Firewall Wizards: Re: tunnel vs open a hole

["Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr () ranum com>]

Barney Wolff wrote:
> In the good old days, the definition of "firewall" was "that which
> implements your security policy" rather than "the box with that label".
Hey!!! I remember that definition!! <LOL>   .. I ought to.....

> The implication of this reasoning is clear:  If you don't control the
> internal tunnel endpoint(s), you don't control your security policy.
Yup. The problem is that there's so much shovelware, spyware, trojanware,
and social-engineerware that you DON'T really control the endpoints, you
just think you do. I've seen waaaay too many companies think "we have a
firewall, so we don't need to worry" - and not have antivirus software on
their interior machines because they are "safe" behind the firewall. It's
scary. :(  We made a big mistake when we started building firewalls that
allowed outgoing connections that were not individually authenticated and
associated with a human user's request.

mjr. 
---
Marcus J. Ranum                         http://www.ranum.com
Computer and Communications Security    mjr () ranum com

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