Security for Your Medical Centre – Part 2

September 30, 2011 Leave a comment

Statistics of IT Security Threats

This article is a continuation of Security for Your Medical Centre – Part 1. We will discuss various statistics related IT threats and security concerns. This article points out clearly the importance and significance of securing your IT infrastructure. Do not hesitate in any way from ensuring proper security measures, as not doing so can lead to damage and theft of your medical data.

Phishing Scams

Phishing scams come under social engineering attacks. They provide a fake e-mail or website that looks like an authentic one and tricks you into putting your username and password. Once they capture your username and password, they now have access to your bank account or whatever website they are pretending to be.

A disputed study by Trusteer showed that spear phishing a hundred LinkedIn users resulted in a failure rate of 68%. That would mean that around 30% of those targeted with phishing attempts disclosed their personal data. That is significant enough for medical centres to lose a substantial amount of money once their bank account information has been captured.

Cnet interviewed Michael Barrett, chief information security officer at PayPal (online payment processor) in April, 2011. This is what he had to say regarding the question of PayPal’s weakness to phishing attempts:

“I joined PayPal almost exactly five years ago and it’s fair to say the company had not realized at that point the true significance of phishing. But since that time we’ve put in place a number of defenses against it. It probably will never go away completely as a problem, but it can be substantially minimized. We’re at No. 8 on a list of most phishing sites, which is better than being No. 1. I’m not satisfied with being No. 8 and I’d really like to obliterate the crime completely, but I realize that will take another five years to get to that state. A few years ago we started digitally signing all our outbound e-mail and we worked with Yahoo and Google so if they saw e-mail that purported to come from us but wasn’t signed they would block it. That has been stunningly successful. Now we’re trying to get the whole industry to take up that type of approach. But it will take several more years of pushing to get the rest of the industry to do that.” (1)

Malware

Malware is software that is damaging to your computer in various ways. Spyware is a type of malware that infects a computer and relays information of your computer use to different parties.

In 2007, Kaspersky Labs was seeing new malware samples every two minutes, but in 2010, just three years later, that had increased to one new sample every two seconds.

This is what InformationWeek has to say about small organizations and virus threats:

“Small organization respondents’ other top concerns were Trojan applications (60%), malware designed by criminals expressly to steal data (59%), data leaks (56%), spyware (55%), and fake AV (52%). Spam and phishing threats ranked lowest. Most of today’s antivirus software suites protect against many viruses and worms. But when it comes to data-stealing malware, 21% of small U.S. organization respondents said that their IT department could do a better job of protecting end users. Notably, only 47% of small organizations install security software to help stop such malware, 30% offer related security policies, and 28% provide relevant education or guidance.” (2)

Some are touting Cloud resources as the answer to fighting back malware spread. That remains to be seen.

Security Breaches – Hacks

It’s interesting to note that organizations attribute 59% of all security breaches to human error. This can occur if the network administrator has failed to set up the proper security barriers, or it can occur by inadvertently giving our information that a hacker can use to compromise the system.

About half of all organizations consider IT security a top priority. This stat indicates two scenarios. One, namely that there are pockets of IT infrastructures that don’t need high security. Perhaps these are small organizations and medical centres that have a wireless network setup, and they don’t see themselves as a potential target from hackers. The network is small and their data isn’t all that critical. The second is that IT security is seen as a big issue for larger organizations. They have important data that cannot be leaked and as such they are prime targets for hackers. Hackers use stolen company data to sell to competitors and it is quickly becoming a lucrative business. Larger organizations need security for their systems and that entails purchasing the right equipment and having it administered properly.

The cost of an individual data breach – including lost business and the burden of responding to the incident – in 2010 increased 13% year-over-year for U.K. companies. That roughly equals $3 million for each breach, which is quite substantial. Needless to say, every organization, small or big, should pay close attention to its IT security needs.

Viruses

Medical centres still fear the virus according to a new survey of 1,600 end users in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and United States. Conducted by antivirus vendor Trend Micro, viruses are the leading concern for 63% of small organizations.

