The vast majority of organisations have a medieval IT security policy. Like villages 500 years ago, their emphasis lies on protecting their assets from the perimeter, keeping out unwelcome individuals and viruses.

Analyst Infonetics predicts that this trend is to continue, with the global market for intrusion detection expected to quadruple to £1bn by 2006.

But in today's fast-paced environment, built on global connectivity, how beneficial is this isolationist approach?

E-business is all about sharing. Successful organisations are those who can respond quickly to market flux by working hand in glove with their customers, suppliers and partners.

Increasingly that means providing people outside the enterprise with access to information lying within the perimeter. Simply operating a closed shop is no longer good enough.

But as soon as an organisation opens up its firewall, allowing external parties access to its corporate network, it becomes more vulnerable to attack. So today's businesses are facing a catch-22: how do they open up their walls while protecting their assets from opportunists?

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