It is amazing how far we have come over the last ten years alone, when looking at technology. Wireless internet was not mainstream just 5 years ago and today it is everywhere. We now take mobile broadband with 4G speeds for granted. Unfortunately, for those on the seedier side of technology, all of these improvements in access and speed have opened up a treasure trove of new hacking and cyber-crime possibilities.

A New Strategic Defense Alliance

Fortunately, two of the biggest and most forward-looking network security companies recently joined forces to stop these attacks before they start.

According to a recent announcement from Forescout, Forescout and Fireeye, have teamed up to take down real time “persistent threats”.   FireEye’s most recent Advanced Threat Report documents  that ”on average, a malware event occurs at a single organization once every three minutes, and the number of infections per company has nearly quadrupled since last year”. In many cases the malware at the root of these intrusions is so “new or has morphed to such an extent that conventional signature-based protection is unavailable”. This makes these types of “zero day attacks” particularly difficult to defend against.  What is even worse is that “the host-based defenses that should be on every system connecting to a corporate network are in many cases outdated, corrupt or non-existent” so by the time their system catches on, the damage has already been done.

What Kind of Technology You Ask?

FireEye plans to use their proven “APIs and standards-based Threat Intelligence Metadata to address the network visibility, endpoint validation and enforcement options needed by today’s organizations to automate key cyber security workflows”. While ForeScout will use their counterACT technology, which uses “real-time security platform that delivers complete visibility and automated control for all devices, users, systems and applications attempting to connect to an enterprise network – wired or wireless, managed or unmanaged, PC or mobile”.

We Can Help!

For more than 2 years we have been combining the synergistic capabilities of ForeScout and FireEye for clients with some of the most demanding security requirements.

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 service 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.  Now add the heightened level  of security that FireEye provides and you have the building blocks of a very secure network.

Please call us today to discuss how KNACMAN can ease the pain of securing your organization’s network.

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.

It is true. The Executive Office of US Attorneys, which is a part of the US Department of Justice, uses Forescout’s CounterAct product to protect its network access control system (NAC).

According to ProSecurityZone,  in addition to protecting NAC, EOUSA will also implement  “endpoint compliance policies” which will affect every US Attorney’s office nationwide.  The reason why EOUSA chose CounterACT is “to advance network access policies across multiple sites, achieve greater endpoint visibility and control without requiring agents and reduce total cost of ownership”.

Mike Tilkian, Vice President of Konsultek, has this to say; “ForeScout CounterACT is the top NAC solution that we recommend to governmental, healthcare and educational organizations looking to rapidly and cost-effectively deploy network access control across a broad user base with continually changing endpoint security needs.”

This CounterAct deployment by the EOUSA is a big step in the right direction for our government being that mobile device security continues to be a huge issue with most organizations around the country and the world. Securing data on a mobile device in a large network is even more critical today since over 90 percent of finders of lost phones have accessed sensitive data. What is even scarier is that “8 out of 10 finders tried to access corporate information”.  The bottom line is that if you are not enforcing any mobile device policies on your network, you could be inviting trouble.

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.

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.

Konsultek’s Mastery of ForeScout CounterACT Critical to Success

Recently we had the opportunity to work with a school district in North Logan, Utah. The Cache County School District was looking for a solution that was easy to implement and Konsultek’s expertise was critical to making that a reality.

Challenge:

• Cache County School District is located in North Logan Utah. The district has over 1,000 teachers and serves approximately 16,000 students in grades K-12. The network provides wired and wireless access for a variety of devices, including classroom computers, laptops, smart phones and tablets.
• Prevent unauthorized network access, which could jeopardize CIPA compliance.
• Reduce the risk of virus attacks coming from student, faculty, or guest computers.
• Find an easy-to-manage, easy-to-install network access control solution.

Solution:—

• The Cache County School District evaluated several different NAC products, including products from Cisco, McAfee, Bradford Networks, Enterasys and several open-source solutions. They selected ForeScout CounterACT because it was the easiest to implement. Specifically, ForeScout CounterACT did not require agents, it installed out-of-band, and it integrated with Cache County’s existing infrastructure without disrupting the network. Other positive considerations were the facts that ForeScout CounterACT was vendor-independent and easy to use and manage.

Read more here

View the Complete Cache County School District Case Study

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