After users are authorized, their access to the network might be limited to specific servers, subnets, or protocol types, depending on the users’ profiles. Services typically available to users connected to a local area network—file and print sharing, Web access, and messaging—are similarly available to users through remote access connection.

Crackers are drawn to poorly configured remote access points, for often they provide an open door into the network—and crackers do not have to worry about security devices at the Internet border. The reality is that although most networks have remote access points, the majority of these do not have enough security.

Firms such as Sun Microsystems, Inc., which acquired remote-access software maker Tarantella, Inc. for about $25 million in May 2005, build software programs allowing organizations to access and manage their information and applications across all platforms, networks, and devices.

See Also: Authentication; File and Print Sharing; Local Area Network (LAN); Network; Out-of-Band Management; Protocol.