NAC is critical for your business in monitoring your devices and users — both authorized and unauthorized — that might be trying to access the network. Having network access control will help you block out cybercriminals, hackers and data thieves.
If that’s not enough to convince you, here are some other reasons why NAC is important:
It secures user devices: Implementing a NAC solution will strengthen network security by denying network access to non-compliant user devices. With a lot of companies promoting remote work, it is more likely that employees will be logging in using unknown devices. NAC will ensure all their devices can connect securely, without compromising your network. In addition, the remediation and quarantine systems of a NAC provide a stable line of defense to keep non-compliant devices that can compromise your systems off of the network, offering extra protection.
Visibility: Cyber attackers focus on user devices and endpoints as vulnerable entry points. WIth a NAC solution in place, you will be able to have a detailed view of all devices connected to your networks, and you will also be able to see the security posture of each device. Having this extra visibility gives you the upper hand in managing potential network security risks, since it provides actionable insights.
Automated policy enforcement: A NAC solution is designed to automatically execute NAC policies, since they are built into your network infrastructure. The solution’s automation also reduces administrative overhead.
Access controls: A NAC is a good way to embed access control and endpoint security policies into your network infrastructure, which gives you an additional level of protection.
Drastically improve network performance: Another reason why NAC is important is because it can improve the performance of your network. It is not uncommon for companies that don’t have a NAC solution to add multiple SSIDs. While adding SSIDs may be a workaround, and can get the job done on a very basic level, having a NAC offers much more granularity. Using an SSID also takes up bandwidth, and every time you give out a different password for a different end-user on your network, you damage the performance. By implementing a NAC solution, you gain back bandwidth used by SSIDs.
Safeguard your data and other sensitive information: Having a NAC solution can prevent unauthorized access to company-sensitive data by employees. In this way, an employee that needs to access the corporate intranet won’t get access to sensitive customer data unless their role warrants it and they have been approved for that access.
Save money and time: Typically, most organizations try to tackle network security in pieces, by using a firewall and/or an antivirus solution in addition. However, the use of completely separate systems for managing access permissions can create mass disorganization and a lot of administration overhead. Implementing a NAC solution can benefit your company, saving you the money you would be spending on multiple solutions that can be accomplished by just using one, and it will save you time as well.
In the phase of Covid19, when most of your workforce works from home or any location, NAC assures those end-users devices are up to data an don’t cause any vulnerability to your corporate network. Several vendors offer NAC solution, and we can help you to implement that solution if you don’t have it already in place.
Network Admission Control – internal protection from outdated hosts
NAC is a fantastic tool that makes sure all devices connecting to your network infrastructure are up to date. Imagine a scenario an employee goes on holiday, two weeks later, the same user goes back to work and connects their laptop into the network. Antivirus, OS updates, and Application updates will be out of date. NAC will make sure all updates are done before the user can take full advantage of the network. Up to date devices is less likely to be a victim of cyber-attack.
Network Admission Control (NAC) solutions allow you to authenticate wired, wireless, and VPN users and devices to the network; evaluate and remediate a device for policy compliance before permitting access to the system; differentiate access based on roles, and then audit and report on who is on the network.
Product Overview
The Cisco NAC Solution is a robust, easy-to-deploy admission control and compliance enforcement component of the Cisco TrustSec ® solution. With comprehensive security features, in-band or out-of-band deployment options, user authentication tools, and bandwidth and traffic filtering controls, the Cisco NAC Solution is a full offering for controlling and securing networks. You can implement security, access, and compliance policies through a central management point rather than configure policies throughout the network on individual devices.
Features and Benefits
The Cisco NAC Solution is an integral component of the Cisco TrustSec. The Cisco NAC Solution:
- Prevents unauthorised network access to protect your information assets
- Helps proactively mitigate network threats such as viruses, worms, and spyware
- Addresses vulnerabilities on user machines through periodic evaluation and remediation
- Brings you significant cost savings by automatically tracking, repairing, and updating client machines
- Recognises and categorises users and their devices before malicious code can cause damage
- Evaluates security policy compliance based on user type, device type, and operating system
- Enforces security policies by blocking, isolating, and repairing noncompliant machines in a quarantine area without needing administrator attention
- Applies posture assessment and remediation services to a variety of devices, operating systems, and device access methods including LAN, WLAN, WAN, and VPN
- Enforces policies for all operating scenarios without requiring separate products or additional modules
- Supports seamless single sign-on through an agent with automated remediation
- Provides clientless web authentication for guest users
Authentication Integration with Single Sign-On
Cisco NAC works with existing authentication sources, natively integrating with Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), RADIUS, Kerberos, S/Ident, and others. For the convenience of end-users, Cisco NAC supports single sign-on for VPN clients, wireless clients, and Windows Active Directory domains. Administrators can maintain multiple user profiles with different permission levels through the use of role-based access control.
Device Quarantine
Cisco NAC places noncompliant machines into quarantine, preventing the spread of infection while giving the devices access to remediation resources. Through DHCP, inline traffic filters, or a quarantine VLAN, quarantine is achieved.
Automatic Security Policy Updates
Automatic updates in Cisco’s standard software maintenance package provide predefined policies for common network access criteria. These include policies that check for critical operating system updates, virus definition updates for antivirus software, and anti-spyware definition updates. Application eases the management cost for network administrators, who can rely on Cisco NAC for updated continuously.
Centralised Management
The Cisco NAC web-based management console allows you to define a policy for the entire network, as well as the related remediation packages necessary for recovery. The management console manages the Cisco NAC Servers and network switches from a central interface.
Remediation and Repair
Quarantining allows remediation servers to provide operating system patches and updates, virus definition files, or endpoint security solutions to compromised or vulnerable devices. You enable automated remediation through the optional agent or specify your remediation instructions. And Cisco NAC delivers user-friendly features, such as monitoring mode and silent remediation, to minimise user impact.
Flexible Deployment Modes
Cisco NAC offers the right deployment model to fit your network. The Cisco NAC Solution can be deployed in an in-band or out-of-band configuration. It can be deployed as a Layer 2 bridge and as a Layer 3 router. You can deploy it adjacent to the client on the same subnet or multiple router hops away.
Please read the full article at //www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/nac-appliance-clean-access/product_data_sheet0900aecd802da1b5.html
Threat-Centric Network Access Control (NAC) with ISE 2.1
Video provided by Cisco Systems – introduces the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
You may also be interested in our similar posts:
How to protect your entire network from Cyber-Attacks?
Benefits Of Next-Generation Firewalls For Organisations
False Positive, False Negative, True Positive and True Negative