A CompTIA stat shows that 33% of law firms admit to experiencing a security issue such as a virus. That’s only law firms, if you total firms from other fields the number is much higher.

Conclusion

The presentation of stats and facts in this article is only intended to create an awareness of various cyber threats. Cyber security is a huge issue and should not be taken lightly.

References

(1) http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20052310-245.html#ixzz1MvDmlGv5
(2) http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/228200171

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EMR/EHR Implementation Models for Medical Practice

July 29, 2011 Leave a comment

Three Types of EMR/EHR System Models:

There are three topologies that a medical practice can choose to implement. One is the SaaS model, the second is the in-house server model, and the third is a hybrid of the earlier two. Your choice in selecting one of these models will determine who bears the responsibility of data security and its retrieval if in case the EMR/EHR vendor shuts down for any reason. This article will discuss each of these models, their benefits and shortcomings.

SaaS – ASP

SaaS stands for Software-as-a-Service, and that means the EMR/EHR application is hosted at the EMR/EHR vendor site on the Internet. They maintain control of the data that is being sent from your clinic or office to their servers on some physical location far from you. This means that you would have to entrust them with your patient data. It is our advice that you get in writing everything that relates to the ownership of that data in case that vendor goes down, i.e. bankruptcy. Also note, that some vendors engage with a third-party data centre to hold the patient data. This can be troubling for the medical practitioner as there could be a legal dispute between the vendor and the third-part data centre. It is best to have all of the necessary accommodations written down before signing with an EMR vendor.

In terms of IT infrastructure needed to run a SaaS, it is not as much as having an in-house server model, although you would need to contract IT support personnel for regular maintenance. One service you will need is to have a backup Internet connection in-case your primary Internet connection goes down for some reason taking your clinic or office with it. Really important to plan for a backup Internet connection.

In-house Server

This model requires your office/clinic to run the EMR/EHR vendor software on your own servers located in your clinic or office. This model requires a lot more investment in hardware and software and nearly daily upkeep measures would need to be contracted from IT support services such as Soulistech. This option does give you the control of keeping all of the EMR data on your own site instead of having it stored somewhere where it would be hard to retrieve the data, should any emergency happen. Also, not much data is transmitted on the Internet, making this a safer choice.

With the data in your possession, it becomes incumbent on your practice to ensure proper security measures are met to withstand attacks from hackers. Again, IT services from Soulistech can help in this regard. In terms of having an Internet connection. One line is good as you won’t be using the backup line anymore.

Hybrid Model

The hybrid model basically combines the in-house server with the SaaS input method on the client computers. The EMR application runs on the client computers either through a web browser or custom application and sends all of the data to the in-house web server. Instead of sending the web browser entered data to an off-site EMR/EHR vendor, all the data goes in to the in-house server like the in-house model.

This model requires just as much IT support as the in-house server model, but gives you the control of keeping the data on-site and off-site. It keeps the off-site data to a contracted place where it regularly backs up to the off-site location. Even if the Internet is down, the EMR/EHR will continue running as usual, and when the connection is set again, it will backup and sync automatically.

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The Windows Saga

June 8, 2011 Leave a comment

In a Time Long, Long Ago…

Microsoft Windows debuted in November of 1985. It didn’t garner much support or fanfare as it lacked features and was mostly an extension of the MS-DOS operating system. Since then, Windows has grown in popularity and has eventually become the dominant operating system in the world. With all its success, it has fallen to some conditional errors seen in the continuation of the Windows series. By that I mean, Windows XP was a solid hit and continuation of Windows is becoming a stretched phenomenon as less and less computers use any operating system beyond XP. 75% of computers operating in businesses still use Windows XP. Everyone knows the pitfalls of Vista, but how is this saga likely to continue? Let’s take a look.

