Q. What is information assurance and why is it important?
A. This is a broad topic and comes with a number of perspectives. One needs to know the value of one's information to himself and to others. With that information, how could it be used both legitimately and illegitimately? Sometimes asking what the civil, criminal, or public penalties could be should certain information fall into the hands of others illegitimately. If risk of mis-use is high enough, one would want to invest in techniques and strategies to help ensure that the information is can be managed for use with the intended parties. Sometimes Information Assurance is called information security or InfoSec for short.
Persons in the business of cracking into organizations are exceptionally crafty, resourceful, and persistent well beyond what most people understand. With the rapid growth of the Internet, these risks have grown enormously in only a few short years.
Q. Where does one start evaluating his organization's risks?
A. I would say that it's best to hire an experienced information security consultant who can help to understand legal, business, operational, and technical areas if there is a need to evaluate an organization's information risks. Organizations like
The SANS Institute and some of the CERT organizations
may be helpful in finding out more about who to consult.
Q. What is available for auditing usage of VBrick products?
A. In the EtherneTV product, the Portal usage logs, IIS server logs, etc. might be used. In the encoder products, logs and SNMP traps & queries may be beneficial
Q. How do firewalls and other security-related devices fit in with the VBrick model?
A. VBrick products can work with firewall designs. Successful integration requires expertise and knowledge about how video is delivered in the environment as well as how to configure the firewall rules to permit proper implementation. Please see the EtherneTV Portal Admin Guide as well VBrick's our other guides on the products to begin to learn the many of the technical aspects of a "DMZ".
Q. Is video multicasting "safe"? Why or why not?
A. That is somewhat of a loaded question. It can be safe. It's best to understand the nature of multicasting and how pervasive multicast delivery is across the networks connected with your VBrick. The answer also depends on what is meant by "safe". Is the nature of the content being multicasted sensitive? If there are there any computer hosts within the scope of the multicast which should not have the opportunity to receive that multicasted content then, perhaps, one might view this as "unsafe". If one pours the meaning of "network stability" into the word "safe" then the tone of the answer changes. In networks with more than a few tens of computer hosts on a single LAN, multicast can be safer than various unicast deliveries because, depending on your networks' capabilities, characteristics, and load, multicast may use precious resources much more efficiently. If this is of a concern, consider
VBrick's Professional Services for consultation and evaluation.
Q. With respect to information security, what can the Portal/MCS do for me?
A. The EtherneTV Portal can be configured for access control, authorization, and various levels of encryption to the EtherneTV website. Access Control usually means password authentication. Authorization is closely related to access control and has to do with users, groups, and resource access levels. Encryption has to do with cryptographic security between the web browser and the web server which the VBrick Portal runs. As of version 4.4, encryption can be applied just to login screens or to all web pages. Video delivery is transmitted in the clear at all times.
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