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List:       firewalls-gc
Subject:    Re: McCaffee PC Firewall
From:       FaNgYoU2 <fangyou2 () panix ! com>
Date:       1997-01-14 18:13:14
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> You wrote:
> > ... Several of the Intranets where I have done
> > performance tuning had a need for something like a PC firewall in
> > areas of higher level administration, budget and finance ...
> ... 
> Even having it installed on a separate PC begs the question of Why?
> Elsewhere on the network, a corporate firewall exists.  Why add a
> backdoor??
> 	

A lot of strange stuff shows up when I do performance tuning on networks.
The owners usually have no idea of all the stuff that is running on there.
Several times I have seen and traced what can be politely called corporate
espionage.  The Intranets I work on typically have good firewalls between
themselves and the Internet and nobody is coming in from the Internet.
The problem is with people who got access to the internal network through
some legitimate avenue.

The internal firewall on a PC would not be connected to anything except
the corporate LAN.  The firewall software would protect the data inside
the PC (Windows 95, Windows NT Workstation) from other people on the
corporate LAN who are trying to get into it.

The people who own networks where I see this need for a PC firewall can
easily afford dual Pentium processors, 128 MB RAM and 5 to 8 gigabytes of
disk space.  The data stored in the PC would be highly sensitive
political, economic or financial data.  The first attempt at an agency
budget projection, for example.  So the impact of the firewall software
on the PC is not a major performance factor for the owner.  A department
that doesn't have any sensitive stuff might use an equivalent PC as a
server.
                                                       ^ ^  
       A slight gray shadow on a misty day, against a gray winter sky

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