Windows 7 – The Saviour

With the complete blunder of Vista, Microsoft needed to redeem itself. They did this through creating Windows 7. Windows 7 doesn’t have the sluggishness of Vista, it runs faster, and has polished features. Without Windows 7, Microsoft could not have rebounded from the failure of Vista. The success rate for Windows 7 is around 10% for all the computers in the world. As you can see, Windows XP still has a larger market share than Windows 7. This is the problem that Microsoft needs to tackle. Businesses are still running XP because there’s no real need to bump up the hardware and therefore no need to install a new operating system. Take TD bank, their office computers are still running XP because it suffices for them. All they need to do is access the company database through their internal network, as well as do simple web browsing. They don’t need to upgrade to anything fancier.

Windows 8

When I think of Windows 8, I immediately think: do we need it? Windows 7 has done such a great job, why change that? The market share for Windows 7 isn’t as great as Windows XP, so why bring in a new contender to early. 2014 would be the year I imagine that Windows 8 to come out. 2012 is too early. Another thing not going for Windows 8 is the fact that it too could be a flop like Vista. Does Microsoft really want to take that chance? All of this, not to mention the problem of OS fragmentation, really does beg the question: do we need Windows 8 so fast?

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Security for Your Business – Part 2

May 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Statistics of IT Security Threats

This article is a continuation of Security for Your Business – Part 1. We will discuss various statistics related IT threats and security concerns. This article points out clearly the importance and significance of securing your IT infrastructure. Do not hesitate in anyway from ensuring proper security measures, as not doing so can lead to damage and theft of your business data.

Phishing Scams

Phishing scams come under social engineering attacks. They provide a fake e-mail or website that looks like an authentic one and tricks you into putting your username and password. Once they capture your username and password, they now have access to your bank account or whatever website they are pretending to be.

A disputed study by Trusteer showed that spear phishing a hundred LinkedIn users resulted in a failure rate of 68%. That would mean that around 30% of those targeted with phishing attempts disclosed their personal data. That is significant enough for businesses to lose a substantial amount of money once their bank account information has been captured.

Cnet interviewed Michael Barrett, chief information security officer at PayPal (online payment processor) in April, 2011. This is what he had to say regarding the question of PayPal’s weakness to phishing attempts:

“I joined PayPal almost exactly five years ago and it’s fair to say the company had not realized at that point the true significance of phishing. But since that time we’ve put in place a number of defenses against it. It probably will never go away completely as a problem, but it can be substantially minimized. We’re at No. 8 on a list of most phished sites, which is better than being No. 1. I’m not satisfied with being No. 8 and I’d really like to obliterate the crime completely, but I realize that will take another five years to get to that state. A few years ago we started digitally signing all our outbound e-mail and we worked with Yahoo and Google so if they saw e-mail that purported to come from us but wasn’t signed they would block it. That has been stunningly successful. Now we’re trying to get the whole industry to take up that type of approach. But it will take several more years of pushing to get the rest of the industry to do that.” (1)

Malware

Malware is software that is damaging to your computer in various ways. Spyware is a type of malware that infects a computer and relays information of your computer use to different parties.

In 2007, Kaspersky Labs was seeing new malware samples every two minutes, but in 2010, just three years later, that had increased to one new sample every two seconds.

This is what InformationWeek has to say about small businesses and virus threats:

“Small business respondents’ other top concerns were Trojan applications (60%), malware designed by criminals expressly to steal data (59%), data leaks (56%), spyware (55%), and fake AV (52%). Spam and phishing threats ranked lowest. Most of today’s antivirus software suites protect against many viruses and worms. But when it comes to data-stealing malware, 21% of small U.S. business respondents said that their IT department could do a better job of protecting end users. Notably, only 47% of small businesses install security software to help stop such malware, 30% offer related security policies, and 28% provide relevant education or guidance.” (2)

Some are touting Cloud resources as the answer to fighting back malware spread. That remains to be seen.

Security Breaches – Hacks

It’s interesting to note that organizations attribute 59% of all security breaches to human error. This can occur if the network administrator has failed to set up the proper security barriers, or it can occur by inadvertently giving our information that a hacker can use to compromise the system.

