Microsoft, Cisco partner on network-access security
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Microsoft and Cisco Systems will collaborate to make their emerging products for network security compatible. The vendors had been working independently in the area of PC access to networks but say customers
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(InfoWorld) - Intel's move to provide new integration with NAC (network access control) tools in its latest vPro desktop processors could provide interesting opportunities for use with the device authentication systems while further strengthening the technology standards it supports, according to industry watchers. One of a handful of new security features built into the vPro Core 2 Duo chips introduced by Intel on Monday, the added support for the 802.1x standard for NAC and interoperability with Cisco's Network Admission Control guideline -- delivered via the processors' Intel Embedded Trust Agent -- could help accelerate adoption of the device authentication systems while solidifying support for the two formats, experts said. NAC systems are used to scan device and user authentication information whenever a machine attempts to log onto to a network protected by the tools. In addition to protecting against potential break-ins from uninvited outsiders, the tools are also considered a useful alternative for enterprises to employ in segregating access to IT systems shared with partners or contractors. Using the Embedded Trust Agent, Intel said that it can now provide NAC systems -- including any built on the 802.1x or Cisco NAC platforms -- to garner device identity information directly from processor, bypassing the need for the authentication technologies to interact with PC operating system software. One of the potential methods to circumvent NAC systems outlined by security researchers thus far has been to use some method to spoof or misrepresent device information to dupe the network defense tools. By presenting machine identity data on the processor, such attacks could be largely eliminated, Intel officials said. While Intel did not promote direct linkage between Embedded Trust Agent and Microsoft's flavor of NAC -- known as Network Access Protection and already integrated into the software giant's Vista OS -- Cisco and Microsoft have previously announced an agreement to make all of their respective network authentication systems compatible. Similar support for NAC on mobile platforms will arrive with Intel's next batch of Centrino chips, slated for shipment sometime in 2008, said company officials. Cisco officials participating in Intel's vPro launch said that the CPU-level NAC integration could prove to be a significant accelerant to adoption of the technology, which most industry experts have charted as relatively slow thus far, despite the networking giant's claim that many of its customers are tuning on the next-generation authentication systems. "The strength of NAC is certainly based on the reliability of the information that you can present to the network, and having direct access to information on the hardware provides a whole new opportunity that hasn't been present only with OS interaction," said Brendan O'Connell, senior product manager for Cisco's Security Technology Group. "In the past, even with existing NAC systems, what's happened is that when a PC starts up on the network, the security decision is held off while other things are being run in the background, but we're hoping to see that change and get in the door earlier," he said. "There are some big advantages for getting this type of information to present device security posture assessment sooner in the process, both for desktops and down the road for other types of devices." Chip technology providers have attempted to market similar CPU-based security tools -- most notably Phoenix Technologies -- but those efforts have gone largely ignored by customers with Phoenix recently scrapping its core software security products based on insufficient demand. Other third-party NAC technology providers said that Intel's move to embrace NAC should help drive new interest in the systems and codify the industry around the standards it has chosen to support. "On a functional level, this should prove useful by speeding up testing. Instead of waiting for a machine to boot up to get a posture assessment, the NAC system will already recognize the machine's attributes and begin assigning privileges," said Alan Shimel, chief strategy officer for StillSecure, a maker of NAC software. Shimel pointed out that while a nice addition, most NAC systems will still need some form of user identification data, typically provided via software that runs on a device OS, to offer full authentication capabilities. "It will be interesting to see if AMD adopts a similar approach and the same standards; that could have a good effect on the industry as a whole," he said. "It's good to see that Intel is supporting 802.1x because that's the standard most other NAC vendors are working with." While CPU-level integration is a nice addition, some industry watchers maintain it will still be some time before NAC is deployed widely by large numbers of enterprise customers. Because NAC doesn't directly address external threats or efforts to comply with government regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry data security guideline, most companies aren't yet budgeting for NAC tools, said Paul Stamp, analyst with Forrester Research. "The problem with NAC is that in itself it satisfies no compliance mandate directly, and it doesn't protect against any specific type of attack. The real driver for NAC will be when businesses begin to demand so much mobility and collaboration that current security technologies can't meet those goals," Stamp said. "People are struggling to find a driver for NAC right now, and this type of platform-level interaction could be important when they do, but it could be another five years before we see real demand."
