Aventail and Sygate strengthen security fortress

Secure Sockets Layer remote access vendor Aventail is working with Sygate to ensure remote PCs have proper security before they are allowed to connect to the Aventail security server.

The two companies have certified that Aventail’s security servers and Sygate’s firewall software are compatible, but promise more integration.

Once achieved this integration would enable Sygate’s software to deny access to Aventail’s gear if a remote PC didn’t meet security policies set by network executives. So for example if the remote PC didn’t have a personal firewall turned on and an updated antivirus application running, Sygates Secure Enterprise software would block the request for an SSL session with the Aventail server.

This would only work with PCs that have Sygate agents running on them, which means they would have to be company-issued computers. Part of the attraction of SSL remote access is that it requires nothing of the remote machine except an SSL-enabled Web browser, so this would put some restrictions on what machines could be used. But it would not necessarily block all access to machines that did not have the Sygate software installed. Customers could allow a lower level of access to machines that lacked the Sygate agent, making it possible for remote users to reach at least some corporate network resources from any Internet-connected PC.

Sygate has similar relationships with IPSec VPN vendors Cisco, NetScreen and Nortel. These vendors require IPSec client software on the remote PC, so the Sygate agent can be loaded on the machines at the same time as the VPN client.