About half of all organizations consider IT security a top priority. This stat indicates two scenarios. One, namely that there are pockets of IT infrastructures that don’t need high security. Perhaps these are small businesses that have a wireless network setup, and they don’t see themselves as a potential target from hackers. The network is small and their data isn’t all that critical. The second is that IT security is seen as a big issue for larger organizations. They have important data that cannot be leaked and as such they are prime targets for hackers. Hackers use stolen company data to sell to competitors and it is quickly becoming a lucrative business. Larger organizations need security for their systems and that entails purchasing the right equipment and having it administered properly.

The cost of an individual data breach – including lost business and the burden of responding to the incident – in 2010 increased 13% year-over-year for U.K. companies. That roughly equals $3 million for each breach, which is quite substantial. Needless to say, every organization, small or big, should pay close attention to its IT security needs.

Viruses

Small businesses still fear the virus according to a new survey of 1,600 end users in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and United States. Conducted by antivirus vendor Trend Micro, viruses are the leading concern for 63% of small businesses.

A CompTIA stat shows that 33% of law firms admit to experiencing a security issue such as a virus. That’s only law firms, if you total firms from other fields the number is much higher.

Conclusion

The presentation of stats and facts in this article is only intended to create an awareness of various cyber threats. Cyber security is a huge issue and should not be taken lightly.

References

(1) http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20052310-245.html#ixzz1MvDmlGv5
(2) http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/228200171

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Google Chromebook: The Future?

May 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Cloud Computing to the Next Level

There’s another player in the IT operating system (OS) market now, and it’s by Google. The Google Chromebook offers a web (or Cloud) OS that derives its applications from the Internet and thereby reduces the need for expensive hardware. Although the Cloud has been in existence for sometime now, Google offers a PC that is solely geared for a web interface. At the heart of the Chromebook is the Chrome web browser that acts as the portal to the whole web experience. No complications with installations, patches, or viruses as all of this is administered through the Internet with the full support of Google.

Business Mechanics

How does this benefit businesses? Google claims that businesses can save up to 70% off their IT costs by contracting Chromebooks (more or less a mini laptop) for $28/month. The supposition here is that with the tech support of Google in areas of software and hardware maintenance, businesses can dramatically reduce their costs. Is this probable? Probably not. Google’s upper bound number of 70% is obviously stretched, but there does seem to be some possibility of reducing a certain amount of IT operating costs. Businesses that rely on applications that are Windows based probably won’t jump to this side of the coin. But, businesses requiring basic office applications and portability may love this. Along side this, nobody likes to rent a laptop for an indefinite period of time. It would be cheaper for businesses to actually go out and purchase a brand new laptop than pay $28/month for ever. This generalization doesn’t apply to all business though.

New Take on I.T.

Google’s new idea is kind of interesting, but I feel it lacks the technical depth needed to win over IT professionals. It is likely to gain momentum as the whole Cloud infrastructure takes off, but there’s nothing to administer. I don’t see how IT professionals will like that. Also, what are the applications that Google is touting? Can it provide hardcore Photoshop like programs that many businesses need? Can it provide printer management in the local or remote sites? Certainly there are big holes to fill before Google can gain dominance in this area. Applications over the web or software-as-a-service isn’t for many businesses. It’s is hard to port hundreds of megabytes of data that a program requires in a fraction of a second that today’s local storage systems provide. Yes, office type apps can run, but not heavy duty programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, etc.

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Easy Networking for Your Business

May 4, 2011 Leave a comment

A Networked Business

A network is basically computers and devices, like printers and servers, hooked up to each other. This allows for easy file transfer and printing of documents. If there was no network in place, files and resources would not be available to all of the computer users in the company. Networking allows resources to be distributed to all or some of the computers. It allows for user management and consolidation of files. A larger version of a network is the Internet. The Internet consists of computers, users, and resources available to all or a select number of people, i.e. e-mail, Facebook, etc.

Two Methods to Network a Business

The challenge for many small and medium businesses is how to link the computers in the network to each other. There are two ways to do this:

  1. Wired
  2. Wireless

The method you choose will determine how fast your network runs and the level of physical security it has. Wired is preferable in my opinion because it allows for higher speeds and adds a level of security, as I will discuss later, that is not available in wireless networks. Wireless networks, for their part, spare businesses of having to wire their offices with cables and jacks in the walls and therefore spare them also of having high costs associated with cabling their buildings.

