An Overview of Network Security | Novell NetWare 6.5 Administrators Handbook

Like no other time in the history of computing, regular users and small network administrators are being confronted with the issues of securing their networks. The Internet has uncovered the deficiencies in standards, protocols, and operating systems by allowing hackers and other n'er-do-wells the opportunity to test networks from distant locations. Malicious viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses seek to infiltrate your network to harm and destroy.

And yet the most likely source of network attack is from your own users, whether out of malice or ignorance. Viruses can be introduced, security procedures circumvented, and sensitive systems and data left unprotected . Clearly, any effective security program has to protect from both internal and external threats.

NetWare 6.5 offers a broad set of security features. Many of these features are implemented and managed through Novell eDirectory, which helps you develop a robust network security infrastructure without creating a management nightmare. NetWare 6.5 security concepts and features can be organized into five main categories:

User - related objects
Authentication
Authorization
Data security
Other security features

Novell has always been adept at providing effective network security, primarily because NetWare is not an operating system that lends itself to simple security attacks. However, today's network security involves a lot more than assigning passwords to network users. Today's complex computing environments require advanced techniques for assuring that only those persons required to access network resources are able to do so. It is important to understand these basic topics in order to lay the groundwork for discussions of specific security products and features.

NOTE

ConsoleOne has traditionally been the method for performing most object administration in eDirectory. However, because Novell's direction is to move all of this functionality to the browser-based iManager environment, all object manipulation that is currently available in iManager will be discussed from the perspective of that utility, rather than from ConsoleOne.