In the world of higher education IT security is a top priority. With tens of thousands of students and hundreds of faculty, a large university faces the same security challenges as the largest corporations.

It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone that the IT solutions chosen by colleges and universities are similar to those used by the most technically advanced corporations.  Network Access Control is a great example.

Consider the challenges represented by the mobility of traditional students, commuting students and online students. Monitoring and controlling access for a user group of such diversity would have been extremely expensive and difficult just a decade ago. But times have changed…

According to MarketWatch, New York Law School has recently adopted ForeScout’s CounterACT network access control to secure their university.  Reportedly “NYLS found CounterACT easy to administer and deploy, while its lightweight agent was trouble-free for its 1,500 students and 200 faculty members”.

The university IT staff found that they “gained full visibility and control of all devices on the network; the means to easily monitor, control, and inventory systems while allowing for flexible enforcement; and the ability to thwart zero-day threats”.

BYOD Integration
As for the new BYOD trend, the team will “soon institute an executive trial utilizing ForeScout MDM, a cloud-based, mobile device lifecycle management solution that complements ForeScout network access control capabilities”.  Forescout is the recognized leader in all things network access control related, taking the leadership position in Gartner’s 2012 Magic Quadrant for network access control.

Frost & Sullivan “has acclaimed the company as the largest independent NAC vendor and one that is growing the fastest in the market”.

Still, CounterACT can be more capital and resource intensive to deploy than some organizations are prepared to invest. That is where KNACMAN shines.

Konsultek can help!

KNACMAN, Konsultek’s managed service solution for NAC is built upon the same CounterACT platform that many highly secure organizations such as the EOUSA use and can be put into use for your organization as well.

Imagine all of the benefits of ForeScout’s CounterAct with the ease, convenience and financing flexibility of a managed service.  Please call us today to discuss how KNACMAN can ease the pain of securing your organization’s network.

In today’s world it seems that almost everywhere you turn someone is using a smartphone, an iPad or some other mobile device. You could blame Apple or the late Steve Jobs for the introduction of the not watered down internet to mobile devices, however one could argue that it was Blackberry that really primed the pump and got the whole mobile revolution going. Either way, it was Jobs that found a way to market Apple devices worldwide and set the stage for the smartphone and tablet ubiquity we are seeing today. And that of course is what is driving the BYOD movement corporate IT is struggling to control.

According to fiercemobileit,  “BYOD is spurring a resurgence in the network access control market”. This is coming from a study which predicts that “the NAC market will increase at a 22 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching over $1 billion by 2017”.  The big three that own 70% of this market are Forescout, Juniper Networks and Cisco, and with this technology they can use it to “determine if a user and/or device should be able to gain access to a corporate network.”  NAC brings together endpoint security technology, user authentication and network security enforcement”

Mike Tilkian, VP of Business Development at Konsultek notes; “At Konsultek we prefer Forescout’s CounterACT NAC solution.  It is a robust, easily scaled platform that is proven to work well in organizations who are implementing BYOD.  Our KNACMAN, NAC as a Managed Service offering bundles all of the CounterACT platform’s benefits into a rapidly deployable and cost effective turn-key solution.”

Huge Risks…

BYOD has proven to be a huge security risk for corporations over the last couple of years and with ever changing security trends continuing to grow it can be very difficult to keep up and maintain.

We Can Help!

BYOD is a top priority at Konsultek and we ensure you get the same level of security and control in your mobile device suite that you apply to laptops and desktops. This includes the ability to identify, tag, and assign policies to both employee- and business-owned smartphones and tablets.

Interested? Please give us a call today.

Security is definitely not the first thing that pops up in a person’s head when someone mentions the latest trends. Sure the headlines are grabbed by businesses trends, fashion trends and diet trends but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t trends in the world of network security!

This year at the RSA Conference  F5Networks conducted a trend survey of attendees directly involved in IT security.  They found that “organizations are struggling to keep pace with the changing face of security.”

The results of this survey show that organizations are just not prepared for cyber attacks and other malicious malware.  Reportedly, “security trends such as virtualization (73%), BYOD (66%), and the complexity of attack types (72%) have the greatest impact on securing today’s organizations”.  That is not all; the survey also reported that “nearly half of respondents admit that traditional safeguards are less than adequate in protecting against threats related to these trends” and amongst the trends respondents said that “the shift from data center focused infrastructure to cloud-based infrastructure” is the most insecure.