To Go with Wire or Wireless?

As I’ve mentioned, wired networking adds a layer of physical protection. What it does is it makes it mandatory for someone to be physically present in the premises and linked to the network through a physical wire. Wireless networking on the other hand can be hacked, if proper security measures are not taken, as it broadcasts the wireless signals in and outside of the business compound. Hackers can come in their car and pick up your wireless signals and can intrude. Wireless signals aren’t broadcast everywhere, and have a range of typically 50 to 100 meters. This is the basic disadvantage of wireless networking.

Wireless networks do offer a less expensive option for businesses when it comes to networking. Foregoing cables and jacks in the wall, they give businesses flexibility in terms of physical location of computers and printers. For small businesses a wireless router should do the job as it can handle up to 25 devices sufficiently. Anything more would require a dedicated router with a dedicated wireless access point (WAP).

Personal Experience

I have done both wired and wireless network setups. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For small businesses requiring one unit, I would recommend to go with wireless as it saves businesses the hassles mentioned above. If there is room for cabling through the walls, then wired would be my first choice.

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Usage Based Billing for the Internet: Canada’s Economic Folly

April 29, 2011 Leave a comment

What is Usage-Based Billing?

Usage-based billing (UBB) is something that was introduced to the CRTC in 2008 by Bell. What it does is, it puts a cap on the amount of Internet you consume and applies a fee for every gigabyte you use thereafter. What’s the problem with that? Well, it stifles Canada’s economy’s by downsizing the amount of consumer business done on the Internet, it limits the number of YouTube videos you can watch, and it makes sure that you get a minimum amount of Internet for a maximum amount of price. This great idea was put forth by Bell, in attempts to make sure that the 2% of its customers that use more Internet than others, makes the rest of the 98%, who don’t use much Internet, pay for it when they go over. It was also done in response to limit Bell’s competitors in the Internet service providers business.

How it Affects Canadians

Consumer use of the Internet is only increasing. With the advent of smartphones, tablets, and laptops, leisurely use of the Internet from home is consuming more and more gigabytes. It is projected that by 2015, video and Internet use will surpass 2.1 billion gigabytes in Canada. Who benefits from this? Service providers like Bell do. This proposed ruling was actually accepted by the CRTC to take place in March of 2011, but outrage over this from many Canadians caused the CRTC to review its case. The Conservative government has expressed concern over this ruling and has vowed to make sure Canadians are put in priority and not “taxed” over communicating over the Internet.

The Case for More Internet

We need more Internet for less. Simple. It costs less than a penny to route 1 gigabyte of data through the Internet. Bell is ready to charge you upwards of $5 a gigabyte. Gouging? I most certainly think so.

The Internet has become a universe in itself. In fact, companies are taking the Internet to outer space in the International Space Station and to planets in the future. We can’t be taxed over using the Internet because it has become so ubiquitous as a means of communication that we all rely on it. From businesses to schools, and from recreation to revolutions, the Internet is not only expanding our knowledge of things, but is accelerating it at an unbelievable pace. Putting a cap on how we interact in the digital domain will severely affect our economy and our social lives. Facebook, Twitter, and all of the social media sites will be taxed.

If we reverse the CRTC’s decision, we can expand our economy and better compete with countries like Japan who make our Internet service look a like snail in terms of how fast they have it there. The more we regulate Internet use, the less flexibility we’ll see our industries. On the contrary, having a less regulated Internet can spur new innovations and help place Canada at the top in the IT world.

What Can You Do About It?

Luckily we have an advocacy group that is doing a real good job on protesting this ridiculous UBB ruling. The group is called Open Media and you can visit their website at: www.openmedia.ca. Be sure to sign in on the petition to make you voice heard to the government and to the CRTC. Last I heard, we had close to half a million signatures. Let’s trump this decision once and for all for the sake our digital freedom!

