The Palo Alto Networks security platform, if used as a TLS gateway/decryption point or VPN concentrator, must use NIST FIPS-validated cryptography to protect the integrity of remote access sessions.

Without cryptographic integrity protections, information can be altered by unauthorized users without detection. Cryptographic mechanisms used for protecting the integrity of information include, for example, signed hash functions using asymmetric cryptography enabling distribution of the public key to verify the hash information while maintaining the confidentiality of the secret key used to generate the hash.

Remote access is access to DoD nonpublic information systems by an authorized user (or an information system) communicating through an external, non-organization-controlled network. Remote access methods include broadband and wireless connections. Remote access methods include, for example, proxied remote encrypted traffic (e.g., TLS gateways, web content filters, and webmail proxies).