Fannie Mae Plot Highlights Increased Need for Network Access Control
Forescout CounterACT Uniquely Suited to Protect the Corporate Network Inside and Out
Cupertino, Calif. – February 9, 2009 – Forescout Technologies, a market leader in network access control (NAC) and policy management solutions for large enterprises, today announced that CounterACT is helping corporate enterprises protect against the kinds of attacks they hope to never face: those originating from within. With unemployment and layoffs reaching record highs this month and the recent news of ex-employee sabotage from Fannie Mae, companies are reporting plans to further protect critical infrastructure from within the firewall.
According to Diana Kelley, PCI analyst and SecurityCurve founder: “The need to protect critical information from within has always been important and is likely to increase with job churn in the financial sector. A significant amount of theft and sabotage occurs from those with access inside the firewall. We strongly recommend that companies make strategic efforts to manage critical assets and systems against insider attacks such as the one reported by Fannie Mae."
“CounterACT’s early-warning threat detection and prevention gives us the peace of mind that our network is secure against external and insider attacks at all times," said a Fortune Banking 50 CIO, in a confidential interview. “We maintain a high security posture: using CounterACT’s policy writing and enforcement engine to simplify the writing and rollout process, we are able to ‘triple the guard’ on our sensitive network segments in just minutes!"
Much of CounterACT’s success has to do with its ability to see every IP device connected to the network, control all connections down to the switch port, and provide complex policies to enable and enforce security processes and standards. Access control is performed without the need to first deploy 802.1x, and enforcements can include actions such as post-connection monitoring for threat prevention, and detection/blocking of banned devices (such as USBs).
In addition, Forescout CounterACT’s unique ActiveResponse technology is specifically designed to stop threats from within, well before the network is compromised. By focusing on proven attacker intent, CounterACT can block attackers before they gain access to the network without the need for signatures, deep-packet inspection or manual intervention.
“As we saw with the attack at Fannie Mae, corporations must be prepared to defend their network against external cyber attacks and insider theft or sabotage," said Gord Boyce, President of Forescout. “Forescout CounterACT is able to control access and protect the corporate network … both inside and out. CounterACT’s USB blocking and VPN security policies provide an additional layer of control to ensure only the right people, with the right devices, gain access to the right network resources at all times."
About Forescout Technologies, Inc.
Forescout is the leading provider of access control and compliance solutions. With top-tier customers from every vertical, Forescout has perfected the art of providing strong access control without disrupting network operations or needlessly punishing end users. Forescout’s flagship product, CounterACT, protects over 500 of the world’s most secure enterprises and military installations with global deployments spanning 37 countries. The CounterACT family of products provides a path to complete security policy enforcement and is fast and easy for administrators to deploy, manage and maintain. For more about the company and its products, visit www.forescout.com.