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September 30, 2004
Analyst Insight: Intelliden Security Management For The Enterprise
by Richard Ptak
Ptak, Noel & Associates
Network and network device security are of increasing interest to enterprise executives driven by economic, political and technological reasons. These days, network vulnerabilities may result by accident (human error), from direct attack (deliberate sabotage) or from coordinated assault (DNS, worms, viruses, etc.).
Securing tighter control of infrastructure configurations has become mandatory just as IT's operational environment explodes in size and complexity. Traditional enterprise authentication, authorization and accounting activities now must be complemented with automated and accurate device management.
Automated, Policy-Based Response
Network operations often seem to consist of a never-ending loop: monitor, analyze, plan, execute. Automated network operations embed intelligence and policies using software to perform as much of that loop as possible. Security is no different. Take the case of a worm invading the network. A management solution monitors devices and traffic information, analyzing data for telltale signs of a worm.
Once identified, the solution checks policies to determine the response. This can be as simple as an administrative alert or as complex as quarantining the affected part of the network to protect the overall enterprise's network integrity.
Alerting administrators and monitoring anomalies in network configurations is nothing new. However, manually planned and executed corrective action can take days and expose the network to high-risk vulnerabilities. The answer is automation of all enterprise network corrective action plans.
Network automation can accelerate a network's response to these security issues, speeding repair and decreasing vulnerability. Of course, more complex, automated responses have two requirements:
The solution must have direct control over network device configurations Administrators need simple ways to define the what, how and when of response policies
Intelliden Delivers Automated Control to Augment Network Security
This is where Intelliden's policy-based security comes into play. The Intelliden R-Series® software allows administrators to create and store automated, intelligent, policy-based responses to specific security threats that are executed as needed in real time. Therefore, administrators can automate defensive configuration actions to quarantine portions of the network in response to an identified worm attack.
In addition, Intelliden provides a host of other management control mechanisms, such as automated configuration change tracking; role-based change control; change review and approval processes; and change verification schemes. All of these increase the administrator's control over what gets changed by whom and when.
The Intelliden R-Series software improves network security in five important ways:
1. Direct integration with popular network management solutions (HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, Micromuse, SMARTS) to support automated detection and response to network attacks.
2. Direct integration with security solutions such as Radius/TACAS authentication servers.
3. Automated restoration of network elements to approved states, as well as automatically generated detailed conformance and compliance reports.
4. Standards-based architecture dramatically reduces implementation errors and improves security. Network users do not log directly onto network devices to make changes; instead, changes are made within and through the Intelliden software, allowing review and verification as well as consistent, error-free implementation.
5. Granular network control (from realms down to the device and sub-device level) via the Intelliden Security Management solution. Intelliden's Security Sets limit network users to viewing and changing only those commands they are authorized to access.
The final security equation is fairly simple:
Provide control of network device configurations. This results in the lowering of your generalized security vulnerabilities.
Provide automated control over network device configuration. This results in prompt threat response and security remediation.
Real-time, complex network management requires timely and reliable configuration control. This control can only be realized through automated, policy-based responses to security situations. The good news is that the promise of automated network security and network control for the enterprise is exactly what the Intelliden R-Series solution provides.
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