* Cisco plans to integrate reputation technology gained from its purchase of IronPort
Cisco recently announced that it would integrate reputation technology, gained from its purchase of Ironport, into the Cisco Self Defending Network architecture.
Cisco recently announced that it would integrate reputation technology, gained from its purchase of IronPort, into the Cisco Self Defending Network architecture.
A Cisco spokesman said that reputation – whether a particular user or device is known for spreading spam or launching attacks – will also become part of Cisco’s NAC offering.
The way that would work is the NAC policy server would check on the device’s reputation as part of its deliberations about granting network access. If the device comes back with a bad reputation, that could be grounds for denying access. Or short of that, it could be grounds for restricting access to a network segment where it can do no harm.
If the device comes back with a good reputation, it still might be rejected or restricted on other grounds. And the company says this is a concept it would like to extend.
Cisco says that other security technologies might also be integrated with its NAC gear. So data gathered from firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and the like could be shared with the NAC policy server. An IPS might know whether a device has been behaving badly and inform the NAC server, which could alter the access rights of the device.
Similarly, the NAC policy server could share data it gathers from endpoints as they try to gain access to the system. So the Cisco IPS could learn the user associated with a machine making an apparent attack.
This sharing among its various security platforms explains why Cisco doesn’t have a specific platform labeled post-admission NAC. The sharing takes its place.
