SPARTA ISSO

Finished Projects

Network Security

Extended Secure Internet Access and Service

TIS, now the Security Research Division of SPARTA ISSO, under DARPA sponsorship, is integrating off-the-shelf software and developing new software to provide secure access to Internet services from a private network carrying sensitive, but unclassified, information.

This project was originally started as a means of improving Internet security for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and for the Internet in general. This was to be accomplished in two ways. First, TIS would undertake a security analysis of the OVP's facilities, hardware, software, security policies, and procedures and would recommend improvements. Second, TIS would develop additional software components (proxies) for the TIS Firewall Toolkit (FWTK) that would allow a broader set of important protocols to be used safely without undermining the protection by the FWTK.

Accomplishments
After providing network security consulting for OVP, efforts transitioned into the development of new FWTK proxies. New proxies for the X-Windows protocol and for HTTP, the protocol underlying the World Wide Web have been developed. These proxies were added to subsequent releases of the FWTK and have substantially increased its usefulness and popularity within the Internet community. Recently, we developed an approach and security requirements for an MBone (Multicast Backbone) proxy for the FWTK. This proxy will allow users behind a firewall to participate in MBone-based audio and video conferencing over the Internet without loss of security.

Technology Transition
TIS has made the FWTK, including the new X-Windows and HTTP proxies, freely available via our World Wide Web and FTP server site. Over 16,000 sites world-wide have retrieved the FWTK to date. When completed, the MBone conferencing proxy will also be released to the Internet community in this manner. TIS has also established an electronic mailing list for users of the FWTK and provides limited FWTK maintenance and user support (e.g., bug fixes) at no cost to the Government.