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the safety of your corporate defenses. The management of these clients places an
extra burden on administrators to maintain the safety of the network and its data.
You might have mobile clients and remote clients in your network for a number
of different reasons, and they might exhibit different patterns of usage. For
example, you may have some internal computers that periodically move outside
your corporate environment. You may have some sales personnel whose computers
are never inside the network. You may have some client computers that need to
connect to your network but are completely outside your administrative control.
For example, you may allow customers, contractors, vendors, or business partners
limited access to your network. You may have employees who connect to the
corporate network using their own personal computers.
Some mobile users and remote users might have a less stringent attitude toward
Internet browsing than you want, and therefore exhibit riskier behavior. The
mobile users and remote users that do not work directly for your business may
not be as educated about computer security as your employees. For example, they
might be more likely to open email messages or attachments from unknown
sources while on your network. They may be more likely to use weak passwords.
Mobile users and remote users in general may be more likely to make unauthorized
changes or to customize their computers. For example, they may be more likely
to download and use an application that has not been approved for corporate use.
Mobile users and remote users may be so focused on doing their work as quickly
as possible that they fail to think about computer security.
Because it is a best practice to treat both remote clients and mobile clients
similarly, we refer to both types of clients as remote clients.
About setting up groups for remote clients
The number of groups you need depends on two main factors: the types of remote
clients you have and the security restrictions you want to apply to each type of
client. The types of remote clients you create separate groups for may include the
following:
■ Employees that log on to your network through a virtual private network
(VPN).
■ Employees that log on to your network without using a VPN.
■ Users that are not employees of your company but who need access to your
network.
After you determine the types of remote clients that you have, you should consider
what security restrictions to apply to each of them. You control security
restrictions with policies. Each type of protection is controlled with its own policy.
Managing mobile clients and remote clients
About setting up groups for remote clients
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