Head over to the F5 site to see the full survey results: RSA Security Trend Survey

While you’re over there you might want to check out F5s White Paper on BYOD 2.0.

Whether you are a fan or not, BYOD is here to stay, and it is transforming the way enterprise IT looks at mobility.  BYDOD can potentially provide your organization with a significant cost savings and productivity boost, but it is fraught with risk if not handled correctly.

BYOD – Not Always Easy

Here at Konsultek we find that by applying solutions from F5, ForeScout and MaaS360 we can provide BYOD solutions that meet even the most demanding situations.

If you are interested in beginning a dialogue on your BYOD situation, please give us a call.

ForeScout Technologies has been a leader in the NAC field for a while now and is now being recognized by Gartner  Inc, by putting them in the leader quadrant of their organization.

According to GlobeNewsWire, the “leaders are pure-play NAC vendors or networking and/or security companies that have been first to market with enhanced capabilities as the market matures” and Forescout has stayed on top on BYOD and mobility network issues for organizations. Gartner Inc says that “mobility and BYOD trends have increased demand, and the largest NAC suppliers have seen strong increases in growth” and because of that a market expectation of “63 percent in 2013, as businesses are spending on mobile device management (MDM) and NAC as the primary means for meeting demand of personally owned smartphones and tablets, while containing risks”. Leaders such as ForeScout, do understand the “the future direction of NAC, including the impact of BYOD”.  InformationWeek predicts that cloud based systems and mobile adoption will need more secure measures for the networks since “businesses than ever will look to cloud and mobile computing while also seeking security checks and balances to protect corporate data in 2013.” Since securing mobile devices on networks is a big issue for companies and organizations alike, InformationWeek also predicts that companies will start to use sandboxing apps to open emails that contain sensitive corporate data.

2013 is shaping up to be another challenging year for securing networks with challenges coming from all over, not just BYOD security and Cyber Attacks.  If you want to help your organization level the playing field Konsultek can help. By proactively challenging your network security and identifying and correcting vulnerabilities we can help prevent unwanted breaches and data loss.

Interested? Please contact us to begin a dialogue.

As the year winds down we can take a look at what we have learned and what to expect out of the New Year.

In terms of network and mobile security, BYOD was a very hot topic this year since most large companies were allowing their employees to bring in their mobile devices to the office.  Most IT managers had a problem with this because there were often too many mobile devices to handle. Some companies came up with solutions, such as using CounterACT by Forescout to secure a hospital or even winning an award from Homeland Security.

However Forbes predicts that companies will face many new challenges like cyberattacks on networks.  Current security software and practices are not always effective and after many years it failed to identify a cyberattacks from a program called The Flame.  As a recent Symantec study shows “18 undisclosed security vulnerabilities that were used to target computer networks were in the wild for up to 30 months before they were discovered”. Forbes also says that IT managers that use  cloud based software programs for their networks could also be at risk and “organizations lose control over who can access the computer systems that those workloads are running on” and they can “often lose visibility into what resources were accessed, when they were accessed and from where”.

At Konsultek we know that this can become a huge issue in organizations that let employees use their own mobile devices on their cloud network.

2013 is shaping up to be another challenging year for securing networks with challenges coming from all over, not just BYOD security and Cyber Attacks.  If you want to help your organization level the playing field Konsultek can help. By proactively challenging your network security and identifying and correcting vulnerabilities we can help prevent unwanted breaches and data loss.

Interested? Please contact us to begin a dialogue.

As talk of BYOD dies down in some organizations, a new movement is arising; HYOD or Here’s Your Own Device. This new movement comes from the recent BYOD policies that companies have started getting used to. However instead of IT managers working around the devices employees are bringing into their network, companies are now providing their own mobile devices instead.

The idea seems logical as most IT managers have security issues with unlocked phones in their network, but is it really practical? An article from NetworkWorld says going this route is not going to “stop the invasion of mobile devices onto our enterprise networks, we are instead saying it is OK to use mobile devices, but only the ones we give you”.  Not having employees pay for the device and having free IT support are a few of many pros to the HYOD movement.  Another added bonus is that since the device will be given by the company and secured by IT, the devices won’t be of any threat to the network.

