Organisations across the public and private sectors increasingly need to provide their employees with remote access to corporate data and applications from home or whilst travelling. However, sensitive information leaving the corporate network boundary must be protected from interception and attack, especially where sensitive personal or company data, intellectual property or national security are concerned. Moreover, a lost or compromised laptop PC could offer attackers a vector into the corporate network itself.
Ultra Electronics AEP Networks Net Remote encryptor is a hardware VPN (virtual private network) client that offers an exceptional level of assurance where security is paramount.
Key business benefits
- Enables secure remote access
- Safeguards data confidentiality and integrity
- Facilitates compliance with security mandates
- Insulates client devices from internet threats
- Maintains network perimeter security
Applicable markets
- Governments: UK, EU and international
- Defence: UK MoD, NATO and international
- Government & defence contractors
- Intelligence and diplomatic services
- NGOs
- Critical national infrastructure
- Managed service providers
- Commercial enterprises
End-to-end solutions
Net Remote can be deployed as a stand-alone solution for remote access, or as a remote access adjunct to an existing site-tosite VPN using Net encryptors. Communications continuity and disaster recovery options are available. For mobile personnel, AEP Networks offers solutions integrated with our Ultra Communicate line of multi-bearer communications modules – please refer to our SecComm solutions for further details.
Solution highlights
- Secures communications over the Internet and other untrusted networks by encrypting traffic to government assurance standards
- Highly scalable and flexible configuration options facilitate seamless integration into existing networks and rapid roll-out
- Minimises down-time with automatic recovery from power failure and hot standby feature (using up to three encryptors per cluster with fast fail-over)
- Supports converged IP services: high throughput levels without packet loss, very low packet latency and QoS marker pass-through
- Encryption at the IP level is independent of the WAN technology, enabling organisations to choose or change the WAN to meet their needs
- Comprehensive, GUI-based centralised management software suite
- Automated, remote key management capabilities eliminate the administration costs of routine manual re-keying and the risk of network downtime
- Certificates can be revoked in the event of encryptors being lost, stolen or compromised, avoiding the need to re-key the whole network
- Can be operated and managed by the customer organisation or by a managed service provider
- Developed and supported by AEP Networks, the only company with IP encryptors and a fully integrated PKI approved to stringent UK Government and EU Council security standards
- Robust solution, proven in numerous major deployments over many years
Unlike traditional software VPN clients, the security of which is ultimately dependent upon the underlying PC platform, Net Remote is a dedicated encryption device that operates completely independently of the user’s PC.
This makes it immune to the zero-day exploits that are discovered every month in PC operating systems, web browsers and other common software applications. Furthermore, Net Remote retains no sensitive key material whilst disconnected or switched off, so it has no special storage requirements and presents no particular security threat if lost or stolen. Once the user has authenticated to the Net Remote, it connects securely to the central VPN concentrator (provided by a Net 20M or Net 100M encryptor) and ensures that all data to and from the PC is constrained to this secure tunnel and fully encrypted. Net Remote offers high throughput and low latency to satisfy a wide range of demanding applications, including the use of voice and video. It can also play a vital role in emergency or disaster recovery scenarios where workers need speedy secure access to their corporate systems from home or a temporary location.
Flexible deployment
Net Remote can be used wherever there is a wired Ethernet connection available, such as with home broadband services, hotel networks, office LANs and satellite terminals. It provides a highly scalable solution with flexible configuration options, allowing organisations to maximise their ROI (return on investment) as their business needs evolve. It is supported by a sophisticated management platform, purpose-designed to facilitate rapid roll-out and system evolution, enabling user communities of all sizes to be managed from the centre.
Government certification
Certified by the UK Government’s CAPS (CESG Assisted Products Service) up to Enhanced Grade level and approved by the EU Council to protect CONFIDENTIEL UE, the government versions of Net Remote use special algorithms to meet national policy requirements across a wide range of secure systems. For the private sector, the commercial version combines the strength of the public-domain AES encryption algorithm with the flexibility and ease-ofdeployment expected by enterprise customers.
Net Remote in operation
Each IP packet is encrypted in its entirety, encapsulated inside a new packet (based on the IPsec ESP tunnelling protocol) and sent to the concentrator, which extracts and decrypts the payload before forwarding it to the appropriate server. The encryptors generate the necessary encryption keys and exchange them securely using an asymmetric key exchange protocol; they also generate their own signing keys to provide source authentication. A customer-specific CA remotely certifies the public signing keys and issues CRLs (certificate revocation lists) based on X.509 PKI standards under the control of an authorised administrator. The VPN topology is centrally defined using AEP Networks sophisticated Net Policy Manager application, with configuration information being automatically pushed out to all the encryptors. This tool also provides a full range of device management, monitoring, auditing and accounting functions.
Security features
- Dedicated hardware platform with special-purpose embedded firmware
- FPGA-based hardware encryption for enhanced security, performance and flexibility
- Choice of algorithms to suit government or commercial use
- Employs a proprietary, hardened version of the IPsec protocol
- PKI-based key management and compromise control
- Secure, in-band device management, cryptographically isolated from user traffic
- Support for cryptographically-separated COIs (communities of interest)
- Firewalls all non-authenticated traffic arriving from the public network
- High-quality, hardware random number generator
- Continuous self-monitoring of cryptographic functions
- Sophisticated tamper protection
- Secure auditing and accounting functions
- No special storage requirements, as no key material is retained when disconnected or switched off
- Certified to UK CAPS Enhanced Grade & Baseline Grade standards
- Approved by the EU Council for CONFIDENTIEL UE
Network integration and management
- 10/100 Mbps auto-negotiating Ethernet interfaces
- ESP tunnel mode encrypted packet format
- QoS (quality of service) marker pass-through
- Scalable to over 50,000 remote users
- Supports data, voice and video traffic, with minimal impact on throughput or latency
- Over-the-air re-keying (OTAR)
- Supports alternative concentrators for business continuity or disaster recovery
- Common management system for remote access and site-to-site VPNs
