Secure Access Central Update - October 2006

Secure Access Central delivers the most comprehensive coverage of endpoint security and policy-based access control including robust SSL VPN and NAC solutions. To that end we publish our own original analysis and help security professionals find other high quality publications on the Internet.

Our e-mail updates highlight both new services and content on Secure Access Central and significant industry news. You can view the full text for each topic by selecting the relevant link to our portal. We encourage you to share Secure Access Central with other security professionals you feel would benefit from it.

In This Issue

(select topic to view)

  1. SSL VPN Gateway Annual Sales Grow 29%

  2. Complete NAC Usage Survey and Receive Two Market Research Reports

  3. Cisco and Microsoft Unveil Joint Architecture for NAC-NAP Interoperability

  4. Bypassing NAC Security Part 1: Is it Possible?

  5. Information Security Magazine Evaluates Aventail, Check Point, Cisco, F5 and Juniper SSL VPN Gateways

  6. New Portal Partners

  7. New User Forums on Secure Access Central

SSL VPN Gateway Annual Sales Grow 29%

The Synergy Research Group (SRG) has just released its latest market report which includes data on worldwide SSL VPN system shipments, trends in vendor market shares and a 5-year forecast. SRG estimates that WW manufacturing sales reached $250M during the past 12 month period. You can view highlights from their report at the Synergy web page on Secure Access Central.

Complete NAC Usage Survey and Receive Two Market Research Reports

The Aberdeen Group provides fact-based research and insights focused on the global, technology-driven value chain. The firm is currently conducting a market survey on NAC usage and invites qualified organizations to participate. Aberdeen's goal is to determine which processes and technologies are being used by best-in-class companies to solve business problems which you can then use to drive your own planning. You can read a description of this upcoming report and complete the survey.

All eligible companies that submit completed surveys will receive the entire NAC research report PLUS a recent Messaging Security report absolutely free. Each report normally sell for $495.00.

Cisco and Microsoft Unveil Joint Architecture for NAC-NAP Interoperability

In September the two companies issued (1) a technical white paper that describes how their products will work together to assess the health and trustworthiness of Vista desktops and Longhorn servers and implement access control policies within the Cisco network infrastructure and (2) a roadmap for bringing these interoperable products to market starting with an initial beta program scheduled for late 2006.

The joint announcement and white paper are now available on the Microsoft web site.

Bypassing NAC Security Part 1: Is It Possible?

Today the central goals of todays NAC solutions are (1) to prevent authorized users from unknowingly and unintentionally allowing their computers to infect other computers on a private network (2) without introducing an unacceptable burden on both users, security administrators and the entire organization.

As Ofir Arkin, the CTO of Iinsightx so effectively pointed out at the Black Hat USA 2006, a more complete definition of network admission control would also include the goal of protecting networks from intentional attacks by both authorized AND unauthorized users working from either local or remote computers, something current NAC systems either do poorly or not at all. We encourage you to listen to Ofir's video presentation and obtain a copy of his slides. But please note that while NAC systems usually provide little protection against these unauthorized activities, most were not designed for this purpose.

Info Security Magazine Evaluates Aventail, Check Point, Cisco, F5 & Juniper SSL VPN Gateways

In September Information Security Magazine published its evaluation of five SSL VPN gateways at a test lab at Stanford University. This test report - along with nine others - can now be accessed from the Product Test page on Secure Access Central.

Introducing new portal partners: Aberdeen Group, ForeScout Technologies, mirage networks, And SENFORCE

We welcome these companies who are now contributing content to Secure Access Central.

New User Forums on Secure Access Central

In October Secure Access Central will introduce new online forums to enable security professionals to exchange their views, knowledge and experiences about secure network access. Our goal is to encourage our user community to share high quality information so others can make better decisions.

We look forward to your contributions!

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