The prevalence of IP networking empowers both internal and external government departmental communications, but at the same time these departments are at risk to the same network security threats that enterprises and individuals faced.

Tremendous financial loss and the leakage of important, confidential data are more often than not as a direct result from unauthorized network intrusions. Because of the large amounts of data stored and used by government departments on a daily basis, an attack by malicious intruders can have very serious consequences.

What are the real security needs of government agencies?
As attacks are increasingly menacing, governments are continuously adding the latest security technologies to their networks. Unfortunately, the management of the security devices can be very complex especially when deploying over a large-scale network like those used by governments. Clearly, adding more boxes to combat security threats is more of a short-term remedy rather than a long term solution. The addition of more boxes means increased management by the IT team to ensure security is not compromised.

Simplifying the management of security devices has meant that all-in-one appliances are now available that not only are cost-efficient but incorporate important features such as firewalls, VPN, and Denial of Service protection.

But the needs of the government departments vary with their sizes.

For smaller government departments, they might need an easy to setup tool that comes with the firewall, VPN, and encryption, while larger departments might need an appliance with more features such as authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) protocols, Network Address Translation (NAT) and high Quality of Service (QoS) .

What are Huawei-3Com's security offerings?
Having the varying needs of governments in mind, Huawei-3Com provides a myriad of security solutions that are all easy to deploy, cost-effective, reliable and ensure the protection of small and large scale networks against malicious intruders around the clock.

Huawei-3Com provides appliances that integrate firewalls, VPN and traffic management capabilities for smaller government departments. Many of these devices also support virus defense and content filtering technology, which add extra value to the customers.

As remote access via VPNs has become more popular, the capability to support multiple VPN services is increasingly crucial.

Large government departments can rely on Huawei-3Com's all-in-one VPN network gateway that support multiple VPN services including L2TP VPN, GRE VPN, IPSec VPN, SSL VPN, dynamic VPN and MPLS VPN. These appliances provide access for remote users and establish VPNs in multiple forms such as Internet, Intranet and Access via dial-up, leased line, VLAN or tunnels, according to the user requirements.

Many such appliances come with built-in features such as firewall, AAA, NAT and QoS, to further secure private networks in the open Internet. Organizations deploying security devices from Huawei-3Com need no longer spend on the procurement of different security boxes.

How to pick a solution provider?
Vendor reliability is as important as network security. Therefore, when selecting a solution provider, two questions need to be asked. 1) What is their experience in the ability to provide robust security technologies? 2) How much experience has the solution provider had with government customers? A solution provider that can answer these two questions properly will be able to understand your needs in-depth and ensures smooth solution deployment.

Huawei-3Com is a leading solution providers that has a deep understanding of large organizations' needs having worked with the Hong Kong SAR's Electrical & Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), China's Changchun Prosecutor Office, and local government authorities in Tianjin, and Chongqing and the Chengdu Taxation Bureau.

These local governments and departments are now equipped with reliable and secure networks that enable them to enhance customer services and increase productivity without the fear of malicious attacks by network intruders.