Standards in desktop firewall policies

[wizkid]

Standards in desktop firewall policies....

The idea of a common desktop firewall policy in any size organization is a very good thing. It makes responses to external or internal situations such as virus outbreaks or network-oriented propagation of viruses more predictable. In addition to providing a level of protection against port scanning, attacks or software vulnerabilities, it can provide the organizations local security team a baseline or starting point in dealing with such events.


The purpose of this article is to discuss the need for a desktop firewall policy within an organization, determine how it should be formed, and provide an example of one along with the security benefits it provides an organization.
The Problem

The trick to a good desktop firewall policy is to provide a balance between security and the networking requirements of the applications needed by the organization. It's possible the organization may not yet have a complete knowledge of these requirements


excerpts from securityfocus

http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1867

[vjsreevs]

hey wiz can u xplain y broadband users r prone 2 more viral effects than other net surfers ?

[wizkid]

Well sreevs i did not get u, but as far as i understud this is my reply...


We frequently regard a broadband network as a "high speed connection" to the Internet run over Ethernet network interface cards (NICs). This is not a correct point of view. We must differentiate between broadband and narrowband networks in that broadband networks can be used for many different traffic characteristics, while narrowband networks are used for one. Broadband and narrowband networks have nothing to do with the capacity of asymmetrical digital subscribe line (ADSL) or cable modems. These are access points to a broadband network.
Narrowband technologies are Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI, and certain types of WAN links. Narrowband technologies can be adapted to run over broadband technologies, but it is not possible to run broadband technologies over narrowband. Broadband technologies, on the other hand, are not limited to a single link protocol (like Ethernet) or to data communication only. Broadband networks use frame, or frame trains, and special methods to encapsulate and control the information sent through it. The information does not have to be computer related at all. For example, voice -over-IP is not a broadband technology because the audio is digitized and sent as IP packets, mostly over Ethernet, whereas on broadband, voice can be sent as a separate channel without encapsulating it into a computer communication protocol.
The three major types of broadband communication are:

• Constant bit rate (time critical)—typically video streams
• Available bit rate (in-order packet delivery)—typically phone systems
• Unspecified bit rate (error-free)—typically data communications

Broadband networks can be adapted to form the physical layer for LAN technologies (broadband ISDN or ATM), or to run subsets of TCP/IP directly (such as PPP over SDH).
The three major groups of broadband technologies are:

• Synchronous optical network (SONET, North America)
• Synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH, Europe)
• Broadband ISDN (ATM)

ATM can function by itself or run over SONET or SDH. The latter is more common.


by the above analysis u can get why broad band is prone....