The future of network security

Network World - Enterprise connectivity is exploding, driven by globalization, convergence, virtualization and social computing. As corporate perimeters dissolve, the security focus switches toward application and data-level security solutions. The question to ask is what are the longer-term implications for network security? Will it become redundant or could it grow more powerful? Only one thing seems certain: It will be different from today.

Who needs network security? Why don't we just build encryption and anti-malware protection into endpoints and simply enjoy open networks? From a security perspective, that's always best and it's in line with the Jericho Forum vision. But in the real world, it's not so simple. At the very least, we need protective measures in networks to guarantee availability and performance. Beyond that, there is huge potential to deliver value through security features in networks.

In fact there has always been more to network security than users realize. Fallback, monitoring and filtering are ever-present but invisible to endpoints. Many application owners believe their systems operate on top of a pure IP infrastructure, but nothing could be further from the truth -- enterprise networks are heavily structured.

Today's network products boast an impressive and growing array of single-point security solutions, ranging from simple authentication mechanisms to full-blown identity management. (Learn more about identity management products in our Identity Management Buyers Guide.)

Taking advantage of network-based security features is difficult in that geography and topology are major factors. They dictate ownership boundaries and legal jurisdictions, and it's hard to establish a set of choke points from which all network traffic can be monitored or controlled.

Management domains don't map neatly onto the precise scope of application systems, and legacy equipment presents local incompatibilities. Nevertheless, gateway devices are a convenient point for securing central databases. And complete network coverage is not always essential for value to be derived from security analysis, because useful intelligence can be derived from samples of traffic.

There are also distinct advantages in locating security measures inside networks. You gain a richer picture of user behavior, enabling individual user activities to be assessed in the context of a broader community. In fact, visibility of events and understanding of context are the keys to effective security and risk management.

The significance and legality of user actions is dependent on context, varying according to user authorization level, sensitivity of data, location of source, method used, and time of day. As one of the 11 Jericho Forum principles states: "Assume context at your peril."

One of the biggest security concerns today is the insider threat. In response to this, you can deploy many interesting techniques in networks to detect anomalous user behavior. Valuable intelligence can be derived by profiling, fusing and mining message content, traffic patterns or IT activity.