Re: [Embedlets-dev] Re: Security

[Jac K. <j.k...@th...>]

On Sun, 9 Feb 2003, Gregg G. Wonderly wrote:

> The point is that as soon as you have to send the data across a building or 
> through a network, you really do need to know a lot more about the data's 
> successful transference, as well as being able to guarentee that it does 
> follow your corporate requirements for data security.

Sure.

> This is not about lazy programmers. The code exists, processors exist,
> network equipment exists.  You have to decide at what level the cost to
> the end devices is so overwhelming that it is more cost effective to do
> it at the point of network traversal rather then between end
> applications, which may not know about each others capabilities
> regarding secure data transmission.  More importantly, when a keyset is
> compromized, soneone is going to need to fix the problem, and asking
> them to telnet to 1000 field devices to update keys is not going to go
> over well, when there are only 10 routers involved in the network.
>  Data communication concentrators are your friend...

Given the kind of application you're thinking of you're right. Now imagine
someone using embledlets to monitor entrance doors of 140 buildings within
a country. In a setup like this data concentrators won't help and managing 
VPNs become a significant cost factor, so the cost per device might not be 
as much of an issue.

At this point we have the option to add security into the mix without 
breaking anything, so I'm asking to keep an open mind to setups with 
different requirements and facilitate them as well.

(Having been a system operator for over 5 years learned me the avarage
programmer is lazy and has not even the slightest idea what impact their
'design' will have in an operational environment.)

Regards,

Jac

-- 
 Jac Kersing            Technical Consultant   The-Box Development
 j.k...@th...                         http://www.the-box.com