This post was written by Jason Stella
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.
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Infonetics Research’s new study, which provides a broad view of user thinking and plans for network access control, including perceptions of leading NAC vendors, shows that limiting the impact of security problems and stopping threat propagation are the number-one drivers for the deployment of NAC. In the study, User Plans for Network Access Control: North America 2008, respondents who did not plan to deploy NAC by 2009 were asked what would change their minds; the top 3 responses were regulation, cost, and technology.