Transactions that take place across Intranet are secure?

Answer 1

one of the best method of ensuring security is to change the form of communication.

there are three well known implementation of the encryption/decryption methods:

* public key infrastructure (PKI)solutions * web server security through SSL ( Secure Socket Layer) * Virtual Private Networks(VPN)

Answer 2

Earlier, an intranet was defined as "any secure information system that is built using Internet technologies". A key word in this definition is "secure". As indicated earlier, for the purposes of this paper, a network that is not connected at all to the internet is "secure". Of course, the information on such a system would not be 100% secure. An employee who wished to breach security could easily copy files to portable computer or use a modem to transmit information outside the organization. Equally, someone who wanted access to the firm's private information might pose as a cleaner and copy information from computers that are not attended, or dial-in to a modem that is connected to the corporate network. It is a truism that the security of a system is only as strong as its weakest link. However, once a firm connects its internal network to the Internet, the security risks seem to increase by an order of magniture. Connection of the internal network to the Internet is desirable for three reasons. First, there is a lot of increasingly valuable information accessible from the Internet. Search engines such as Alta Vista make this information reasonably easy to find. Second, connection to the Internet will allow inter-firm communication via e-mail. Communication with customers and partners vial e-mail is very useful. Third, for most firms it is likely to be much cheaper to use the public Internet for both intra and inter-firm communication than to set up private networks with links to other cities or countries. So there are some quite strong incentives to connect a firm's internal network to the Internet. But as soon as this link is made, the firm's internal information systems are potentially exposed to all the computer hackers in the world. Just as (helpful) programs called web crawlers (or Spiders) are perpetually searching through the Web looking for new material to include in their databases, so it is possible for computer hackers to probe every possible pathway into a firm's computer systems. One simple-to-use tool is NetScanTools, currently version 2.40, which anyone can download from shareware distributor. For a hacker looking for a nice night's entertainment, NetScan will systematically probe each IP number in a given range, and report each machine that responded. The hacker just takes things from there! To reduce this risk to acceptable levels, it is normal to do two things. The first is to place computers running programs called firewalls between the firm's internal network and the Internet at large. The definition of an intranet as "an internet behind a firewall" in the introduction to this paper acknowledges the importance of firewalls to intranets. The second step taken to increase security when a firm's internal network is connected to the Internet is to insist that all intranet traffic be encrypted. Encryption is less important for communication between computers within the firm's internal network, but it is critical if data is transmitted via the Internet. Alta Vista, the Digital subsidiary that provides the search engine discussed above, is one of many firms selling firewall security products. According to AltaVista * A firewall is a computer that monitors what comes into the network from the outside. This computer uses special firewall software to scan the information packets and allow only authorized users