Service to citizens - state of Virginia contracts for security tools - Government Activity

Communications News, Oct, 1999

The commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Social Services began leveraging the Internet infrastructure in the 1990s in order to use the state's database of all agency records. Regional-level offices which previously had to query other agencies by phone or mail. Now, remote offices can process information and respond quickly to those needing assistance.

While data at the central state site was protected, local agency IT managers realized the security risks posed by direct Internet connection to internal data. Because of hackers, the open access connection to the Internet--although a great advantage--was also a vulnerability and, likely, a liability. PC SOS, Inc., a consulting firm in Wytheville, Va., was approached by local agency clients to find a firewall to meet strict criteria. The state agency established its needs based upon its system--the Oracle database traffic in and out for appropriately authorized clients was key. Certain firewalls are incompatible with Oracle. PC SOS tested several products and settled on Guardian Firewall from LanOptics, a solution with an intuitive GUI. With a simple configuration process, Guardian easily allowed for the specific ports required by the Oracle applications needed by Social Services. "Basically, we took the software out of the box and installed it. For a few unusual configurations, LanOptics provided tech support," says Bob Heafner of PC SOS. The other constraint was the length of time necessary for database queries. Guardian was able to set the time limits per the Oracle queries so that the specific host making the request of the database was able to retain the IP address it began with and receive the information it requested. Heafner continues, "Our local agency clients were satisfied, especially when they found out how easy it was to change the strategies and accommodate their growing needs." Circle 273 for more information from LanOptics, Inc.