Allowing Outside Vendors on Your Network

Recent revelations about the Target attack have re-focused attention on the dangers associated with allowing an outsider on your internal network. There are a few key lessons we can take from this episode:

• Use strong authentication. Passwords just don't cut it in today's environment.
• Segment your network properly. It appears that Target did not fence off its HVAC vendor from its Point of Sale (POS) systems.
• Require background checks. If you require background checks for your own employees before they are on your network, your outsourcing contracts should require the same level of checks from your vendors.
• Monitor traffic on your network. Network segmentation errors will occur, but hopefully someone would pick up on SQL Injection attacks from your HVAC network.

Bring Back Net Neutrality

In January, a federal appeals court struck down the FCC's regulations regarding net neutrality. In arguments in that case, Verizon indicated that it wanted to pursue "different pricing service models."

(In other words, they want to throttle traffic for content providers who don't pay up. In fact, they want it so badly that they stated it five separate times during arguments.)

In the wake of the ruling, it appears that Verizon is doing exactly that. Reportedly, Verizon reps are telling customers that the reason that services (such as Netflix) that run on Amazon's AWS platform run so slowly on Verizon's network is that they are being throttled.

(Verizon is clearly betraying its New Jersey roots. "That's a real nice service you're offering there. It would be a real shame if something happened to it." Who knew that they had hired Tony Soprano to plan their corporate strategy?)

Earlier this week, House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation to re-institute the former net neutrality rules. The legislation is known as the Open Internet Preservation Act.

Good luck to them. Given that most people have a very limited selection of broadband providers, I'm not sure how the FCC ever considered them anything other than common carriers.