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BlackBerry PlayBook: First Impressions

April 27, 2011 1 Comment

Professional Tablet PC

I had a chance to play around with the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet from RIM. My first impressions were that, although it didn’t seem impressive with its form factor size being smaller compared to the iPad and others, it did have the potential of tapping into the professional market. A host of tablets being released are centred around the leisurely activities of consumers -their entertainment needs. The BlackBerry PlayBook appeals to the the professional business field where office tasks take priority.

Smaller Size

RIM has kept the PlayBook at a price range slightly lower than the iPad, $499 CDN. Given its petite size, I was given to the thought that RIM had to compromise between size and cost. They, in my opinion, chose to reduce the cost over having a larger form factor size. As for the user interface, it didn’t seem all that impressive to me. It lacks set-top buttons, which is a good thing, but the inefficient scroll of the finger from down to up across the screen is meant to be similar to the home button of the iPad where one exits the present application. This didn’t appeal to me at all. I prefer a simple one touch restore of the previous application.

Bottom-line: If you’re a BlackBerry fan, this is the tablet for you. It offers a robust business experience meant for the professional at a reasonable cost. If you prefer a larger form factor size and a more engaging user interface, this probably isn’t the right tablet PC for you.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Prospects of Tablet PCs

April 19, 2011 1 Comment

With the decline of first quarter PC sales in 2011, tablet PCs are becoming the new primary computing device. A recent survey conducted suggested that around 25% of computer users now use their tablet as their main device for checking email and surfing the Internet. So is it likely that the tablet PC will replace the good old desktop computer? Well, let’s have a look.

Neither a Laptop Nor a Smartphone

By far, the most popular tablet is the iPad. The price and software options make it the front runner of all tablets. That’s not to say that other tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Blackberry PlayBook aren’t worthwhile. I’m sure they have certain advantages, but Apple has really seemed to have knocked their device in this category off the playing field. In the past, laptops seemed like the right solution to a portable PC. Desktops were just that, they were meant to stay on top of your desktop, whereas laptops provided the student, the travelling business man, and the IT pro desktop mobility. Laptops now out-perform lower end desktops, and with that power comes a lot of heat being generated by the hardware. Some thought that the hot bottom surface of the laptop disqualified it from being called a “laptop” as it could not be comfortably placed on one’s lap. Hence, the secondary classification called notebooks. But laptops weren’t really notebooks either. They were heavy and had a screen that popped up and blocked your view of the meeting or the class lecture. Another solution proposed: netbooks. Small, light, and exactly what we need? Not really. They too were hard to use as the keyboard was typically small and during typing the hand would hit the mouse pad and mess up everything.

Here in comes the perfect in-between: the tablet. It’s actually way lighter and has the basic functionality of a laptop and a smartphone combined. The touch interface actually solves a lot. No need for a popup screen that blocks the view. An iPad can use its smartcover to prop it up so that one can write using the touchscreen (something one needs to get used to) and it doesn’t block the view.

Functionality and Use

The tablet seems to be the true notebook as its physical form resembles that of a real notebook. Like a paper pad or portfolio, it is easy to carry around from office to office or from class to class. The essential use of a tablet for a home user would probably come under using it as a casual email checking device or quick web browsing. Its ecosystem would probably entail a kitchen, living room, family room, and bedroom. Tablets are good for e-reading as well, so a quick check of the newspaper in the kitchen or a silent read in backyard would be one of its uses. That may not seem like much, but keep in mind that a tablet is an instant-on device. There’s no boot up time like a laptop or a desktop PC. So the quick access allows users in the home to not be hindered by a delay in turning it on. Tablets can also be used for viewing photo albums. Although media players and HTPCs allow the viewing of pictures on a TV, the feel and experience of a looking at high resolution pictures on a tablet is quite reassuring, kind of like flipping through a real photo album.

