ConSentry Fortifies NAC Offering
Version 3.0 of the LANShield OS adds stronger network admission and access features that build on the identity-based controls that ConSentry has baked into its NAC portfolio, said Dan Leary, vice president of marketing at the Milpitas, Calif.-based vendor.
"Going beyond the traditional authentication and posture-checking features of NAC and including support for identity-based control directly in the network is a big enabler," Leary said.
LANShield 3.0 brings the ability to authenticate based on users as well as the device with which they're logging in, which helps prevent zero-day attacks that have been slipping past some traditional NAC defenses, according to Leary.
The OS automatically recognizes and assigns roles to devices such as VoIP phones and printers to keep them from being used as a conduit for attackers, he said. That feature was added to deal with VoIP exploits such as denial-of-service attacks and spam over Internet telephony (SPIT), which involves attackers sending commercial voice-mail messages over VoIP systems, he added.
"We can stop these attacks by recognizing spam-infected machines and examining behavioral calling patterns to identify suspicious behavior," Leary said.
ConSentry also added new visualization and reporting features to its InSight product, which is available as software or as a stand-alone appliance.
Besides customizable dashboards that can be tailored to specific users and job functions, InSight 3.0 can show specific incidents in which a company's security policy was violated, such as if a salesperson tries to access human resources data, Leary said.
"That's important for fine-tuning policies and ensuring compliance with new standards, such as PCI, that require companies to understand the roles of users," he said.
Babak Pasdar, founder and CTO of igxglobal, a Rocky Hill, Conn.-based solution provider, said the reporting and visualization upgrades were necessary and will help customers take full advantage of the comprehensive data that ConSentry collects.
"The customization screens and the reporting ability are critical to leveraging the visibility and insight Consentry has into the network environment, as well as to defining policies and identifying normal behavior and abnormal behavior," Pasdar said.
LANShield 3.0 and InSight 3.0 are available now free for customers with support contracts. The InSight 3.0 appliance is priced at $16,995, and the software version costs $7,995.