Follow up to ATM and VPN's

Patrick Ethier pat at SECUREOPS.COM
Wed Apr 5 14:46:51 EDT 2000


Hi Eric,


 I am by no means an expert on ATM(As a matter of fact I barely know
anythong about it.) But, I do know what a Virtual Private Network is.

 A Virtual Private Network is defined as a secured connection being
transported over a public network that connects two or more private
networks. Therefore, encryption is a very big part of a VPN. But in some
occassions, people are not so worried about making the data between the two
private networks secret but more with authenticating if the data really does
originate from the remote private network. So, concerning a "VPN", the same
concepts apply if you are using Frame Relay, ATM or Ethernet or FDDI or
whatever else you have as a medium of transmission.

 You are right to say that if you trust your provider that VPN technology is
not a great concern. The problem lies in that if you have "industrial
secrets", for example, being transfered over the public communications
media, can you be 100% certain that nobody else has the possibility of
intercepting or modifying the data while in transit. That is where a VPN
becomes of greater concern.

Other issues may arise, but a VPN is not some sort of weird magic that got
invented for marketing purposes as it most of the time seems. They come in
different shapes and sizes.

 So yeah, why not just use encryptors... I'm sure that if you look at it
using the above criteria that using encryptors is by definition implementing
some sort of VPN.


Regards,

Patrick Ethier
patrick at secureops.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffery Eric Contr 95 CS/SCBA [mailto:eric.jeffery at EDWARDS.AF.MIL]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 2:15 PM
To: VPN at SECURITYFOCUS.COM
Subject: Follow up to ATM and VPN's


The discussion sort of wandered after my initial question.  What I gleaned
from it is this:  if you trust Sprint or whoever the ATM provider is then
"VPN" technology is not that big of a deal.

My question to all of this is as follows, too many people think a VPN IS
Encryption when it is only a part of it.  How does the authentication
portion of VPN play a role?  If I am concerned about security by my provider
why don't I just use some KG Encryptors (TACLANE/FASTLANE) and send the data
that way?

Again, VPN in my estimation, is an IP term for an IP environment.
Encryption is not a VPN, it is a part of a VPN.  So, again, what is the
purpose of having a VPN over ATM?


Eric Jeffery, MCSE
Network Systems Analyst
TYBRIN Corp.
Edwards AFB, CA
661-277-1760

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