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But don't just blame Vista New technology such as Windows Vista and IP v6 may solve some security problems but will bring new security threats as well, according to a senior Cisco security expert.â¦
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OCTOBER 14, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - IBM and Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled product updates that will tie technology from the two companies more closely together in an effort to secure customer networks from worms and viruses.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. and Cisco Systems Inc. are teaming to provide large customers with combined network maintenance and support services around the globe.
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Cisco Systems Inc. is set to offer starting Monday a tool to help small and medium-sized businesses use Microsoft Corp. CRM (customer relationship management) software in combination with a Cisco IP (Internet Protocol) communication system.
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eWeek: Security partnerships and technology advances are making it increasingly safer to keep corporate data up in the air. To better fight the threat of wireless network subterfuge, Cisco Systems Inc.
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IBM and Cisco are releasing a jointly developed telecommunications network management and service assurance product.
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BOSTON - Networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. warned customers about security holes in two products that provide user authentication and authorization services for network devices such as firewalls and routers.
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Cisco Systems this week said it had co-developed with Microsoft an application that helps small and medium-sized businesses connect Microsoft&#39;s customer relation management
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IBM and Cisco Systems unveiled product updates that will link technology from the two companies more closely together to protect customer networks from security threats.
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(InfoWorld) - Cisco SystemsÂ hasÂ expandedÂ aÂ range of security mechanisms for wired LANsÂ to theÂ wireless side of enterprise networks. The dominant LAN vendorÂ announceedÂ on Wednesday itÂ had upgraded its software and launched a set of guidelines for integrating wired and wireless security, called the Cisco Secure Wireless Solution. The new capabilities are available to any customer with current Cisco software, said Chris Kozup, manager of mobility solutions at Cisco. Customers can use the guidelines themselves to build a security architecture or enlist the help of Cisco's services organization or third parties. Enterprises are already able to bring wireless devices into Cisco's security system, which is built around ensuring any client is authorized and free of threats before it can hook up to the network. But bringing the same set of tools into the wireless domain can make that process easier, Kozup said. For example, if an enterprise wanted to secure wireless clients using Cisco's Network Access Control (NAC) appliance, the end user connecting via wireless would have to manually log into the NAC. Now that process can be transparent to the user, just as it is on the wired network, he said. In addition to the NAC, the architecture includes Cisco's ASA firewall, Cisco Security Agent (CSA), Cisco IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) software, Cisco Secure ACS (Access Control Server) and Cisco Secure Services Client. These long-time features of Cisco's wired security are being extended to wireless LANs as the company's latest step toward unifying wired and wireless into one network, Kozup said. The system makes the wired and wireless networks work together to bolster security. For example, if a notebook PC is connected to the LAN via a wired port, its wireless radio will be turned off automatically to prevent an attacker from using the wireless connection as a path on to the wired LAN. In addition, a Cisco wireless LAN controller, the mechanism in an appliance, router or switch that controls wireless infrastructure, can disconnect a wireless LAN client that poses a threat. The security built into all Wi-Fi products has improved in recent years and many vendors sell tools to secure wireless LANs, such as Aruba Wireless Networks Inc.'s technology that uses encrypted tunnels. Cisco's new approach may not be significantly more secure than those options, but it can simplify life for IT administrators, said Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias. For one thing, it's easier if security for both parts of the network uses a single directory of users, he said. Other approaches that are less expensive and more scalable can work just as well, according to Burton Group analyst Dave Passmore. "This is Cisco assuming the network perimeter needs to be protected right at the every edge, rather than a more centralized approach," Passmore said. There are no significant threats to an enterprise LAN that can't be handled from within the wired part of the network, he said.
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Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. on Monday will announce a collaborative effort designed to bridge a divide between their emerging network access-control architectures.
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Microsoft and Cisco will announce a partnership today to make the security features of their respective range of products compatible.
