April 21, 2014

Interactive Analysis Tools (calculators)



Before you begin

Keep in mind the following caveats before you begin using the hazard assessment tool:

  • This tool is not meant to be precise. The conditions and factors here have been simplified for general usage.

  • While the following six questions reflect the issues that will primarily determine an application's need for remote access controls to support high-speed access, other unspecified challenges may tilt the decision in one direction or another. The diversity of a user population, the level of sophistication of both the providers and the installers of high-speed Internet services and the maturation of various software components will have an impact on the remote access strategy decision.

  • The values in this tool are based on current practice. Right now, personal firewall software costs, maintenance issues and virtual private network (VPN) technologies are evolving at differing but relatively fast paces. Since the costs and technologies are moving rapidly, the advice derived from this tool may be obsolete in a short period of time.

  • Legal disclaimer: Microsoft® provides this tool solely for self-evaluation. The tool is offered "as-is." See the "Terms of Use" page for more detailed information. Microsoft, security software vendors, Internet service providers (ISPs) and independent consultants are the primary sources of useful information and analysis about remote access strategies, costs and implementation tactics.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about this Rule of Thumb tool, please contact the editor of the Enterprise from Microsoft at: entfeed@microsoft.com. Unfortunately, the editors are not equipped to respond to questions about Microsoft software or topics unrelated to this Rule of Thumb about high-speed remote access issues. For technical support, please go to http://support.microsoft.com/directory/

Instructions
The following estimator tool takes you through six questions that represent the biggest issues involved in high-speed remote access. Please select the answer that comes closest to representing your current evaluation of conditions at your organization.

Question 1
What percentage of your organization's employees and contractors should be allowed to have remote access to corporate data and applications servers, according to senior management?

1-10%

11-25%

26-50%

 51-75%

76-100%


Question 2
What percentage of your organization's employees and contractors do you estimate will have access to high-speed service (via cable modem or DSL) at the time your organization decides to support such access?

0-10%

11-25%

>26%


Question 3
How would you characterize the technological sophistication of your organization's employees and contractors who would have high-speed access to corporate servers?

Vast majority are technical staff who adhere to corporate data security standards.

Wide range of users, with divergent attitudes toward corporate security. Also wide range of technological skills.


Question 4
How willing is your organization to support high-speed access by telecommuters?

Not clear

Moderately willing

Quite willing


Question 5A
How would you characterize your organization's current adherence to corporate remote access data security standards?

90%+ compliance

80-90% compliance

50-79% compliance

 Most of staff with access intolerant of access control procedures

No remote access data security standards


Question 5B
In other words, how would you describe the stability of the existing dial-up access via a virtual private network (VPN)?

Quite stable

Moderately stable

Unstable--frequent outages, congestion, out of control attacks, etc.


Question 6
What is the level of support of high-speed, always-on remote access by the VPN applications in your data center? For example, can the VPN and other security applications on the servers also manage remote personal firewalls?

Don't know--haven't tested VPN apps

In the middle of testing VPN apps for personal firewall support/management

Appears to support personal firewalls




Interested in learning more about our portfolio or have a specific custom content project? Contact Larry Marion at: lmarion@triangle-publishing.com