This post was written by Jason Stella
ForeScout Technologies, a market leader in clientless network access control (NAC) and policy management solutions for large enterprises, said that the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), a not-for-profit mortgage lender that services developers of multifamily housing, has deployed the CounterACT family of NAC appliances in its financial services network. According to Chris O’Keefe, Director of Information Management at CPC: “We adopted CounterACT to protect our internal network against viruses or malware introduced through visitors’ laptops. CounterACT integrated quickly and seamlessly with our existing heterogeneous network. We deployed the CounterACT appliances in less than a day and I was able to use it to audit connected devices for policy compliance and manage real time updates immediately.”
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Content management solutions provider Interwoven has deployed Infoblox appliances in order to deliver core network services, including internal domain name resolution (DNS) and IP address assignment (DHCP). All IP networks require properly integrated and robust domain name resolution and IP address assignment services for the smooth functioning of the network and applications. Interwoven had deployed a network access control (NAC) solution with a legacy Windows-based core network services infrastructure that had no provision for effective dynamic DNS updates. Raymond Lockley, CORE systems manager at Interwoven, said
Enterasys Networks Inc. has announced new integrated endpoint assessment capabilities for the Enterasys(R) Network Access Control (NAC) in-line and out-of-band appliances, and embedded switch modules. These enable enterprises to ensure only the right users have access to the right information from the right place at the right time. The agent-based or agent-less assessment offers deployment flexibility while determining health posture scoring for laptops, desktops, servers, printers, phones, copiers, cameras, etc. Interoperability has been proven with Microsoft NAP and the Trusted Computing Group’s TNC.
A study conducted by UK-based malware protection vendor, Sophos, using its NAC tool found that several companies are facing security lapses due to patch deployment failures, misconfigured firewalls and missing OS updates. According to Sophos, these lapses could be exploited by an attacker to gain access to critical systems. Sophos is using its NAC tool to try and get businesses to see the benefits of its network access control (NAC) appliances. The appliance monitors the network, scans and quarantines machines and devices at the endpoint. The scan can determine if the machine’s patches are up to date and whether it’s carrying any malware.
The control of access and screening of endpoints for the compliance with a business’ desktop/laptop configuration posture are the primary reasons for consumers wanting to introduce NAC at their organization. Several NAC products can also provide functions that enable customers to verify whether access policies are enforced, shortcomings at the endpoints are remedied and logs of user activity are updated such that they can stand up to regulatory audits. Potential NAC customers should recognize this additional usefulness of the NAC product, and if helpful, they should make these capabilities part of their product-evaluation check list.
Symantec is set to launch an on-demand NAC client to go with its NAC appliance that brings features of the client more in line with the company’s permanent NAC client. Like the full-time agent, the new on-demand agent supports 802.1x authentication, enabling out-of-band enforcement of NAC policies. The on-demand agent supports features such as turning on of scans for antivirus software and registry checks.
