With every single day the amount of information that companies place and exchange over the Net grows more and more. Banks, airports, state/government institutions (police, hospitals, customs, tax administration), insurance companies, e-trading and other corporate institutions transmit among their offices huge amount of data. Along with the demand of more and more network capacity to satisfy that increase there is another VERY SERIOUS issue, that noone can afford to skip:

s e c u r i t y !!!

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.

What is a VPN?

Basically, a VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites (offices) or users together. Instead of using a dedicated, real-world connection such as leased line (imagine how much a DEDICATED leased 128Kbit line would cost from Beirut to Dubai, or from Rhiyad to Toronto... the value is calculated to tens of thousands dollars monthly!!!), a VPN uses "virtual" connections routed through the Internet from acompany's private network to a remote site(office) or an employee. To make the VPN even stronger, some kind of encryption is used along with it.

What exactly are the advantages of using a VPN link?
A company can greatly benefit from a well-designed VPN. It can:

• Extend geographic connectivity
• Improve security
• Reduce operational costs versus traditonal WAN
• Reduce transit time and transporation costs for remote users
• Improve productivity
• Simplify network topology
• Provide global network opportunities
• Provide telecommuter support
• Provide broadband networking compatibility
• Provide faster ROI (return on investment) than traditional WAN

• Security
• Reliability
• Scalability
• Network management
• Policy management

Why is IPSEC so widely mentioned?

IPSEC VPN has a very strong encryption, causes little burden on the link and is very reliable. Many hardware VPN appliances use an implementation of IPSec. For example, Cisco's VPN Concentrators and PIX firewalls support IPSec. So do NetScreen, SonicWall, and WatchGuard appliances. Enterprise-levelled software firewalls such as ISA Server, CheckPoint and Symantec Enterprise Firewall also support IPSec VPNs. IPSec in tunnel mode secures packets that are transmitted between two gateways or between a client computer and a gateway. As its name implies, an IPSec VPN works only with IP-based networks and applications. Authentication is accomplished via the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol with either digital certificates (which is the more secure method) or with a preshared key. IPSec VPNs can protect against many of the most common attack methods, including Denial of Service (DoS), replay, and "man-in-the-middle" attacks. Due to its excellent characteristics it is widely used by a number of companies and institutions (even NASA, FSB - the Russian security services, Western Union) where maximum security is needed.

GlobalVPN service is a proven, unique and reliable way to secure your links. Contact your reseller or sales representative. Our VPN links serve companies, ATM (Automatic Teller Machines), insurance companies, e-shops, gambling companies and etc. They will serve you as well!

Buy your umrella before the rain starts!!!