Steps to secure your remote users

In most cases, businesses do not realize the repercussions of providing remote access for users, and they do little to protect themselves from threats that result from this remote access.

The higher levels of remote access, such as that which comes from a VPN, extend the LAN to include the employee's home computer, network and Internet connection. By default, many financial businesses employ Microsoft's VPN tool, which is included at no additional cost with Windows NT/2000 servers and is straightforward to configure.

A typical IT administrator will verify that corporate workstations are running current antivirus applications, will hopefully have a firewall in place to protect the LAN from external threats, and may even have set acceptable use policies regarding such items as password strength or music-download software/spyware. But has the administrator done the same for the employees' home comput

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ers? More often than not, the answer is "no." This creates a problem when the employee's children (or the employee) are running games, downloading software and opening email with the subject "congratulations, you're a winner."

A financial company can implement security and save dollars, dollars and more dollars of lost revenue due to security compromises by insisting that the home employee, including the CEO and other executives, follow some simple rules:

Bradley Dinerman is an MCSE in Windows NT and 2000 and a Certified SonicWall Security Administrator (CISSA). He is the founder and chair of the New England Information Security User Group and is a founding director of Boston User Groups, Inc. Brad is the vice president of information technology at MIS Alliance in Newton, Mass., and holds a Ph.D. in physics to help him determine how long it will take his monitor to be launched across the local highway.