The Need for End-to-End Security

The international terrorist threat has had a significant effect on the area of network management. The need for security is now paramount (along with the need for disaster recovery planning and service survivability ). Security is needed at every level of a network, from the NE and subtended (i.e., attached) equipment all the way up to the NMS server and client machines. This can be called end-to-end security, the purpose of which is to protect the network and its data from unauthorized access. Connecting to an NE EMS should employ authentication and encryption, making certain that little or no clear text is exchanged. The same holds true for exchanges between an NMS and EMS, OSS and NMS, and so on.