Is remote access to your network secure? What are the Security Requirements for Remote Access? In this blog post, we’ll look at the security requirements for remote access and discuss some best practices to keep your business safe. Stay tuned!
What are the Security Requirements for Remote Access?
The Security Requirements for Remote Access are
- Authentication
This is critical to ensure that only authorized users can access the network.
- Encryption
Encryption protects data from eavesdroppers.
- Integrity
It ensures that unauthorized users can’t modify data.
- Accounting
IT ensures that remote users do charge correctly for their services.
What are the Security Requirements for Remote Access?
Authentication
This is critical to ensure that only authorized users can access the network. The user must prove who they are and should require to provide an acceptable form of identification, such as a password, smart card, token or biometric identifier.
Encryption
Encryption protects data from eavesdroppers. It provides confidentiality by scrambling or encoding information so only authorized parties can view it and decrypt it into a usable form.
The most common encryption methods today are SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security), IPSec (Internet Protocol Security), SSHv2, TLSv1, and 3DES (3 Data Encryption Standard). SSL and SSHv2 do use for web-based communications. It happens while IPSec and TLSv1 do use for email or instant messaging (IM) applications.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) uses SSL or TLS protocols to encrypt web-based communications between a client and server.
IPSec is a suite of security protocols developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and supported by the Internet Society (ISOC), which provides peer-to-peer encryption for network layer traffic such as TCP/IP and UDP/IP. IPSec supports two modes of transport.
Transport mode for protecting application layer data and tunnel mode. It is for encapsulating network layer traffic such as TCP/IP packets within an IPsec packet. Thus, IPsec protection mechanisms can encrypt it before being transmitted across a public network such as the Internet.
SSHv2 is a secure replacement for Telnet that allows remote access via a secure channel between two computers using public-key cryptography to securely exchange authentication credentials and session keys, allowing systems to communicate over an unsecured medium without having to negotiate separate channels or use pre-shared keys.
SSHv2 also provides additional security features not available in SSHv1, including support for multiple authentication methods, encryption algorithms and key exchange methods. These include secure forwarding of arbitrary TCP ports; additional cipher and hash algorithms; and the ability to use X.509 certificates for client or server authentication. TLSv1 is for applications such as email or IM.
Integrity
This ensures that unauthorized users can’t modify data. It accomplishes using message authentication codes (MACs) and digital signatures, which are used to ensure that a message has not been altered in transit.
Understanding MACs
A MAC takes an input message (the plaintext), a cryptographic key, and produces an output called a tag. The cryptographic key do know only to the sender and the receiver of the message. A MAC create using Message Authentication Code (MAC) algorithms.