The Transition to IPv6 and Security
Internet protocol version 6 is approaching, eventually replacing IPv4. The main reason for replacement is the exhaustion of available IPv4 addresses. Where IPv4 was created with a 32-bit configuration, IPv6 raises that limit to 128-bits. The newer expansion provides address allocation flexibility and eradicates the necessity of network address translation, a means of alleviating the IPv4 address exhaustion.
IPv6 does arrive with some enhanced security features, but hackers are already planning their attacks against the new protocol. Another concern is how users are implementing the security features. IPSec security is included in IPv6, but most users have it disabled. The usefulness of IPSec also varies because there are multiple ways to employ the feature. The upside of the new protocol does include opportunities to improve network traffic security. Secure architectures and longer IP addresses will furnish unique identifiers to identify network processes. Even though corporations have implemented their infrastructures to handle the new protocol, very little use of IPv6 is currently in play.
Seventy five percent of the available IPv4 address space has already been used, with less than eleven percent remaining before all available addresses are utilized. (Fourteen percent is unavailable for other reasons.) Therefore, public utilized servers will be pressed into service using the new protocol over the existing addressing. Dale Geesey, a principal with Auspex Technologies, noted, "Security has traditionally been added after the fact in networks, devices and applications, and this has proved to be inefficient, ineffective and expensive. The increasing complexity, size and speed of development for networks, applications and services will make it more important than ever that security be built-in from the beginning."
The effectualness of logs, firewalls, anti-virus, intrusion detection and other monitoring, blocking and filtering devices for IPv6 packets stands as yet unknown. In theory, the security enhancements of IPv6 can make security management easier, but integration with other applications running on networks remains an unanswered question.
Now is the time for network departments and corporations to discover their requirements towards security and infrastructure integration. Otherwise, the new protocol and incorporation with the current software architecture may become problematic.
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