Securing the Enterprise from the Dangers of Remote Access: Analysis of New Options Available for Per

Since the advent of the small/home office, traveling workforce, and the extension of the workday through remote computers and dial-up/high speed internet connections, it has been recognized that one of the most unprotected avenues of ingress into the corporate network are these 'off-net' resources. (1) Over the past 2-3 years some solutions have been developed and employed to protect the corporate network as well as individual machines through VPN's and personal firewalls. Until recently there were very few ways to effectively manage and enforce firewall installation and other security policy enforcement prior to allowing connections to the corporate network. This coupled with the increase in the need for remote connectivity has drastically increased the exposure of the enterprise to this vector of attack. In this paper I will further explore and document the problem as it exists today evaluate the pro's and con's of some of the solutions that are offered today and explore the future direction that these and other solutions might take.