Network Equipment

The world is interconnected by computer networks, which have become critical to the operation of a broad range of devices and services. Preserving the integrity and security of network equipment such as routers, switches and firewalls is essential to maintaining reliability and integrity of network services. Network infrastructure must implement strong protection mechanisms to defend against sophisticated attacks against infrastructure and connected devices.

Network equipment has some properties that are unique to network equipment, which include:

• Always On: Network equipment is “always on” and thus subject to advanced persistent threats (APTs).

• Long Life Cycle: Network Equipment often has a long life cycle, must stay operational in the network for years with little downtime and therefore uses modularity and redundancy to maintain availability.
• Unattended Operation: Network equipment typically must boot and operate without manual intervention for a long time.
• Device Identity: Network equipment requires a strong device identity to expose itself unambiguously to the management system.
• Privacy Protection: Network equipment has an important role in protecting the privacy of users.

Network Equipment Work Group is focused on requirements and use cases, and is providing security best practices, recommendations and specifications to enhance security and privacy for application of Trusted Computing technology in network infrastructure. The work group also provides analysis, use cases and advice to other work groups where network equipment knowledge is needed to achieve viable security and privacy protection.