A common dilemma: Indiana's state government and educational system find the answer to their network security needs, facilitating the use of high-speed video, voice and data services for thousands of users

Communications News, March, 2004 by Edward A. Stockey

The Indiana Telecommunications Network (ITN), managed and operated by the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System (IHETS), faces a common dilemma: how to provide first-rate net-world security services to a growing number of clients, despite a tight budget and limited state Recently, ITN settled on an integrated network-security solution to find a way out of its security-management dilemma. The secret to the network's success is simple: a combination of low cost and high performance.

"We were created exclusively to serve the state's public sector," says Tony McClelland, ITN senior state network engineer. "We provide direct network connections and a dedicated network infrastructure that allow our clients to avoid bandwidth or reliability problems associated with commercial Internet links." In addition, McClelland notes, ITN clients receive around-the-clock proactive network monitoring, help-desk assistance, and guaranteed service-response times.

For more than 35 years, IHETS has played a major role in advancing the state's high-technology agenda. In 1967, the Indiana Stare Legislature founded the state-funded, nonprofit consortium to provide efficient, low-cost telecommunications services to the state's higher-education sector. At the time, the system's goal was to create a multimedia telecommunications infrastructure linking Indiana's colleges and universities, and to lay the foundation for new distance- and remote-learning programs.

In the mid-1990s, IHETS, working with the Indiana Intelenet Commission, joined a partnership to create ITN, which includes the state library, the Department of Education mad the state government-based Division of Information Technology. The goal was to consolidate the state's government and education networks, creating an infrastructure for high-speed video, voice and data services.

Intelenet administers the partnership and IHETS manages and operates the network. Today, ITN is the largest public-sector network in the state of Indiana, serving more than 1,900 end points. ITN provides IP-based data, voice and video services to hundreds of colleges and universities, public libraries, K-12 schools, state government and county extension offices, and other public institutions throughout Indiana. More public-sector clients continue to subscribe to ITN services every month, including approximately 300 new connections in the past year.

"We provide advanced network services to our clients, and those services must include the best security capabilities we can offer," says Dave King, IHETS executive director. "Today, our clients absolutely expect reliable, highly effective network security, yet they also expect us to provide the most cost-effective services."

DIVERSITY CAUSES PROBLEMS

According to King, however, the organization's success has been a mixed blessing. "We have an extremely diverse client base, from K-12 schools to government agencies, such as the Bureau of Motor Vehicles," King says. "This sort of diversity means that we have to be all things to all people, yet we have to accomplish that goal with typically limited resources." In addition, King notes, both IHETS and its ITN clients must address a growing list of technology objectives on a tight budget.

ITN clients generally focus on the day-to-day benefits of participating in the state network. Today, however, network security is one of ITN's highest priorities. "We've seen both the number and the sophistication of external attacks increase," McClelland says. "Some of these attacks aren't much oft threat, but others pose a significant risk to the network and to our clients."

According to McClelland, some ITN clients appreciate the value of robust network security, although they may not have an accurate concept of how or where the most serious attack occur. "They may appreciate the importance of perimeter-security solutions, such as firewalls, without recognizing that some of the most dangerous security threats come from within the organization itself," he says. This includes cases where employees receive unauthorized access to sensitive data.

"We try to emphasize a holistic approach to network security, but it can be difficult--we're a nonprofit organization with a very limited ability to do education or outreach efforts."

In addition, many ITN clients, including K-12 schools and public libraries with limited resources and technical expertise, maintain a variety of perimeter security solutions that represent a significant management burden and may not provide the best-possible protection. "These firewalls don't always support IP voice or video services, and our clients' onsite technology coordinators may not want to spend time maintaining them," McClelland says. "Yet we can't manage the firewalls for them, because it would place an impossible burden on our engineering staff."

CONCERN FOR HEALTHCARE DATA

ITN's relationship with the Indiana Department of Health illustrates some of the challenges of building effective network-security solutions.