not to mention the perceived risk that you might happen upon some information that you find offensive, or that you might not want your children to see.)

For corporations, the risks are even more real and apparent. Stolen or deleted corporate data can adversely affect people’s livelihoods, and cost the company money. If a small company is robbed of its project files or customer database, it could put them out of business.

Since the Internet is a public network, you always risk having someone access any system you connect to it. It used to be that a system intruder would have to dial into your network to crack a system. This meant that they would have to find a phone number connected to a modem bank that would give them access, and risk the possibility of the line being traced. But if your corporate network is connected over the Internet and your security is lax, the system cracker might be able to access your network using any standard dial-up account from any ISP in the world. Even unsophisticated users can obtain and use automated “security check” tools to seek out holes in a company’s network. What’s worse is that, ...