ForeScout combines Clientless Network Access Control and Intrusion Prevention in new CounterACT 5.0 product

ForeScout combines Clientless Network Access Control and Intrusion Prevention in new CounterACT 5.0 product

Totally innovative technology delivers protection and improved security automation

ForeScout Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of network-based Intelligent Intrusion Preventionâ„? security solutions, today announced the release of CounterACT 5.0, a major new version of its security appliance for suppressing malware and espionage anywhere inside an enterprise network. In addition to its intrusion prevention capabilities, CounterACT 5.0 now offers Active Network Integrityâ„? (ANI), a clientless access control module that allows administrators to create and enforce granular network access policies that provide an extra layer of security and regulatory compliance for enterprise networks.

CounterAct is the industry’s most trusted solution for the real time protection of self-propagating worms. Its patented ActiveResponseâ„? technology module employs a unique methodology that detects and protects networks from the ever growing threat of self-propagating malware, hacker, and internal espionage and protects against them. This is accomplished without human interaction or any form of signature/pattern file update.

The new capabilities of the clientless security appliances are Policy Enforcement, Next Generation Intrusion Prevention and Vulnerability Protection for accurate recognition of “Zero Day” threats with totally new levels of automatic blocking. By combining real-time Prevention of “Zero Day” threats with the new Network Access Control functions CounterAct offers an additional layer of protection from self-propagating threats unknowingly carried by legitimate end users. With both Active and Passive Threat Mitigation as well as Connection Blocking the new CounterAct 5.0 offers security upgrades that make enterprise networks far safer.

This is accomplished without human interaction or any form of signature/pattern file update. Combining real-time prevention of “zero-day” threats with Network Access Control provides an additional layer of protection against self propagating threats unknowingly carried by legitimate end users

With version 5.0, CounterACT reaches a new level of automation and security by being the first product to combine network intrusion prevention with clientless network access control. The appliance improves network security through the following new tools:

– Active Network Integrity
A powerful engine that lets administrators create and enforce granular security policies governing network access without the need for software agents or any prior knowledge of the endpoint. Once network access rules are defined, the engine immediately propagates policy across the network automatically, blocking or quarantining endpoints that do not meet the security policy criteria.

– Network Information Portal
Gives help desks and security/network/IT personnel a state-of-the-art search engine for leveraging network information correlated by CounterACT and CounterACT plugins. In addition to streamlining security event management, the portal satisfies regulatory compliance requirements including event/employee correlation of security events and network security incident reporting.

“CounterACT 5.0’s new capabilities add a significant security layer that improves enterprise network protection and ensures business continuity,” said Rainer M. Richter, Managing Director and VP EMEA of ForeScout Technologies. “By setting and enforcing policy to the furthest reaches of a network, administrators can create a consistent, well-defined infrastructure that guarantees business continuity and protects from unknown endpoints. Because the new Active Network Integrity policy engine is clientless, there is no need to install software on network clients or affect end user behavior.”

CounterACT 5.0’s new network control components come with a variety of plug-ins that support seamless integration with network infrastructure devices. This enables administrators to leverage existing network elements such as routers and switches, by enabling them to dynamically block threats. The appliance deploys easily within any existing infrastructure and with no disruption of network operations; its minimal administrator requirements ensure low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

Improved Active Assessment
Active Assessment, the vulnerability scanning and prevention module of CounterACT 5.0, has been improved with scheduled as well as real-time vulnerability scanning. In addition to running scans in the background, administrators can now institute a network policy rule that immediately responds to vulnerable machines detected during the scan.

Active Assessment also provides automatic protection of vulnerable hosts, as well as contains the vulnerabilities at the switch or router to prevent the threat from penetrating protected network segments. Security policies protect the network from non-compliant hosts by using CounterACT’s connection blocking, and enforce remediation of the discovered weakness.

New Console Control Center
CounterACT 5.0 features an upgraded Control Center user interface to provide a unified, intuitive display of all three CounterACT modules: Active Response, Active Assessment, and Active Network Integrity. A network policy view provides information about hosts that have violated policies, while the vulnerability assessment view provides detailed information about vulnerable hosts. Administrators also have single-click control over active sources, vulnerable hosts, and hosts that have violated policy rules.

Availability
CounterACT 5.0 is currently available and is installed at several beta locations. The CounterACT100E – Blade, CounterACT 1000E and CounterACT100E support MultiGigabit , 100MB and Gigabit Ethernet respectively. For further information see: – www.forescout.com.

About ForeScout Technologies, Inc.
ForeScout’s network security platform combines network policy enforcement and access control, Intelligent Intrusion Preventionâ„?, and vulnerability assessment in an enterprise-class security appliance. ForeScout offers real-time automated protection against self-propagating malware and malicious hacker attacks for a defense-in-depth strategy that ensures network availability and business continuity. ForeScout’s customers include a wide range of Fortune 1000 corporations and government agencies. ForeScout’s headquarters are located in Cupertino, California. More information can be found at www.forescout.com.