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Leased Lines could Secure Corporate Networks

posted by martyb on Friday October 10 2014, @11:49AM   
from the do-you-feel-lucky-punk? dept.

jcross writes:

Robert X. Cringely points out the hidden costs of running corporate IT over the public internet:

How cheap is IT, really, if it compromises customer data? Not cheap at all. Last year’s Target hack alone cost the company more than $1 billion, estimated Forrester Research. The comparably-sized Home Depot hack will probably cost about the same. JP Morgan Chase is likely to face even higher costs.

He wonders why companies aren't shifting to dedicated networks, like they used to make with leased lines.

Taking a bank or retail network back to circa 1989 would go a long way toward ending the current rash of data breaches. It would be expensive, sure, but not as expensive as losing all the money that Target and others have recently done.

Is this practical? If so, how would it be accomplished with modern equipment?

• Why not start from the basics? Why not start from the basics? (Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Friday October 10 2014, @12:19PM

  by Bot (3902) on Friday October 10 2014, @12:19PM (#104417) Journal

  If I recall correctly, ethernet cables can be crippled to allow one way only transmission. Dunno how much of the tcp stack it disrupts, but surely it can be worked around.
  That would secure all backup servers from data leak.
  Many other business processes could benefit from one way comm.

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• Re:Why not start from the basics? (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 10 2014, @12:24PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 10 2014, @12:24PM (#104421)

  Dunno how much of the tcp stack it disrupts

  TCP would be disrupted completely because it depends on two-way communication.

  UDP could be used; however with no back channel at all, the only thing you can do it to broadcast pre-defined information (think TV). This might work for pure monitoring when the amount of data is low enough that you can send everything continuously, but otherwise a one-way channel would be quite useless.

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• Re:Why not start from the basics? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 10 2014, @12:25PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 10 2014, @12:25PM (#104422)

  How can the device or system actually storing the backup report whether the storage was successful or not if the communication only goes one way?

  How can the data be retrieved from the backup server for legitimate restorations if the communication only goes one way?

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• Re:Why not start from the basics? (Score: 3, Informative) by ticho on Friday October 10 2014, @12:26PM

  by ticho (89) on Friday October 10 2014, @12:26PM (#104423) Homepage Journal

  If such action really does cause one direction to stop working entirely, then TCP won't work at all. UDP might, since it does not require any response from the receiver.

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• Re:Why not start from the basics? (Score: 1) by artman on Friday October 10 2014, @06:27PM

  by artman (1584) on Friday October 10 2014, @06:27PM (#104565)

  WOM I love it!!!!

  Nobody can access the data.

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  No Sig for me Thanks

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