These organizations try to minimize their maximum regret. Put another way, they look at the worst thing that could go wrong and take whatever steps are necessary to avoid such events. As applied to networking, this often translates into private networks with no public access. It is easy to understand the logic in this approach, but in an era when electronic commerce is on the brink of exploding, it may be necessary to reassess some of these rather conservative principles.
Some organizations are irrationally paranoid when it comes to the Internet.
Their fears are often based on media sensationalism and technical ignorance. This is not to say that security concerns do not exist, since all of the me dia reports of hackers have much of their basis in fact. However, reasonable precautions can be taken to minimize security exposures if you have a firm understanding of the issues involved. We cannot provide such an understanding within the confines of this chapter, but we can at least introduce some of the risks and provide an overview of the technologies available to minimize these risks. Beyond that, the services of a network security consultant may be desirable to address your specific concerns.