Aside from what everyone else has said you need to consider the legal
impacts as well. If the home machine is owned by the employee then you have
few options. Legally you can not install or force someone to comply with
your standards if you do not own the equipment. You can of course deny them
access to the network, but for example, you can't tell the user that they
have to have xyz software/updates on their machine. Since you don't know
what software is installed on their home computer you are pretty much
opening yourself to a big potential bag of worms here.
If you go down this route I would also suggest you do split tunneling. An
employee can not get in trouble for surfing adult sites on their home
computer if you force all their internet traffic through your Internet pipe
& filters/logging.
Having employees work from home is a great idea. There are some big
technical "what if's" as well as legal "what if's" that need to be thought
out before going down this road.
Easiest solution is to do something like a web based citrix or similar.
Then you don't have to worry about the NAC side or legal side.
I didn't even touch on the licensing issues either, so if you're a Microsoft
shop you need to look at the impact of this as well.
-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce@securityfocus.com [mailto:listbounce@securityfocus.com] On
Behalf Of Michael J. Benedetto
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 11:07 AM
To: 'Murda Mcloud'; 'Sohail Sarwar'; 'Scott Ramsdell'; 'WALI';
security-basics@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: VPN and Security
There are also technologies like Cisco NAC (among others) that can check and
enforce endpoint compliance with you standards (patch levels, antivirus,
etc.). That should help on the user side if you can't force them to use a
company configured and maintained PC from outside the office.
-Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce@securityfocus.com
[mailto:listbounce@securityfocus.com] On Behalf Of Murda Mcloud
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 9:00 PM
To: 'Sohail Sarwar'; 'Scott Ramsdell'; 'WALI';
security-basics@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: VPN and Security
VPN is as secure as how well it is implemented and used.
Also, the various encryption algorithms used determine how
secure it is. Like everything, it is as strong as the weakest
link and usually in this scenario that means the home user or
their PC.
You're right about the two factor authentication. What were
you thinking of using-smart cards or similar?
Giving home users the list of things they must have in
place(AV for example) is a good idea. Will you allow them to
split tunnel from their home connections or will they have to
come through the VPN connection to be able to browse so that
they can still go through your firewall/proxy etc?
Second option is safer but prob slower. And how would you
control them when they're not on a VPN?
Depending on how far you want to go, you could specify that
they only use their laptop for the VPN and have no split and
then they can use their home pc for their own use.
-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce@securityfocus.com
[mailto:listbounce@securityfocus.com] On Behalf Of Sohail Sarwar
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 11:08 PM
To: Scott Ramsdell; WALI; security-basics@securityfocus.com
Subject: VPN and Security
Hi there,
I just wanted to put this out there. How secure is VPN.
Meaning, if my users take home the client and install it on
their desktop at home, and connect to the corporate network
and production network, wheat are we really looking at. Are
they secure or not.
Two factor authentication would only help the
authentication purpose and to protect the user name and password ?
How about restricting them to access, and how about
worrying about their home computer that can be effected.
Has anyone been through this. Any one give home users
a list of requirements that they must have before vpn can be
offered to them ?
Should there be some type of desktop policy installed
on their home computer, just to protect the company network ?
Any help and guidance would be great
Regards,
Sohail