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(InfoWorld) - Building a bridge is rarely a quiet affair. Just ask John Augustus Roebling and his son, Washington, whose Brooklyn Bridge took 13 years to complete and cost 27 people their lives. Nevertheless, for the past two years, IT titans Cisco and Microsoft have been engaged in a monumental and more-or-less silent bridge-building effort, as teams of engineers at both companies have worked to join two very different technologies that do the same thing: screen computers for security threats before allowing them to access a corporate network. Last Wednesday, the time had finally come to pull the covers off that integration, which one Cisco executive acknowledged took longer than expected. At The Security Standard conference in Boston, the two companies demonstrated interactions between Vista systems using Microsoftâs NAP (Network Access Protection) and network hardware using Ciscoâs NAC (Network Admission Control) architecture. They also released a white paper describing how the two network access control systems can interoperate and presented a road map for delivering interoperable NAC and NAP products to market. Still, serious questions remain about when interoperable NAC and NAP systems will be available and whether the solution will fit the needs of most enterprise networks. The announcement capped off a two-year integration effort that has been shrouded in mystery. Since saying in October 2004 that they would integrate NAC and NAP, the companies have been sparing with details, prompting speculation that the integration was more PR than reality. Bob Gleichauf, CTO of Ciscoâs security technology group, acknowledged that NAC-NAP integration took longer than the companies planned. However, the official silence about the integration project had more to do with the effort of harnessing resources at two notoriously bottom-line-focused companies than with the technical hurdles of integrating NAC and NAP, he said. Customers who use both Cisco and Microsoft products, and upgrade to both Vista on the desktop and Longhorn Server, will be able to use NAP, NAC, or an integrated NAP-NAC solution for client health screening, Microsoft said. Vistaâs NAP System Health Agent will send system health status reports to Microsoft NPS (Network Policy Server) running on Longhorn. A Cisco Secure ACS (Access Control Server) will instruct the NAP agent on the client system about how to access the network after the health check is complete, according to Gleichauf and Mark Ashida of Microsoft. However, Cisco and Microsoft face tough questioning about how their system will support third-party operating systems, network gear, and point security products. Ashida said Microsoft was focusing on NAC NAP for now but fully intends to support other 802.1x-compliant NAC infrastructure vendors. The benefits of integrated NAC and NAP are at least a year away for enterprises, with Longhorn server months away from availability and widespread adoption of Vista on enterprise desktops also well off in the future, said John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner. Jon Oltsik, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, said the Cisco-Microsoft partnership was creating uncertainty in an area that cries out for open standards and multivendor support. âTheyâre treating the symptom but not the disease,â Oltsik said. âUsers want open solutions that support Linux clients and wireless and any kind of switch or router.â The integration between Microsoft and Cisco, while good for those companies, will hinder open standards efforts such as the Trusted Computing Groupâs Trusted Network Connect standard, Oltsik said. âThis is a 1990s solution. Itâs a big step back for client security.â
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Tech giants Microsoft and Cisco have agreed to develop and promote interoperability between their respective network access technologies.
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(InfoWorld) - Over the next few months, Cisco plans to enhance a range of its security products, offering customers an integrated and improved line of products. The company plans a major new release to the software that runs its Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) product. Also in the works are updates to the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), Cisco Security Agent (CSA), Cisco Security Manager (CSM), and Mitigation Analysis and Response System (MARS). The upcoming Version 8.0 of the ASA software will include about 120 enhancements, but perhaps most significantly, its AnyConnect VPN client will now work on a much broader range of platforms, including Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Edition. "We're extending this out of the traditional realm of just laptops," said Bob Berlin, a Cisco senior product marketing manager. Cisco is also improving the information-sharing capabilities between its IPS 6.0 and CSA 5.2 software to make the products better able to identify and block emerging threats. Another new feature will allow CSA to assign quality-of-service tagging to network traffic so performance can be boosted on applications such as VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol). Using engineering talent it acquired in its 2004Â purchase of Riverhead Networks, Cisco has also developed new algorithms that allow the IPS software to better analyze potentially malicious activity on the network. The ISA software will also be better integrated and easier to manage with the upcoming version 3.1 of CSM. After years of acquisitions, Cisco is just now starting to hook its security products together, said Robert Whiteley, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. This is critical if Cisco wants to maintain its new position as a player in the security space, he said. "Whether people acknowledge it or not, Cisco is one of the largest security vendors," Whiteley said. "But they haven't had quite as much of an integrated story as you'd see from a [security ] specialist." Cisco has had a lot of integrating to do. The company has made about 10 security-related acquisitions in the past three years. The company now posts more than $2 billion in annual security product sales and employs more than 1,400 security engineers, according to Richard Palmer, senior vice president of Cisco's Security Technology Group. Cisco may be starting to integrate its existing security products now, but it would also like to extend its offerings to address new areas such as data leakage, a hot new area in the security field. "That's certainly an area where we're going to be investing, " Palmer said.