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Intranet Security

It is important to an organization's continuation that its confidential and proprietary information and intellectual property are protected. Companies are taking advantage of the connectivity and ease of use of Internet technology to create intranets for organizational communication, collaboration, and coordination. With implementation of an intranet comes the inherent issue of security. The safety and integrity of the organization's information are compromised.
Although outsiders are a much greater threat today than before the Internet, employees, former employees, and other insiders are still the major security concern. The category of other inside network users is often quasi-employees and includes consultants, business partners, contractors, and temporary employees. They do not have the commitment of regular employees. For purposes of systems access, it may be difficult to decide who is an employee and who is not. All such individuals are familiar with the organization, people, and systems, providing a greater opportunity for the dishonest or disgruntled to take advantage of vulnerabilities or to use authorized access for unauthorized activities (Blackwell, 1998, p.1).
This paper examines the concept of information security, and evaluates its role in the construction of a secure intranet site.
Overview of Intranets
Organizations use Internet networking standards and Web technology to create private networks called intranets, which are "internal organizational network[s] that can provide access to data across [their] enterprise[s]" (Laudon & Laudon, 2000, p.298). An intranet uses the company's existing network infrastructure along with Internet connectivity standards and software developed for the World Wide Web (Laudon & Laudon), and does not incur significant additional investments in computer hardware and software to implement (Gupta & Hebert, 1998). Activities that an intranet supports include:
1. Promoting collaboration between groups that are...