ITAC Activities

Because critical information requiring action is often released to the USGS Bulletin Board, please try to make it a habit to scan the USGS all employee email bulletin board weekly. On June 14, 2002, an all employee email announced a Cisco VPN service to augment services provided by the AT&T remote access contract. Due to computer system security vulnerabilities, the USGS has been asked to work closely with the Department of the Interior CIO to implement corrective measures. One very important corrective measure is to secure computer access from the Internet. For those accessing the USGS internal networks remotely, a secure encrypted mechanism such as Cisco or AT&T VPN is required. For your information, this email is listed below.

The Geographic Information Office is pleased to announce the availability of secured access services to USGS Intranet (internal) resources from remote or external locations having existing Internet access.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateways have been deployed at Internet Exchange points in Denver, Menlo Park, Reston, and Sioux Falls to augment the functionality currently available via the bureau AT&T remote access contract. Employees and USGS contractors may use this new VPN capability with any Internet Service Provider (ISP) account including dial-up, cable modem, and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). It may also be used by employees who utilize non-USGS network resources to access the USGS (e.g. .edu users on university campuses). It is not an ISP service as is provided by the AT&T contract. Instead, this VPN service facilitates Intranet access by converting the account holder.s commercial ISP or university assigned Internet Protocol (IP) address to a number within the usgs.gov domain. Intranet access is granted to USGS network connected resources that do not have further security restrictions implemented (e.g. firewalls and TCP wrappers).

VPN functionality should be used by all employees who do not currently have access to the USGS Intranet. It should also be used by telecommuters or employees performing remote tasks requiring the encryption of passwords and information being transmitted or received from a USGS resource. This is particularly true of systems administrators, network personnel, and administrative users.

For information on how to obtain an account, download and configure the client software, properly secure your computer for VPN usage, and obtain assistance, please reference the VPN website at:   http://online.wr.usgs.gov/remoteaccess/vpn

There is no cost for establishing or using the USGS VPN services, however appropriate supervisory approvals are required, to assure compliance with licensing agreements and mandatory security requirements.

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Katherine Lins
Acting Chief, Office of Information, WRD
U.S. Geological Survey
440 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
703-648-5014