| Without confidentiality protection mechanisms, unauthorized individuals may gain access to sensitive information via a remote access session.
Remote access is access to DoD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, non-organization-controlled network. Remote access methods include, for example, dial-up, broadband, and wireless. Note that access via an approved and properly configured DoD Virtual Private Network (VPN) is deemed to be internal to the DoD Information Network (DoDIN) and so does not count as remote access.
Note that remote access as defined here may not mean exactly the same thing as remote access in the terminology of the DBMS.
Encryption provides a means to secure the remote connection to prevent unauthorized access to the data traversing the remote access connection, thereby providing a degree of confidentiality. The encryption strength of mechanism is selected based on the security categorization of the information.
Logon/Account information can be compromised if authentication secrets (e.g., passwords) being passed over a public network are not secured via approved cryptography. This can result in unauthorized access to the database.
DoD-approved cryptography is as specified in the NIST publication FIPS PUB 140-2, "Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules." Additionally, for classified systems, NSA Type-X (where X=1, 2, 3, 4) products are NSA-certified, hardware-based encryption modules. |
