Juniper's NAC upgrade takes action against machines behaving badly

Security: Network Access Control This newsletter is sponsored by Symantec Stay ahead of stealth security threats Reduce the propagation of malicious code, lower your risk profile, provide greater network availability and much more with Symantec Network Access Control. Network World's Security: Network Access Control Newsletter, 10/09/07 Juniper's NAC upgrade takes action against machines behaving badly By Tim Greene Juniper is upgrading its NAC software so it can share data with its Intrusion Detection and Prevention platform, giving it a type of post-admission NAC capability. As the IDP gear gathers data about anomalous traffic behavior that may be malicious, it can share it with the Juniper Infranet Controller, the policy server for the company’s version of NAC, which is known as unified access control (UAC). The Infranet Controller can then apply policies to take action against machines that are behaving badly. So if IDP picked up on a certain machine blasting out thousands of e-mails, for instance, that information would be shared with the Infranet Controller, which could quarantine the machine, end its session or simply log the event. Webcast: Get the latest on NAC Learn the latest on Network Access Control in Network World's Perspectives Editorial Webcast. Discover how IT professionals can leverage this hot security technology in their networks, while also learning about key management areas that have not yet been perfected. To learn more click here. Operating alone, IDP drops malicious packets but doesn’t deal with their source. This is a good addition to Juniper’s NAC offering, but it still restricts customers to using Juniper’s IDP. So far, UAC does not support IDP gear made by other vendors. In its new software release, Juniper has chosen to support Microsoft Vista, at least in part. The upgraded software makes it possible to install the UAC client on a Vista machine in order to perform a pre-admission health check. However it does not support using the NAC support that comes standard with Vista. So customers of UAC must employ a UAC client or downloadable agent. Juniper plans to support Vista as a UAC client next year. The software release supports automatic remediation of some shortcomings UAC finds in Windows machines, such as starting up applications that must be running, or installing files or turning on processes that the policy calls for. The new version of UAC software is available later this month.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering network access control, virtual private networking gear, remote access, WAN acceleration and aspects of VoIP technology. You can reach him at tgreene@nww.com. This newsletter is sponsored by Symantec Stay ahead of stealth security threats Reduce the propagation of malicious code, lower your risk profile, provide greater network availability and much more with Symantec Network Access Control. ARCHIVE Archive of the Security: Network Access Control Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007