Not a Comprehensive Solution

“We do know that big organizations like hospitals, have big complications when it comes to BYOD policies since without robust NAC and BYOD policies healthcare providers can’t guarantee the security of patient data when they don’t know and can’t control how Doctors and staff are accessing it, says Konsultek’s  VP of Business Development, Mike Tilkian.   While HYOD might address a portion of the data security puzzle, it is by no means a substitute for NAC or BYOD solutions.                  Adds Tilkian, “all it takes is 1 hospital employee sending  patient information through insecure channels on any of the myriad devices that fill a hospital setting and the argument for HYOD comes up short”.

Here at Konsultek,  we  are on top the latest trends, including BYOD and mobile device security. We can provide insight and solutions to the network security issues in your organization. Interested? Give us a call.

Ever since the release of the iPhone and iPad, many companies are embracing the bring your own device movement.  BYOD, is practical for most companies since the employees take these devices to and from work allowing them to easily and efficiently work from home, if necessary. This makes far easier to distribute information and because of the mobility, everything is right at the employee’s fingertips at all times.  This same distribution of information can be an absolute nightmare IT. Trying to secure all of the mobile devices on a corporate network can be extremely difficult and raises serious concerns.

SURVEY SAYS….

According to an EWeek survey they found that, “Most organizations that allow employees to bring their own devices are experiencing high rates of mobile threats, including lost or stolen devices, malware and compromised company data”. This can mean big headaches for  IT Departments as they are keeping track of multiple devices on the network and adding more mobile devices as the newer models hit the market.  This may be the reason why in the same study  “82 percent of respondents said they believe that mobile devices create a high security risk within the corporate environment. Results indicated that mobile security is a high priority for half the companies”. BYOD is a top priority at Konsultek and we ensure you get the same level of security and control in your mobile device suite that you apply to laptops and desktops. This includes the ability to identify, tag, and assign policies to both employee- and business-owned smartphones and tablets. Interested? Please give us a call today.

Hadassah Medical Center, one of the largest medical complexes in Israel, is one of many hospitals around the world that have adopted the recent BYOD movement.

Securing medical records within the hospital remains a top priority and “and a key driver in shaping technology policies”.  The IT department noticed that more and more doctors are using mobile devices on their network and had to come up with a plan to secure all of them.  Hadassah Medical teamed up with ForeScout to develop a plan and eventually settled on ForeScout’s CounterACT program “which gave the team visibility to see every endpoint connected to the network, to whom the device belonged and the activity each individual device was engaged in via a comprehensive tactical map”.  If CounterACT notices any suspicious activity on the network, it can shut that mobile device out. This is critical since mobile devices of all types are vulnerable to hacks and a recent study found that one out four apps on android devices is likely to lead to security issues.

KNACMAN, Konsultek’s managed service solution for NAC is built upon the same CounterACT platform that Hadassah Medical Center uses and can be rapidly deployed in medical centers, hospitals and other security sensitive locations.

Imagine all of the benefits of ForeScout’s CounterAct with the ease, convenience and financing flexibility of a managed service.  Please call us today to discuss how KNACMAN can ease the pain of securing BYOD in your organization.

Did you know that a study done by the Ponemon Institute said that 51 percent of organizations had significant data loss as a result of an employee failing to secure their mobile device? What does this mean for the new BYOD mantra that some companies are adopting to cut costs? It means that companies and employees alike should take caution as Blackberry, Apple and Microsoft have some experts saying that their software is not as secure as it used to be.

The software for Blackberrys used to be the best protected, because it had a “less functional platform” meaning it was more secure. According to an article by CNN Money, “As companies toss out their aging BlackBerrys, they’re bringing on devices that are inherently more risky”. Since the software is easier to hack; the mobile devices will become a backdoor for cyberthieves to get into corporate networks and eventually having sensitive information right at their fingertips. Although technology companies are creating potential fixes for this problem, it is creating “a whole set of new challenges”.

If you have adopted the BYOD mantra at your company, this does not mean you’re doomed.  It simply means that you need to implement appropriate strategies, procedures, and technologies.  These are not simple fixes, but they are essential to fully securing your corporate network.

Fortunately, we here at Konsultek have been staying at the forefront of BYOD security.  No matter what your particular situation or size of your organization we can craft a customized solution that builds upon proven technologies such as Forescout’s CounterAct, F5’s BigIP, Fiberlink’s MaaS360 and McAfee’s EMM.

So go ahead and let your employees BYOD, while Konsultek keeps everything safe and secure.