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Feel Good About Your Network
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IDsec Limited
31-33 College Road
Harrow, Middlesex
HA1 1EJ
United Kingdom
(Map)
T: 020 8861 2001
F: 020 8861 3433
www.idsec.co.uk
Copyright © 2009
IDsec Ltd
5.09
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The Government Connect Secure
Extranet gives local authorities in England and Wales
secure connection to a range of organisations - if
they comply to the Code of Connection. We look at issues of
user authentication and event log handling.
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The Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSx) is a trusted network
for all local authorities in England and Wales, allowing secure data
sharing up to RESTRICTED level. As part of the GSi family, it also
provides gateways to central government networks and those of the NHS
and the police.
Among the benefits of this network are a secure e-mail relay service,
data sharing, collaboration and joint working, outbound web browsing
and support for closed user groups. The network itself is scalable
and cost effective, and supports aggregated connectivity, so that
several local authorities can share a single physical connection on
to GCSx.
(See the
Government Connect
web site for more on GCSx and related networks.)
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| Connection and Compliance |
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The security of GCSx can only be maintained, however, by ensuring
that all network endpoints are at a satisfactory level of security -
the value of the network as a whole would be diminished by the
connection of an authority with an infrastructure that could not be
trusted by its peers.
Getting connected to GCSx therefore depends on compliance to a Code of
Connection (CoCo), drawn up with input from CESG and aligned to ISO
27001, specifying minimum standards and processes to which a local
authority must adhere.
Approximately 300 authorities had an approved code of
connection at the time of writing (July 2009).
Many of the issues addresses by the code are procedural, but there
are two technical matters that will be familiar to anyone managing a
large network with a wide range of users and patterns of
working. These are the need to have a strong, reliable means of
identifying users and finding a solid repository for security log and event data.
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The requirement to identify users reliably is met by implementing
two-factor authentication. The first factor - “something
you know” - is the familiar system password, but setting up the
second - “something you have” - takes real effort. Although this is
nominally a security issue, there are real
budget and operational concerns. An implementation needs to have
a small footprint, avoid major user disruption, minimise cost and
keep a tight rein on support overheads.
IDsec's solution is based on
RSA SecurID
tokens.
These are very well established in the market, with
millions of users and a 20-year development history.
Part of their
success is the simplicity of the underlying approach: every 60
seconds the token produces a new, unpredictable numeric code that can
be checked by the login process against an authentication
server. This provides strong network security, and RSA's
implementation has proved reliable and convenient for users.
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| Event Handling and Log Storage |
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Gathering, storing and presenting security event data is another important
part of the CoCo requirements. This means
keeping control over all the security-relevant log data generated
by various systems and devices on the network, and putting them into
secure storage for future analysis and reporting.
We offer the
RSA enVision
range of appliances, a scalable solution for
secure event collection and management, based on off-the-shelf
appliances.
For all but the largest enterprises, a single appliance can carry out
the whole job: capturing events, carrying out real-time and
historical analysis and providing long-term data storage. For large
enterprises and ISPs, dedicated logging devices can be used to create
a fully scalable solution, handling more than 300,000 events per second.
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IDsec has a solid track record of implementing and supporting secure
authentication and logging systems, across all sectors.
We have provided a local authority in the North of England with a
two-factor authentication system based on SecurID. This has helped
them meet their CoCo requirements.
For central government, we have installed a security event management
system based on RSA enVision.
In the private sector we have supplied these products to the
telecommunications, finance and energy industries.
Our staff have full RSA training in SecurID and enVision.
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In partnership with RSA, we can offer special pricing to local
authorities that need to meet GCSx connection requirements.
This is only available for a limited period: call us now to find
out more.
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IDsec is also active in other areas of IT security, including
intrusion detection and protection (IDS and IPS), penetration
testing, managed services and training.
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