It is no secret to anyone that the Big Network (Internet) is a very hostile environment where everyone is vulnerable. There is no doubt that the information transmitted over Internet is very essential and sensitive: money transfers, flight passengers lists; personal details; credit card numbers, PINs, company correspondence, lists of resellers, prices,contracts and many, many, many others. Besides HACKERS and crackers who break into systems, steal data and cause DAMAGE just for respect and self esteem,there are professional cyber-crooks who offer their "services" and usually are hired by COMPETITOR companies to sabotage or/and investigate (steal data). Company managers are very often astonished at how their competitors know all their moves - contracts, bank transactions, partnership agreements, employments, resellers and customers lists.
Internet by default offers NO SECURITY !!! Data is transmitted in plaintext and everyone who possesses high-level knowledge is able to intercept it. Fiber, telephone lines, wireless, satellites - every type of media can be "eavesdropped". Therefore everyone on the Internet is responsible for ensuring his OWN SECURITY for his own DATA . People should not act foolishly to rely on the software archivers internal encryption (like WinZIP, WinRAR and etc). Their passwords can be decoded by software that costs $30-$50 on the Internet. The most correct solution is to use a leased line interconnecting two or more remote sites/offices directly. Although this is a very expensive solution, it is the most reliable. Thus data will not travel via Internet. But... is it enough? Fiber, wireless, satellite - even a dedicated point-to-point link can be eavesdropped. That's why it is not SECURE ENOUGH . You have to encrypt your data somehow even over a dedicated link. A simple solution to do is to put hardware crypto devices at every side. Good ones of such kind are produced by Crypto AG, Germany. The only problem with them is that they are VERY EXPENSIVE (over $15,000 for one device). Well, the good news is that there is another solution.
The right (the most effective in performance, level of security and COST) solution is called VPN (Virtual Private Network). A very common abbreviation in the IT world for years.
The right (the most effective in performance, level of security and COST) solution is called VPN (Virtual Private Network). A very common abbreviation in the IT world for years.
