INTERNET
The Internet has replaced many traditional forms of business
communication, using websites or digital media to distribute and share
information. This has reduced costs, eliminated waste and improved customer
service, compared to paper-based information. Email, instant messaging and
social networks provide high-speed, highly-accessible communications tools,
speeding up processes that are time-critical. Collaboration over the Internet
increases productivity, improves decision making and reduces travel costs.
Global Internet access makes it easy for organizations to do
business anywhere in the world without investing in a local physical presence.
Using e-commerce facilities, organizations can sell their products globally,
taking payment electronically and offering customers the convenience of digital
delivery for suitable products or services. Organizations can also provide
support to local customers or partners.
Intranet
An intranet is an internal network that only authorized users,
typically employees, access. It uses Internet technology and offers similar
business benefits. Organizations use intranets to distribute or share
information, deploy business applications, support collaboration and project
management, simplify internal communications and streamline business processes.
Statistics from Intranet Insider World Tour Live 2009 show the potential for
significant cost savings. For example, the retailer IKEA reported paper cost
savings of $192,000 while the introduction of self-service human resources
services saved the company $219,000.
The international
consultancy firm Deloitte reported that their investment in a global intranet
-- D Street
-- had delivered a wide range of business benefits. The intranet, which
utilizes social networking techniques, has built a strong sense of community.
The firm stressed the improvements in knowledge sharing and preservation that
underpin productivity and innovation in their service delivery. They also
believed that the quality of information and collaboration facilities on the
intranet helped them to recruit, assimilate and retain talented people. These
factors combined to help build and maintain a position of market leadership.
Intranet diagram
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol
technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or
network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast
to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network
within an organization. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization's
internal website, but may be a more extensive part of the organization's
information technology infrastructure. It may host multiple private websites
and constitute an important component and focal point of internal communication
and collaboration. Any of the well known Internet protocols may be found in an
intranet, such as HTTP (web services), SMTP (e-mail), and FTP (file transfer
protocol). Internet technologies are often deployed to provide modern
interfaces to legacy information systems hosting corporate data.
The Purpose of an Intranet
An intranet is much different from an extranet and
the Internet. It is a private network for a small collection of users like
employees which have been granted permission by their organization to access
the Web, email, and other information services found on the Internet. An
intranet is intended for small-scale operations, but it has proven useful for
collaboration and sharing resources like computer data, network applications
and sharing information among employees. There are other intranet
benefits as well,
such as saving a business time and money when using one.
*For
those people who are still uncertain why an intranet is important to business,
check out this article, "The Purpose
of an Intranet."
According to Oracle, an "Intranet is a network that is
"owned" by a single organization that controls its security policies
and network management." [1] In short, it fulfills data and information
management requirements. It is deployed for internal users and not external
users who are on the outside of the private
network, like
business partners or other businesses. However, such users can be granted use
of an intranet if an organization permits it.
Often, for security reasons, an organization will deploy a demilitarized
zone, or DMZ, which is a computer or small subnetwork to protect internal,
private networks from being accessed by external users (see image). In
addition, an organization may segregate the applications in the intranet, which
are on internal severs, from other network systems through the use of firewalls
to increase internal security. Firewalls are useful in an intranet for
filtering traffic and to effectively manage and control network traffic, but as
with any network system (like an extranet), an intranet creates risks and has
intranet security issues (as shown in the next sections of the article).
10 Common Intranet Security Issues
Here is a list of 10 intranet security issues and what a user and
organization do to resolve them:
1. Network
security threats.
Internal and external threats are common. Some are deliberate threats while
others are not. It's best to use a firewall and some sort of security software
like McAfee
Network Threat Response.
2. Security breaches. There are times when an intranet will
encounter suspicious traffic, such as spam, phishing, spyware, adware and
malware, so deploying an effective email filter (and firewall) can help block
the suspicious traffic from entering the network.
3. Network attacks. There have been several cases reported
of an intranet being attacked. A network-based intrusion prevention system
(IPS) or an intrusion detection prevention system (IDPS) can offer great
protection. They also can be deployed for monitoring network traffic and
detecting and preventing well-known threats and attacks.
4. Unauthorized access. This happens much too often when an
internal or external user (not authorized) gains access to data and corporate
information stored on an intranet. It may be wise to use some type of
authentication like passwords, smart cards, or biometrics; in addition, to
deploying a bastion host before a user has access to the intranet.
5. Misuse of user privileges. Too often are users gaining
unauthorized access to systems from the Intranet. Businesses may want to use
some type of intranet
monitoring software to
see what their employees are doing on the intranet or on their own PCs.
6. Violations of security policies.
At times, users will make illegal attempt to penetrate the network without
clearance and permission. Internal users must understand what happens when
someone violates the policy in attempt to protect internal IT systems on the
intranet.
7. Malicious content. Intranet users are vulnerable to
malicious content (viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses) that attach themselves on
emails. Businesses and users alike must remember to always maintain and update
their security software on every PC and server on an intranet to ensure
protection.
8. Usability problems. There are users who still improperly
use the intranet. They do not know how to search, retrieve, send or share data
and information; often, doing more harm than good on the private network. Some
users may need formal training.
9. Weak passwords. Users tend to use weak passwords, write
down passwords, never change them, or forget them. Network administrators must
encourage users to overcome these issues and have them use hard-to-guess
passwords, as well as not to share them, or write them down.
10. Lack of encryption. Many times unsecured
"confidential" data is shown to unauthorized users because they do
not use encryption. Using SSL digital certificates can help secure the
Intranet.
