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Cisco Delivers NAC Appliance 4.0

Cisco Systems has announced the delivery of NAC Appliance 4.0, the latest edition of its network admission control (NAC) solution designed to protect businesses from information security risks ushered in by non-compliant users and devices.

NAC Appliance 4.0 provides policy enforcement at network entry points throughout a distributed enterprise. It features significant policy-enforcement capabilities for protecting local-area networks (LANs) as well as remote office, virtual private networks (VPNs) and wireless access points.

"It helps enable enterprise organizations to successfully defend against outside threats that may enter through wireless and VPN connections as well as threats that come from within corporate LANs and branch offices. It is a network-wide solution," Mick Scully, Cisco's vice president of product management for security.

NAC Appliance 4.0 identifies an assortment of users and networked devices - from employees, contractors and guests to endpoints with various operating systems (Windows, Macintosh or Linux-based desktops and laptops), PDAs, printers and IP phones. The NAC Appliance assesses their role in accessing the network, verifies their compliance with corporate security policies and grants appropriate network privileges.

Non-compliant devices are blocked and quarantined. Vulnerability updates can be automatically administered to the operating system as well as updated antivirus and anti-spyware software. Once users and devices are confirmed as compliant with corporate security policies, they are granted network access. Throughout this automated process, NAC Appliance 4.0 can collaborate with the entire network and security infrastructure to ensure that policies are enforced across the enterprise.

It offers flexible options to overcome the deployment complexity inherent in enterprise networks. While the appliance can be deployed inline or "out-of-band" with network traffic at Layer 2, it can also be positioned out-of-band at Layer 3 to minimize the number of servers required for multiple locations. Such an option is especially beneficial for larger enterprises with complex distributed networks.

In addition, the appliance provides convenient single sign-on functions for VPN clients, wireless clients and Windows Active Directory domains.


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