There are a host of business apps that allows creation from AutoCad to tracking statistics of sales and profit on the device. I believe development will yield better functionality and use in the coming years as tablets progress from their infancy to a wider range of implementations. I am setting forth a note taking process for my IT consulting business. My handwritten notes will be taken on my iPad and I will sync them with Google Apps. Here, I’m involving a digital process of record keeping and utilizing the Cloud at the same time. EMR systems are allowing doctors to take their notes on a tablet device and sync it with their server database as well as online Cloud storage. The flexibility of tablets is huge.

Future of Tablets

The prospects of tablet PCs seems to be bright. From the medical field to academics to professional business use, tablets will set a new paradigm in human interaction with technology. Tablets did make an early appearance in the year 2001, but they didn’t cook up a stir due to Microsoft’s lack of user interface cohesion. This rebirth, incited by Apple, seems to be more promising.

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IPV6 – The New Internet Scheme

April 18, 2011 1 Comment

Believe it or not, the Internet has run out of addresses. This means we need to transition to a new addressing scheme, IPv6, that facilitates our growing need for Internet addresses and that helps our businesses grow. To access company networks and the Internet, each device or computer is assigned a logical address. That basically means that the address assigned to the computer or device (ie. smartphone) is temporary and can be easily assigned to any other device regardless of physical location. The Internet addressing scheme is known as IP – Internet Protocol. We’ve been using version 4 of the IP addressing scheme ,also known as IPv4, for quite some time.

IPv4 Limitations

The main problem with IPv4 is that there aren’t enough addresses for all the computers and Internet devices in the world, and that can result in lost connectivity. An IPv4 address is composed of 32 bits, or 32 ones and zeros. Any combination would result in a specific address. These 32 bits are represented in decimal form in the following notation as an example: 192.168.1.101. This results in a total theoretical base of 4,294,967,296 addresses that can be used. Since, we have run out of these addresses we need a new scheme that provides us with more addresses. This new scheme is called IPv6.

IPv6, The Savior

IPv6 uses 128 bits and that gives us 212˄8 (approximately 340 undecillion or 3.4×103˄8) addresses. That’s enough for 5×10˄28 addresses for each of the 6.8 billion people alive (as of this writing). This, for now, solves our problem with the limited addresses that IPv4 yields. This also saves us from using NAT (Network Address Translation) technologies, which usually results in security problems for devices inside the company network. The IPv6 protocol header is more efficient for routing of network data than the IPv4 header. This results in more efficient processing of data. Mobility with IPv6 is better than IPv4; as it allows mobile devices to move between networks while keeping the same IP address.

How to Transition to IPv6

IPv6 is installed on all new Microsoft Windows operating systems. This includes Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008. The network infrastructure itself also needs to be IPv6 capable. This means that the routers and layer 3 switches need to upgraded in order to process the extra address bits of IPv6. There are a number of techniques that you can use to gradually shift your business to using IPv6 from IPv4. Names and a brief description of each transition scheme is listed below:

Dual-Stack
This technique uses both IPv6 and IPv4 at the same time. Each network devices is usually capable of both protocol versions. If not, then it only communicates with those devices that are of its own protocol version. This method of transition is meant to slowly transfer control from IPv4 dependant devices to IPv6 devices.

4to6
These are IPv4 addresses that are mapped to an IPv6 address. The last 32 bits of the IPv6 contain the IPv4 address. This allows both IPv6 and IPv4 to run at the same time.

Tunneling
Tunneling involves encapsulating an IPv6 into a IPv4 header. The network uses two IPv6 points on an IPv4 infrastructure to transmit the data. There are many types of tunneling methods such as 6to4, Teredo, and ISATAP.

As you can see, there are a number of benefits and ways to transition your business from IPv4 to the new IPv6 addressing scheme. There is some security concern regarding IPv6 and the use of unidentified addresses to generate SPAM. IPv4 addresses that generate SPAM are blacklisted and are usually blocked, but since IPv6 opens up a new lot of available addresses, this can be used to generate SPAM. Although, eventually the IPv6 addresses would also be blacklisted, it may take sometime. Nevertheless, the transition to IPv6 is continuing, albeit at a slow and gradual pace, and the new avenues that it opens up for placing new devices on the growing Internet will be needed for some time to come.

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