| Remote access is any access to an organizational information system by a user (or an information system) communicating through an external, non-organization controlled network (e.g., the Internet). Examples of remote access methods include dial-up, broadband, and wireless.
Remote network access is accomplished by leveraging common communication protocols and establishing a remote connection. These connections will typically occur over the public Internet, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or sometimes both. Since neither of these internetworking mechanisms are private nor secure, if cryptography is not used, then the session data traversing the remote connection could be intercepted and potentially modified. Cryptography provides a means to secure the remote connection to prevent unauthorized changes to the data traversing the remote access connection thereby providing a degree of integrity. The encryption strength of mechanism is selected based on the security categorization of the information that is traversing the remote connection.
Databases that accept remote connections must use approved cryptography to protect data being passed via an unsecure network. If approved cryptography is not used, data can be intercepted and potentially modified.
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