Secure Access Central Update - December 2006

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.

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In This Issue

Demystifying NAC Technology - Scan the Endpoint and/or Network Traffic?

NAC Market Usage Report from the Aberdeen Group (complimentary copy)

Bypassing NAC Security - Part 2: Is This Really A Big Problem?

Annual SSL VPNs Sales Grow by 50%

Top Web Columns, Publications & Blogs

Endpoint Security Survey: What are the Keys to Data Lockdown?

Introducing New Portal Partners

Demystifying NAC Technology

Secure Access Central introduced its new online forum Knowledge Exchange in early November to encourage security professionals to share their knowledge about endpoint security and network admission and access control. To that end we will regularly spotlight a single topic you will likely encounter in the marketplace and invite you to exchange your views with other portal users.

Scan the Endpoint And/OR Network Traffic?

Although all basic NAC products perform pre-admission posture scanning, the depth of their scanning capabilities vary a great deal. Some NAC products bolster their overall protection by also performing traffic scans to detect and block malicious activity originating from endpoints. A few vendors even claim that traffic scanning can be so effective that endpoint posture scanning is really unnecessary. Do you feel one approach is ever sufficient or are both necessary? Please explain your reasoning.

You can submit your views on this issue and read other perspectives at our Knowledge Exchange.

NAC Market Usage Report

The Aberdeen Group has just completed a market survey on NAC usage to determine which processes and technologies are being used by best-in-class companies to solve business problems and will make its report available to you next week through Secure Access Central.

This report normally sell for $495.00 but is yours at no cost. Just send us an e-mail to request your free copy.

Bypassing NAC Security - Part 2: Is This Really A Big Problem?

At the BlackHat conference in August 2006 Ofir Arkin, CTO of network scanner, asset management and NAC vendor Insightix presented his analysis of why he claims most NAC products can be bypassed rather easily by a deliberate attacker. You can view an online version of his presentation at the Insightix web site.

You can read responses from Sean Connery, CTO of Identity Engines, and Alan Shimel, CTO of NAC vendor StillSecure by starting at Sean's blog and then contribute your perspectives in our new online forum.

Annual SSL VPNs Sales Grow by 50%

The Synergy Research Group has published its most recent market research report on SSL VPN sales and vendor market shares. Through September 2006, worldwide sales grew at an annual rate of 50% compared to the period ending September 2005. While vendor market shares are generally stable Cisco made large gains through its sale of SSL VPN add-ons to its installed base of (IPSec) VPN concentrators. In contrast, Cisco's SSL VPN appliance has yet to enjoy significant market acceptance.

Top Web Columns, Publications, Podcasts & Blogs

Secure Access Central constantly scans the Internet for excellent content (e.g., columns, articles, webcasts and white papers) we believe warrants your attention. Starting this month we expand our coverage to include blog postings and podcasts. Our goal remains unchanged to deliver the best available web directories for locating high quality publications about secure access to network resources.

Here are a few recent discoveries:

David Greenstein, the Chief Architect at StillSecure, has just published a 3-part series of articles on the Enterprise Systems web site that identify key tradeoffs to consider when specifying a NAC solution. These are well-written and objective technical analyzes.

Part 1 - NAC UP Close: Policy Enforcement Options

Part 2 - NAC Testing Options: Validating Endpoints & Their Health

Part 3 - NAC: Remediation & Integration

Nick Lippis, a well-known computer networking industry analyst and author of the Lippis Reports, has recently predicted that 2007 Is the Year of Network Access Control. While you may not share his optimism - and even Gartner believes NAC is currently in the "over-inflated expectations phase", Nick's well-reasoned argument for NAC ultimately enjoying widespread acceptance merits your understanding.

End Point Security Survey: What are the Keys to Data Lockdown?

Users constantly access, manipulate, download and store sensitive data on their desktops and laptops. As a result it is critical to protect, control, and monitor this endpoint information. But how? Aberdeen Group’s second study on Endpoint Security focuses on the best practices for doing this. What Lockdown approaches are you using? Each survey respondent will receive a full copy of the resulting $399 report at no cost. Individual responses will be kept strictly confidential and data will only be used in aggregate. Take survey now.

Introducing new portal partners: Aventail and F5 Networks

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

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.