Modern Day Attacks Against Firewalls and Vpns

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are used to allow a remote public connection to an internal network. A VPN is essentially a virtual tunnel connecting a remote user (Tunnel Vision). The traffic within the VPN tunnel is encrypted, and there are two ways to do this. One way is Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) and the other is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Firewall: A firewall is a software or hardware-based network security system that controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic by analysing the data packets and

VPN refers to the networking technology Virtual Private Network. A VPN allows users connected to this network the ability to access any website or computer data from any location in the world with dedicated and secure networking environment rather than being present in a public server. Majority of VPN users belong to business class industry and educational purposes. VPN networks are used in this manner because majority of VPN networks offer the features like encryption and anonymity which increases the privacy and security benefits while using the VPN network. VPN networks also allow the user ability to perform activities on the internet as if they were accessing

A firewall protects networked computers from intentional hostile intrusion that could compromise confidentiality or result in data corruption or denial of service. It may be a hardware device or a software program running on a secure host computer. It must have at least two network interfaces, one of the network it is intended to protect, and one for the network it exposed

A VPN is a secure protected network called a tunnel for communication purposes over long distances using the Internet as its means of transport. Due to the nature of the communication or transmissions that are being utilized by say a larger corporation, secure and reliable communication is a must. In the beginning these VPN connections were established using one or more dial up modems for users to access the information. Authentication was established by requiring the correct user name and password. As time went on as always things changed, new technology and advances in communication as well as equipment allowed the VPN to evolve and expand. To ensure security, the virtual tunnel is encrypted. VPNs use several protocols in order to encrypt

A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. You can implement a firewall in either hardware or software form, or a combination of both. Firewalls prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet (i.e., the local network to which you are connected) must pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria. In protecting private information, a firewall is considered a first line of defense; it cannot be the only line of defense. Firewalls are generally designed to protect network traffic and connections, and therefore do not attempt to authenticate individual users when determining who can access a particular computer or network. Furthermore, firewalls can be set up to prevent employees from accessing certain content or downloading

VPN configurations will be used between each location to ensure site-to-site connectivity. The VPN will allow employees to access the company's intranet from home or while traveling outside the office, and site-to-site VPNs allow employees in geographically disparate offices to share one cohesive virtual network. A VPN can also be used to interconnect two similar networks over a dissimilar middle network; for example, two IPv6 networks over an IPv4 network.[6] which will

Firewalls protect sites from an exploitation of inherent vulnerabilities in the TCP/IP protocol suite (Wack, Cutler, & Pole, 2002). Additionally, firewalls help mitigate security problems associated with insecure systems and the problems inherent in providing robust system security for large numbers of computers. There are several types of firewalls, ranging from boundary routers that can provide access control on Internet Protocol packets, to more powerful firewalls that can close more vulnerability in the TCP/IP protocol suite, to even more powerful firewalls that can filter on the content of the traffic (Wack et al., 2002).

I have known how to use the firewall for a while but never have I taken the time to dive this deep into the settings of it. There was really a lot that you can do in the settings, more than one would think. Such as the inbound and outbound rules (I already knew of these ones) for example. There is really a lot you can do with a firewall.

reason why they need a firewall as it will not let certain data in by unknown sources.

Firewall rule settings can become cluttered in complicated implementations. Throughout stages, rule settings may possibly fall out of place with security policy. An assessment of the firewall rule settings focuses on those and additional concerns. This examination may perhaps turn up some exploit. An example could be that an administrator when troubleshooting a freshly installed application, places a rule that permits all

Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese communist party leader, in 1978, had a famous saying, “if you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in.” (Minzner). This saying has affected the way China contact with the world and trading business. When the Internet officially became available to China in 1994, and because it got popular fast reaching to twenty eight percent of the Chinese citizen in 2009. The Chinese government realized that the Internet has some information that they want to keep it away from their citizens as it is consider as either violation or forbidden information with the Chinese morals and traditions. The Ministry of Public Security by the government in China begun to construct the Great Firewall (Pingp). The Great Firewall is a digital system to control and sense the Internet in China that officially went public in 2000 (Pingp). The main reasons for creating it were to impose Internet security, and censorship to the Chinese citizens. The Great Firewall uses techniques like: “Domain Name System (DNS) pollution and injection, Internet Protocol (IP) and port blocking, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) reset, interfere secure connection, proxy blocking, IPv6 censorship and email blocking.” (Bu 1).

A firewall is a system or group of systems that enforces an access control policy between two or more networks. The means by which this control is accomplished varies widely, but in principle, the firewall is a pair of mechanisms, one that blocks traffic and one that permits traffic. Some firewalls emphasize blocking traffic, while others emphasize permitting traffic. The most important thing to recognize about a firewall is that it implements an access control policy. If you don't know what kind of access you want to permit or deny, or you let someone else or some product configure a firewall based on judgment other than yours, that entity is making policy for your whole organization.

In an e-commerce world, organizations are susceptible to hackers and intruders. Thus creating the information technology protection systems which is used to reduce the possibility of intrusions from occurring. Intrusions occur by uninvited outsiders (sometimes intruders can be internal users like employees) who try to access an organization’s information system using the internet with the intent to gain competitive advantage of some sort. Organizations depend on security technology to avoid loss from security breach, as well as to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. However, firewalls are also vulnerable to errors, and implementing a security technology comes with challenges and critical decisions that can possibly cause a financial burden on the organization if done without seriousness and commitment. “Information security is about managing risk, and managing risk is about discovering and measuring threats to information assets; and taking actions to respond to those threats” (Al-Awadi, & Renaud, 2007, p.3). This paper will discuss a few aspects that are involved with firewalls and intrusion detection systems.

There are various types of firewall both software and hardware. According to The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-10, firewalls is divided into three basic types, The Proxys firewall, Stateful Inspection firewall, and Packet Filtering firewall. The packet filtering firewall is the simplest type of firewall is a type of firewall which uses a list of firewall security rules which are able to restrict traffic based on Internet protocols, addresses and or port number. Utilizing this type of firewall management program web traffic allows for the flow of all web traffic to involve web base intrusion. In situations like this the user will need to also employ some form of intrusion prevention program along with their already established firewall security. This will help tell the difference between good and bad web traffic.