Enterasys Networks Delivers Industry's Most Comprehensive Dynamic Intrusion Response Solution for Secure Networks

Business Wire, May 11, 2004

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

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LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2004

New NetSight Atlas Automated Security Manager with Dragon IDS

Drives Real-Time Response Down to the Individual User

in Addressing Network Threats

Enterasys Networks, Inc. (NYSE: ETS), a global provider of Secure Networks(TM) for enterprise customers, today announced the availability of NetSight Atlas Automated Security Manager (ASM). ASM, working in conjunction with Dragon IDS, automates the steps necessary to respond to a wide range of security threats with an unprecedented level of granularity. This helps organizations increase business and operational performance by ensuring that their networks remain up and running in the face of ever-increasing security threats.

The NetSight Atlas ASM application module is the cornerstone of the Enterasys Dynamic Intrusion Response solution that is shipping now. The solution enables organizations to respond in real time to new and known threats to their networks, such as worms, viruses, denial-of-service (DoS) and zero-day attacks, or internal misuse and abuse. For the first time, organizations are able to pinpoint down to the individual network user the exact location of the attack, and do so without adversely affecting other traffic--even when that traffic is traversing the same network port.

"Both security officers and IT professionals are focused on mitigating the risks associated with increasingly frequent, virile and costly security attacks," said Cynthia Gallant, senior vice president, Secure Networks for Enterasys Networks. "The business imperative is to protect data and keep business users productive while simultaneously lowering the total cost of ownership for security solutions. ASM helps them meet these goals by enabling the Dynamic Intrusion Response solution. With minimal or no IT staff intervention, a company can configure ASM to either respond automatically to an attack by limiting the access rights of only the affected user, or to issue an alarm that intervention is required."

ASM is the industry's only security solution that integrates IDS and network switches to automatically detect, locate and respond to threats. ASM links Enterasys' Dragon Intrusion (version 6.3) Defense System and the company's unique, role-based policy switching infrastructure to create a closed-loop solution for intrusion detection/response and network management. As a result, security is truly pervasive because it is "built into, not onto" the network. This tight integration of security and networking is at the core of Enterasys' Secure Networks approach and is what differentiates the company's solutions from those of other vendors, whose security appliances are "bolted on" to the network. As a result, Secure Networks enables an overall security response time often measured in seconds rather than minutes or hours.

Enterasys this week also announced a major new release of its Matrix N-Series switch platform that enables unprecedented granular control of individual users/applications from the edge of the network through the core in a multi-vendor environment. With the multi-user policy solution enabled by the Matrix N-Series, customers now can respond to security events at the individual user level in heterogeneous networks, limiting the investment required to enhance their security profile.

"Enterasys' ability to embed security right into the network fabric lies in our heritage of networking innovation," said John Roese, chief technology officer of Enterasys Networks. "Other vendors partition broad groups of users based on general behaviors, then apply management parameters--including network access control and security--to each of those users based on their group. That just doesn't reflect how people use networks and it doesn't provide the level of control companies need. It forces companies to respond to security events by limiting access to an entire department or floor of a building rather than only the single user affected by the security event. Enterasys' products implement security and management based on individual user/application traffic flows, so our customers can define and implement policies they can target on a per-user/per-port basis. It's this level of granular control that underscores Enterasys' Secure Networks value."

Secure Networks is identity-driven and network-wide, enabling dynamic enforcement of network and security policies--based on users, applications or organizational priorities--regardless of location. To accomplish this, Secure Networks combines Enterasys' unique flow-based switching architecture with its advanced Dragon security and NetSight Atlas management software to centralize and automate control of the entire network structure. Forming the foundation of Secure Networks is Enterasys' Policy-based Access Control software that provides granularity of control to every user and every port across an enterprise's entire network.

NetSight Atlas ASM: The Missing "Link" to Pervasive Network Security