ForeScout Gives Organizations Real-Time Visibility and Control Over Smartphones, Tablets and Wireless Devices

New CounterACT v. 6.3.4 Fortifies Network Access Control; Adds Mobile Security Across Android, Apple, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian Mobile Devices

Cupertino, Calif. — March 22, 2011 — ForeScout Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of network access control (NAC) for Fortune 1000 enterprises and government organizations, today announced the release of CounterACT™ version 6.3.4. The platform delivers real-time visibility and control when employees and guests use mobile and wireless devices, such as smartphones and tablets like Apple iPad, to access corporate networks. With ForeScout CounterACT, organizations gain productivity by enabling people to use the mobile devices they like while keeping network resources and data secure.

“The good old days of dictating devices, platforms and applications are gone. You need to accept that employees and others will be bringing their own devices onto the network. Accept that you’ve lost control. Then you can start understanding risks like data loss, malware, manageability and network hijinks,”1 said Mike Rothman, security industry analyst and president of Securosis. “(You must) focus on classifying critical data sources to ensure access is only provided to the right person, on the right device, from the right place, and at the right time.2 Given that we have to make sure the right devices access only the right resources, integrating mobile security with Network Access Control can offer a means to implement necessary control structures, so one can trust but verify these devices.”3

ForeScout CounterACT offers an automated, extensible and scalable approach to apply security policy across a diverse array of corporate and personal mobile devices — dynamically and without requiring agents. The latest version builds upon prior success by offering the means to identify and monitor mobile devices in real-time. The release also enhances device classification, guest registration, endpoint compliance and scalability functions.

“Omnicom Media Group strives to improve the productivity of our employees by providing flexible options to access corporate resources from wherever and whenever. At the same time, we must protect our network and ensure the security of sensitive data,” said Ken Corriveau, chief information officer at Omnicom Media Group. “ForeScout’s network security solutions offer us the automated and integrated controls necessary for us to enforce access policies, including mobile security, which has become very important.”

ForeScout CounterACT v 6.3.4

ForeScout CounterACT offers a more cost-effective and integrated solution for network access control (NAC), mobile security and endpoint compliance that overcomes the complexity, administrative burden and constraints of network infrastructure and endpoint protection approaches. Enhanced release features include:

  • Mobile security — the ability to classify, report by brand and by user, and apply custom policies to corporate and personal smartphone and mobile devices without requiring agents. CounterACT can force mobile device guest registration via HTTP redirection and can automatically allow, deny or restrict access to specified network resources and wireless access points. More granular security policies will be available later this year through the introduction of Android, Apple iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian mobile apps.
  • Real-time, agentless visibility, asset inventory and endpoint control — more automated means for device classification that provides dynamic, accurate monitoring to see who, what and where resources are on your network including users, device types, applications, processes, ports, external devices, and compliance status. An intuitive asset inventory display allows operators to readily view, search, report and customize tracking including the support for whitelisting, blacklisting and compliance metrics. This operational intelligence allows for more granular policy definition and extensive remediation options.
  • Greater guest registration options — a rich set of guest policies that deliver flexibility to tighten, loosen and automatically set the guest registration process, authentication, endpoint compliance and on-going monitoring based on type of visitor, device, device integrity and appropriate resource restrictions. The compliance center option allows guests to self-assess and self-remediate in order to meet network access requirements.
  • Scalability — a variety of management capabilities to organize and streamline the administration, access and maintenance of multiple CounterACT appliances. A single CounterACT console is capable of reaching over 250,000 managed endpoints.

“Personal and corporate mobile solutions offer tremendous business benefits, but are not without malware, data leakage and acceptable use threats,” said Gord Boyce, CEO of ForeScout. “Automating mobile security and access policy management is our focus in this latest version of ForeScout CounterACT. These enhancements give our customers the means to leverage personal productivity and resource accessibility while managing security risks and compliance.”

About ForeScout Technologies, Inc.

ForeScout enables its customers to unleash the full power of their network through enterprise-class security and control.  ForeScout’s automated solutions for network access control, mobile security, threat prevention and endpoint compliance empower organizations to gain access agility while preempting risks and eliminating remediation costs. Because ForeScout security solutions are easy to deploy, unobtrusive, intelligent and scalable, they have been chosen by over 1000 of the world’s most secure enterprises and military installations for global deployments spanning 37 countries. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, ForeScout delivers its solutions through its network of authorized partners worldwide. Learn more at www.forescout.com.

1 https://securosis.com/blog/comments/mobile-data-security-i-can-haz-your-mobile
2, 3 https://securosis.com/blog/network-security-in-the-age-of-any-computing-the-risks