Companies rush to review VPN security

Businesses may be prompted to review the security features of their corporate VPN connection in the wake of the largest credit card theft in US history.

At the US district court in Boston, Albert Gonzalez, a 28-year-old college dropout from Florida, has just pleaded guilty on two charges of conspiracy to gain unauthorised access to payment card networks, reports AFP.

Working alongside two Russian accomplices, who remain at large, he is believed to have helped steal more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers.

Mr Gonzalez ’s extensive knowledge of different types of computer network, such as the popular VPN connection, was used to obtain details from over 250 high-profile companies including convenience store chain 7-Eleven and card payment processor Heartland Payment Systems.

Now that he has pleaded guilty, Mr Gonzalez will have to wait till March 2010 to learn his punishment.

The two judges responsible for sentencing are expected to order that he serves between 17 and 25 years in prison.

Reuters reports that US district judge Douglas Woodlock told him in court: “You face a considerable amount of time in jail as a result of your plea. All aspects of your life are to be affected.”

Last month, security specialist Tufin Technologies gave several pieces of advice concerning how to protect a corporate VPN connection.

It suggested that companies maintained a log of all failed attempts to access the VPN connection and firewall.

Moreover, businesses were encouraged to restrict access only to certain IP addresses and regularly test their systems.

New ‘100Mbps’ scheme to unleash potential of broadband VPN

The spread and accessibility of broadband VPN connections could benefit from new plans announced by the Conservatives to bring high-speed internet to the whole country by 2017.

Currently, local VPN connections are most easily accessed by users with fast broadband connections, however, there are still some areas of the country where the web speeds on offer fall below optimum standards.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said that speeds of up to 100Mbps would be available to everyone in the country under a new plan partly funded by the BBC license fee.

The new network of high-speed lines would make it easier than ever for people to access broadband VPN connection from locations all around the country.

At the moment, people accessing broadband VPN are at an advantage if they are in areas with well-provisioned internet access, such as city centres (although even there, they are still at the mercy of contention and web congestion).

The full usefulness of broadband VPN connections would be unleashed by the new high speed network, allowing people to access their office networks at reasonable speeds no matter whereabouts in the UK they are.

The popularity of broadband VPN use has risen in recent years as more people choose to work remotely from home and more offices implement VPN connections as a way of connecting remote locations.

The new plan has also been tipped to help the economy: “In the 21st Century let’s build the super-fast broadband network that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Britain,” said Mr Osborne.

The Nexus One enables business workers to access VPNs

Many business customers want to know how they can access company networks on their mobile.

With a virtual private network, anybody with the necessary details and a modern smartphone such as the Google Nexus One can check spreadsheets, shared folders and much more.

Here’s everything you’ll need to know about how to set up a virtual private network on your Nexus One.

The first thing you need to do is tap the ‘menu’ button and select ’settings’ from the homepage.

In the ‘wireless and networks’ folder, you’ll find an option called ‘VPN settings’ that invites you to ‘add VPN’.

The next step in the process requires a bit of background knowledge about the VPN protocol.

There’s a choice of ‘add PPTP VPN’, ‘add L2TP VPN’, ‘add L2TP/IPSec PSK VPN’ and ‘Add L2TP/IPSec CRT VPN’.

Next up, it’s time to fill in the blanks by entering the name of the VPN, choosing the VPN server and setting DNS search domains.

Once you’ve provided details about the VPN connection, you’ll need to retrace your steps through the same menus and select your newly added network.

This will trigger a dialogue box that invites you to enter your security details before at last accessing the company’s VPN.

Launched on January 5th 2010, the Nexus One is expected to become a popular choice of smartphone for the business community.

It can provide up to 6.5 hours of Wi-Fi internet access or 7 hours of talk time between charges.

As you’d expect, the phone is also set up to handle Google Apps, which currently boasts more than 2 million business clients.