Remote working is an essential part work life for
businesses all over the world. The ability to
allow employees access to their email and work related files from
anywhere with an Internet connection can significantly increase
productivity. With the recent increase of WIFI
hotspots and mobile broadband speeds, a remote worker no longer has
to be someone confined to working from their
home. They could be a travelling salesman sat in
their car updating a sales opportunity after a meeting with a
client or a director of a business catching up with their emails
from an Internet cafe in an airport while they wait for their
flight. Allowing remote access to a corporate
network brings with it huge risks regarding the perimeter security,
however, if managed correctly these risks can be hugely
reduced. During the last month I have been
working on a client's site introducing new security measures to
ensure that the risks associated with their remote workers do not
out way the advantages that they bring. With the
introduction of a Remote Authentication Dial In User Service
(RADIUS) Server accompanied by an Internet Authentication Server
(IAS), a solution was provided giving all remote workers two factor
strong authentication when connecting to their corporate
network. The key requirements were to secure
access to the Virtual Private Network (VPN), Outlook Web Access
(OWA) and the corporate intranet. The solution
used One Time Passwords (OTP's), which were generated using tokens
associated with each user, in addition to the user's regular user
name and password. Although two separate
authentication methods were being used, the Single Sign On (SSO)
technology used meant that the remote worker only had to provide
their logon credentials once.