No traffic is routed from the customer s network to our backbone network. The upstream provider routers are configured to use two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication refers to the use of security tokens, digital certificates, or smart cards. The routers and firewalls are configured to authenticate using these methods. USGN has plans to purchase another firewall box to provide for load balancing and redundancy of network objects and servers.
All systems have at least double redundancy and as many as five redundant objects.
We have budgeted for a load balancer and this is the solution we will be putting in place. During the design phase of our applications we follow a checklist to ensure that each page and associated code has been checked for security issues. We do regular extensive peer review of code. We do extended research into different security issues, and we have promoted friendly competition by offering incentives to developers that find flaws in our code. We constantly monitor security alerts, and follow up with documents to ensure that system security is current, and up to a level that ensures our customers are completely safe.