Fortinet customers are confused over which network security companies will support IPv6 and when that support will be available, Bedwell told Infosecurity.
“The challenge that companies face is that IPv6 is a separate protocol and requires significant R&D to bring products up to IPv6 capability. There hasn’t been a uniform effort in the security industry to do that”, Bedwell said.
“When security vendors talk about compliance with IPv6, there is a wide range of support. We are recommending that our customers look under the hood and verify that the products that claim to be IPv6 compatible” are in fact compatible, he added.
“A big challenge is to ensure that policies in place for IPv4 are being enforced for IPv6 as well. There should be transparency between the protocols....The end user is still exposed to the same content-based threats”, he added.
Among other things, IPv6 will increase the number of available Internet addresses, resolving a problem associated with the explosion in the number of IP addresses. According to a Fortinet white paper, IPv6 will increase the supply of IP addresses from 4 billion to 340 trillion trillion trillion. It will also embed the IPSec standard, which provides data integrity, confidentiality, and authenticity to IP-based communication.
To test out IPv6 compatibility, a number of major IT companies are sponsoring World IPv6 Day on June 8, 2011. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Akamai and Limelight Networks will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour “test flight”. The goal of the World IPv6 Day is to motivate organizations to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.
“The deployment of IPv6 enables worldwide IP-based devices to seamlessly communicate and interoperate
much more efficiently. Global communication networks have begun a major transition period from IPv4 to IPv6 that will last for years”, the white paper said.
Later this year, Fortinet plans to roll out a toolkit to enable companies to verify that security products are compliant with IPv6, Bedwell said.