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The Internet can bring down physical barriers to commerce, almost immediately giving even the smallest business access to untapped markets around the world. By the same token, consumers can conduct business and make purchases from organizations previously unavailable to them. Armed with these goals, individuals have flocked to the Internet, and most businesses have set out to set up storefronts on the Internet and its World Wide Web. Just about every major business in the U.S., perhaps in the world, has a home page on the Internet on which can be found information about their services and products. As the Internet grew, the community expanded, and the existing security framework was found lacking. Over the past few years, people have seen evidence of this fact, in the form of Internet-based attacks on commercial systems. Awareness of these attacks has spawned the use of network security tools, such as firewalls, to protect individual networks from attack. More sophisticated attacks can take advantage of basic flaws in the Internet's infrastructure. INSET: Basic Flaws in Internet Infrastructure..

The article features the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) VPN security technology from Aventail Corp. in the U.S. The SSL VPN product allows an encrypted, user-initiated connection to a network resource. It allows users to secure connections without further installation of additional software on the part of the client. For the implementation of voice over IP networks (VOIP) on SSL VPNs, it is important to access policy creation and maintenance. A SSL VPN tools that can assign users to groups and that allow changes to be made at a group level are recommended. One thing that complicates VOIP over SSL VPN are the security deficiencies in the VOIP protocol.

Provides information on the Wi-Fi Protected Access security standard of the Wi-Fi Alliance in the U.S. Protocol used by the standard as a replacement for the Wired Equivalent Privacy; Features; Security methods on which vendors are focusing.

The article focuses on the 802.1X protocol, a simple standard with enormous utility in the U.S. It is built for wired networks, then extended to wireless, it provides network-access controls by ensuring appropriate credentials are received. The protocol allows users to limit in their access to network resources based on their roles and the security posture of the end user device. Security appliances that support the protocol use it to make informed network-access decisions. These devices rely heavily on the negotiation infrastructure to validate credentials and perform more process intensive operations. Leaders in the field include Cisco, Microsoft and the Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Network Connect.