Extranet
An extranet extends intranet facilities to locations outside the
organization over secure network connections. An extranet can connect an
organization with branches, remote workers, suppliers, distributors, business
partners, key customers and other authorized users to create an extended
enterprise. Extranets simplify the two-way flow of confidential information,
enabling organizations to collect and share critical business data.
Extranets help to improve the efficiency of supply chain
operations, building collaborative relationships and making the supply chain more
responsive to changes in the marketplace. Organizations with a number of
locations can use extranets to provide branches with the same business
applications and data found at headquarters. This enables the organization to
offer a consistent level of customer service throughout its network.
An extranet
is a computer network
that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or
educational purposes. In a business-to-business
context, an extranet can be viewed as an extension of an organization's intranet that is extended to users outside the
organization, usually partners, vendors, and suppliers, in isolation from all
other Internet users. In contrast, business-to-consumer
(B2C) models involve known servers of one or more companies, communicating with
previously unknown consumer users. An extranet is similar to a DMZ in that it provides access to needed
services for channel partners, without granting access to an organization's
entire network.
Relationship to an intranet
An extranet could
be understood as an intranet mapped onto the public Internet or some other
transmission system not accessible to the general public, but managed by more
than one company's administrator(s). For example, military networks of
different security levels may map onto a common military radio transmission
system that never connects to the Internet. Any private network mapped onto a
public one is a virtual private
network (VPN), often using special security protocols.
For decades,
institutions have been interconnecting to each other to create private networks
for sharing information. One of the differences that characterizes an extranet,
however, is that its interconnections are over a shared network rather than
through dedicated physical lines. With respect to Internet Protocol networks, RFC 4364
states "If all the sites in a VPN are owned by the same enterprise, the
VPN is a corporate intranet. If the various sites in a VPN are owned by
different enterprises, the VPN is an extranet. A site can be in more than one
VPN; e.g., in an intranet and several extranets. We regard both intranets and
extranets as VPNs. In general, when we use the term VPN we will not be
distinguishing between intranets and extranets. Even if this argument is valid,
the term "extranet" is still applied and can be used to eliminate the
use of the above description."[1]
In the quote above
from RFC
4364, the term "site"
refers to a distinct networked environment. Two sites connected to each
other across the public Internet backbone comprise a VPN. The term
"site" does not mean "website." Thus, a small company in a
single building can have an "intranet," but to have a VPN, they would
need to provide tunneled access to that network for geographically distributed
employees.
Similarly, for
smaller, geographically united organizations, "extranet" is a useful
term to describe selective access to intranet systems granted to suppliers,
customers, or other companies. Such access does not involve tunneling, but
rather simply an authentication mechanism to a web server. In this sense, an
"extranet" designates the "private part" of a website, where "registered users" can
navigate, enabled by authentication mechanisms
on a "login
page".
An extranet
requires network security. These can include firewalls,
server management, the issuance and use of digital certificates or similar
means of user authentication, encryption of messages, and the use of virtual private
networks (VPNs) that tunnel through the public network.
Many technical
specifications describe methods of implementing extranets, but often never
explicitly define an extranet. RFC 3457 presents requirements for remote access
to extranets. RFC 2709 discusses extranet implementation using
IPsec and advanced network address
translation (NAT).
During the late
1990s and early 2000s, several industries started to use the term 'extranet' to
describe centralized repositories of shared data (and supporting applications)
made accessible via the web only to authorized members of particular work
groups - for example, geographically dispersed, multi-company project teams.
Some applications are offered on a software as a service
(SaaS) basis.
For example, in the
construction industry, project teams may access a project extranet to share
drawings, photographs and documents, and use online applications to mark-up and
make comments and to manage and report on project-related communications. In
2003 in the United Kingdom,
several of the leading vendors formed the Network for Construction
Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP) to promote the
technologies and to establish data exchange standards between the different
data systems. The same type of construction-focused technologies have also been
developed in the United States, Australia and mainland Europe.[3]
With global Internet users estimated at 1,966,514,816 and some 77 percent of the U.S. population connected, Internet use is now part of the mainstream. In business, the Internet has become a widely-used tool offering public access to support communication, collaboration and commerce throughout the world. Internet technology is also used in closed networks to support intranets within an organization and extranets, which link an organization with its partners.
The following are example of organization using intranet and
extranet network:
Internet service providers (ISP)
Telecommunication industries
Electronic library
Molt-national companies
Television| radio station
Photography studio
Security agency
Hotels
Medical laboratories
Advantages
- Exchange large volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
- Share product catalogs exclusively with trade partners
- Collaborate with other companies on joint development efforts
- Jointly develop and use training programs with other companies
- Provide or access services provided by one company to a group of other companies, such as an online banking application managed by one company on behalf of affiliated banks
Disadvantages
- Extranets can be expensive to implement and maintain within an organization (e.g., hardware, software, employee training costs), if hosted internally rather than by an application service provider.
- Security of extranets can be a concern when hosting valuable or proprietary information.
REFERENCE
Requirements
for IPsec Remote Access Scenarios,
RFC3457, S. Kelly & S. Ramamoorthi,
January 2003
Wilkinson, Paul (2005). Construction Collaboration
Technologies: The Extranet Evolution. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-35859-0.
Callaghan,
J. (2002), Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management and the
Struggle for Power, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-98743-8
Stambro,
Robert and Svartbo, Erik (2002), Extranet Use in Supply Chain Management, University of Technology
Wilkinson, Paul (2005). Collaboration Technologies: The Extranet
Evolution. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-35859-0.
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