The danger is real, and corporate networks are already at risk. Since even a single connection to the Internet can open the door, it is not reasonable to try to isolate corporate networks from the Internet. Before we can exploit the potential of the Internet, we must learn to manage the risks associated with its use. The combined power of corporate private networks and the Internet provides organizations with the ability to conduct business electronically, whenever and wherever the customer chooses. Most of the components needed to make this transition are already in place.
Comprehensive security is the final technology linchpin needed to tie everything together.
The challenge for business today is to make activities that occur in the electronic world as secure, or more secure than those that occur in the material world. The basic security issues are the same. Although electronic security technologists use a specialized vocabulary, the basic security concepts have clear analogies and equivalencies in the real world. The table above summarizes security concepts, and their counterparts, in the physical and electronic world. In the material world, we have well-defined procedures to protect ourselves from theft and fraud, even when participating in long distance transactions with people we don't know.