Overview
In the context of government operations, business continuity and disaster recovery normally conjure images of floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes—not information technology networks. But in today’s highly connected world, networked infrastructures are a key part of all government services. From ensuring coordinated assistance to disaster victims to guaranteeing continued benefits to citizens, the uninterrupted availability, reliability, and survivability of networked information systems are critical.
While government must address many areas when conducting business continuity anddisaster recovery planning, this solution brief focuses strictly on the protection of critical data in transit. It examines a representative government agency scenario that underscores the importance of maintaining critical data flow. The brief addresses the concerns of chief information security officers and network architects about the security of wide area network (WAN) connections supporting critical public services in light of the increased exposure of those networks and regulatory pressures to protect the data they carry.
Within the scope of government operations, the overall objective of business continuity and disaster recovery is to reduce the impact of a disruption on the services it provides citizens. Business continuity and disaster recovery planning enables the organization to prepare for worst-case scenarios that might affect operations.
Commonly used techniques, designed to build redundancy and resiliency into the business process, include distributed processing and data replication. While these techniques have yielded more robust operations, they have also brought about a more open and exposed environment and introduced vulnerabilities for data traveling across the networked infrastructure. As a result of these vulnerabilities and the threat to datasecurity, encryption has emerged as the technology of choice to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data as it travels across these networks.
About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing Defense, Aerospace and Security markets worldwide. Thales's leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group's civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development.
