Re: Opinions on VPN?

[Frederick M Avolio <fred () avolio com>]

At 06:26 PM 4/17/99 -0700, Jan B. Koum wrote:
>       Just wanted to find out what other people opinion on 'VPN' as a
> general idea? IMHO, the person who came up with the VPN idea should be
> shot, because in most cased all VPN do is create entry points into your
> network (in most cased right past the firewall and some times in the
> hear of your network). They also give admins false sence of security:

Maybe you have a limited notion to what a VPN does or can do... maybe you
are not looking at the right products. VPNs *can* and do coexist with
firewalls. I mean, you can have a VPN that effectively *ends* on the
outside interface of a firewall and still allow or require the firewall to
enforce security policies.

Certainly, VPNs are not *sufficient* for security. And VPNs from outside
machine to some random inside machine doesn;t allow the firewall to make
more than source and destination decisions. But encrypted connections are a
requirement for most everyone considering the vulnerabilities and what,
potentially, is at risk.


Fred
Avolio Consulting
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