Secure Access Central Update - June 2006

Our e-mail "Updates" highlight new services and content recently added to Secure Access Central and introduce new partners who will share their knowledge about security policies, best practices, technologies and products on our portal. You can view the full content for each topic by selecting the link associated with each reference.

In this issue:

What You Should Know About Network Access Control (NAC) Solutions
NAC Implementation Issues & Best Practices
NAC Vendor Directory: Endpoint Compliance Enforcement
Top Web Resources: Network Access Control

What You Should Know About Network Access Control (NAC) Solutions

Network Access Control (NAC) is now one of the most talked about subjects in enterprise network security. Both established security vendors and a growing number of small companies are filling the media with promises, initiatives, architectures and first-generation products all designed to attract the attention and spending of early security technology adopters.

In this new area of Secure Access Central we examine the requirements, technologies, issues and best practices surrounding NAC. This content will be updated regularly and we welcome your contributions. In our initial coverage we address many of the fundamental questions we expect enterprises and users will raise about NAC solutions including:

When will NAC become widely adopted in the enterprise?
So why might you really want a NAC solution?
What does NAC specifically do for an organization?
What are the primary components of a NAC solution?
How can NAC be implemented - an architectural view?
What types of security compliance checks can be performed on endpoints?
How does NAC authenticate users?
What NAC client software is required?
How are non-compliant devices handled?
How do NAC different architectures actually work?

If you are planning on implementing even the most basic NAC solution, we encourage you to visit this area of Secure Access Central regularly.

NAC Implementation Issues & Best Practices

While NAC may EVENTUALLY be one of the most POWERFUL security solutions you ever deploy, prudence should govern every decision. Yes, it is important to create a big vision for NAC in your organization. But do not "set the bar" too high for your NAC implementations - in terms of complexity and rollout schedules. Start small. Keep it simple. Plan well. Define modest stages. Monitor Results. Adapt. Secure Access Central will collect, display and discuss key implementation issues in this new area of our portal. And we welcome your contributions.

NAC Vendor Directory - Endpoint Compliance Enforcement

Building a NAC solution that is flexible enough to meet your changing business requirements and tight IT budgets is a large and constant challenge. To be successful an enterprise needs to understand the potential impact hundreds of decisions can have on users, businesses processes and IT operations. And this in turn requires security professionals tonot only sustain a strong knowledge of technical subjects but also develop a finely tuned appreciation of implementation possibilities and tradeoffs. To help you, Secure Access Central will provide in-depth coverage of a broad set of topics - through our own original analysis and references to a select set of online resources we feel have strong educational value.

For example, an excellent understanding of vendor strategies and products is obviously essential. So we are taking a broad view of NAC and will deliver easy-to-use product directories for ALL the key components of both basic and complex NAC solutions and also provide detailed views of different architectures and specific products to illustrate why they might matter to your organization and how you can more effectively deploy them.

To start, we have created a NAC Vendor Directory - Endpoint Compliance Enforcement. Here we list the primary players who are most often associated with endpoint security compliance-checking and policy enforcement. In future directories we will cover other key NAC components including DHCP servers, remediation servers, and embedded NAC enforcers.

Top Web Resource Directory - Network Access Control

We have updated our Top Web Resources Directory - NAC which will lead you to online publications that provide an excellent foundation for understanding NAC business challenges, vendor strategies, and technology trends. We continue to search the Internet for "best-of-breed" publications and welcome your ideas for new entries. Please remember these should be non-promotional in nature and have strong educational value

You are receiving this message because you signed up for the Secure Access Central mailing list. We encourage you to share it with others you feel would benefit from Secure Access Central. You may unsubscribe at any time.