What is Network Access Control?
Network access control or NAC is one of the strategies that is employed to enhance the security protocols associated with a private or proprietary network. This is accomplished by setting restrictions on the ability to access various programs and functions that are available on the network. The creation of the authorizations required to allow access to any given database, software, or function on the network remains in the control of a network administrator or other persons who are granted that level of management by the administrator. There are several common ways that network access control is achieved. The most common approach is to set up a process for authenticating each valid user for the network. This may be accomplished by employing a simplistic user name and password combination, or involve additional clearances that are necessary, such as a test question or proper identification of an image that is associated with the login credentials. Typically, the administrator sets the s
A. Network Access Control, or NAC, is the security industry’s answer to the increasingly challenging problems of securing the network. 90% or more of North American enterprises have strong perimeter security defenses, so attackers have adapted their methodologies by attacking from the inside out. NAC was born out of the requirement to protect the interior of the network effectively.
Network access control (NAC) products entered the market a few years ago to fill this gap. A typical NAC solution provides an endpoint assessment of the computer and then enables access and enforces security policy based on the state of the computer and the identity of the user. Early NAC solutions were expensive and complex and targeted at the large enterprise market. But even for those companies with budgets and IT staff to manage NAC, the deployments often failed or stalled. This was due to complexity, the lack of interoperability and proprietary technologies used in the NAC solutions. Interoperability Cisco, Microsoft, and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), a consortium of suppliers, proposed alternate frameworks and interoperable architectures in an attempt to overcome this hurdle. Today, NAC is moving toward more standards-based protocols. TCG developed its Trusted Network Connect (TNC) framework with the sole goal of implementing standards around NAC. In addition to this, the In
Network Access Control is a set of protocols designed to enforce network security policy across all attached devices and users, from the moment they join (or attempt to join!) the network. NAC is an open framework that can assess your network in its entirety and ensure no potential threat is ever connected, whether posed by a rogue PDA, faulty router or even a remote worker. In addition to full security policy enforcement, NAC also delivers remediation solutions to network endpoints which fail to meet your internal policy criteria. A typical example of this is the automatic installation of patches or anti-virus signature updates on connected devices; with NAC this process happens before any connection to the core network can occur, ensuring no device can come online without first meeting all aspects of your internal security policy. NAC can also fully integrate with all devices and can be implemented into your existing network infrastructure with minimal disruption.
