" Nortel''s approach to network security is the layered defense"

 With mobility growing by leaps and bounds the mantra of network security is reverberating. Chanting the slogan 'anywhere any time', Nortel aims at building a single converged network, with no single point of failure. Adam Kleemeyer, Nortel's marketing head, campaigning  'Mobile and Secure always-on Networking', spoke about Nortel's network security product and shared incisive views on network security in an interaction with B.V. Shiva Shankar, Associate Editor, CIOL.  Excerpts from an interview:

CIOL: Can you provide us with a brief about Nortel's 'Mobile and Secure always-on Networking'? What is it and how can customers benefit from the solution? 

 

 

Adam Kleemeyer:  Our 'Mobile and Secure Always-on Networking solution' delivers an integrated solution that ensures multimedia and business communications are always online and secure. Nortel builds a single converged network with no single points of failure, and quick and elegant recovery ensuring minimal latency.

Nortel's Secure Always-on Networking solution significantly increases the security and reliability of communication services that act as the lifeblood of modern organizations. This solution accomplishes all of these enhancements while leveraging the latest technologies to continue to lower the cost of ownership when compared with traditional approaches. In spite of the extensive and strict enforcement controls, the enhanced resiliency and security features remain largely transparent to users, minimizing confusion and complexity at the user desktop.

 

CIOL: While remote access is becoming a standard for corporate networking, remote access to enterprise network expose the enterprise networks to security threats. How do Nortel’s solutions save networks from such threats?

AK: Nortel Network's secure mobility framework is designed to enable enterprises to provide secure, flexible access to multimedia content in converged networks for mobile and remote users – from anywhere and from any device. The framework provides a simplified security infrastructure that can help enterprises to minimize total cost of ownership by eliminating the need to deploy separate solutions. The VPN products introduced as part of this secure mobility framework include a gateway expected to be the industry's first to offer both SSL and IPSec VPNs from the same device. Nortel Networks’ secure mobility framework is designed to provide increased levels of access and simplify administration without compromising the security, control and manageability of existing VPN deployments.

CIOL: What are Nortel's security initiatives for enterprises?

AK: Nortel has devised a paradigm for enterprise and government network security, which recognizes the need for adaptive and extensible security with low management overhead and no single points of failure. Nortel's approach to network security is the layered defense. This approach leverages broad functional security solution components for protection against contemporary network security vulnerabilities and future threats, including:  

Communications security, ensuring information protection from unauthorized discovery over the network;

Perimeter security, keeping the 'good' stuff in and the 'bad' stuff out by securing the boundaries between zones of different levels of trust;

Core network security, keeping watch for malicious software and traffic anomalies, enforcing network policy and enabling survivability, and

Security management and platform security, managing security solution configuration, policy and event management components.

CIOL: Nortel keeps on asking for continuous investments in updating security shields against emerging threats. However, that costs money and it is very difficult for the CISO or the CIO to convince the management to outline a recurring budget for security of an enterprise. How can the CIO convince the management to allocate money for a threat, which exists, but hasn't struck them in the past?

 

AK: If an enterprise's business information is vulnerable, they could potentially suffer financial loss, damage to business operations, brand and reputation. Also, if remote locations and employees don't have highly reliable, security-rich access to the corporate network, their productivity and efficiency can suffer too.

Enterprises have to define what the potential threat to their business is. Can the organization afford to suffer from it? What is the resulting potential damage? Nortel also offers embedded security solutions to ensure network uptime and protection of mobile assets, which are significant to business continuity.

CIOL: What are the visible trends in network security?

 

AK: The biggest trend is end point security, which is, keeping the problem out of the network. Secondly, much importance is being given to mobile solutions. As any solution is not a solution without security, the investment of time, skill, and money required for managing the traditional security infrastructure is getting higher. Hence, the trend is increasingly toward automated security deployments.

Today's enterprises look for end-to-end security solutions and are looking for network protection at every layer. Earlier, they used to look for point solutions that offer security at various levels. However, they are now looking for more comprehensive enterprise security solutions that protect their networks as well as offer them performance. The performance of networks degrades significantly because of multiple security checks being performed on the traffic flowing in and out of the enterprise network.

CIOL:  How do you find the security preparedness in Indian enterprises? Do they comply with latest security industry prevalent in industry?

AK: Some industries are more secure than others – BFSI and the government and defense, for example. However, security issues are consistently felt globally. Security is a location independent problem and India is just as prepared or as vulnerable as any other country in the world. India does have a high level of awareness of the consequences of security vulnerabilities.

 

CIOL:  How closely does Nortel work with systems integrators? What will be their revenue contribution to the company?

AK: Nortel works very closely with system integrators. I have spent extensive, sessions with system integrators in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore briefing them of the latest technical developments and training them for further excellence.

CIOL: Emerging technologies such as mobiles, VoIP etc., come with new set of security issue like SPIT. How can enterprise save from such type of threats?

 

AK: IP telephony is a low-cost, easily maintained successor to hard switches and hard telephone lines. The only trouble is that VoIP is susceptible to the same demons plaguing other Internet applications today. Spam over Internet telephony, or SPIT, is just one potential problem.

Nortel's secure solutions ensure that VoIP is as secure and resilient as the analog system. This system inspects voice data packets and allows or disallows their access to call servers. Calls in the system are carried through a Layer 2 IPSec tunnel, working with an unified security architecture.

CIOL Bureau