Study: Most Organizations Lack Controls To Stop Interior Network Threats

  • Aug 27, 2008

Mirage Networks recently announced results from a new study that revealed nearly half of the IT professionals who responded had endpoints connecting to their corporate networks without their knowledge.

Yet compared to other security issues, 86 percent of respondents said controlling network access ranked as a high priority. The survey, completed by market research firm Opine Consulting, reported that network access control solutions are gaining traction vs. more perimeter security technologies to address the problem.

The independent research, conducted through an online survey, was commissioned by Mirage Networks to gather data about the state of network access control in corporate networks. The survey analysis shows that IT departments of all sizes have serious concerns about controlling network access. Many respondents did not believe their organizations focused network access policies on the greatest areas of business risk.

“In analyzing the responses, it’s clear that controlling network access is one of the highest priorities in all organizations,” said Sheila Baker of Opine Consulting. “But deploying the appropriate technology is being hindered to some extent by a lack of focus on policy, and is often being driven by operations or security departments and not by the business units. Despite organizational obstacles, the recognized need is highlighting a gap in most security architectures where network access control solutions could be filling that gap.”

A summary of the key findings from the study include:

  • 86 percent of respondents indicated that controlling network access was very important or important compared to other security issues.
  • 45 percent of respondents were not confident or only somewhat confident they know of every endpoint that connects to their network.
  • 43 percent are either unsure or do not believe their organization focuses their network access policies and controls on the greatest areas of business risks to their organization.
  • For those respondents with plans to deploy Microsoft NAP, the most common security solutions to integrate with are NAC (69 percent) followed by intrusion detection/prevention (55 percent).
  • 87 percent of respondents indicated standards are important or very important in deploying a Network Access Control (NAC) solution.
  • More than half of respondents (51 percent) are concerned about job loss in the case of a security breach on their network.

While Microsoft NAP deployments seem to be slowed by complexity and lack of Microsoft Vista adoption, another key finding of the survey indicates that NAC solutions are recognized by IT professionals as a complementary solution to NAP and may actually increase NAP adoption. Full-cycle NAC solutions offer coverage for non-Windows endpoints and provide ongoing threat detection that supplements Microsoft NAP’s pre-admission checks.

“In today’s era of mobility, there is simply no clear perimeter to stop the bad guys from coming in,” said Trent Fitz, vice president of marketing for Mirage Networks. “Organizations across all industries are recognizing the greatest threat to the network is the endpoint that connects to the interior. Once inside, endpoints of all types become conduits for Web-based threats and other malware to propagate within the network. Customers around the world are deploying Mirage’s patented NAC solution to enable their networks to thrive in the midst of these challenges.”

The complete study can be viewed at http://nac.miragenetworks.com/controllingnetworkaccesssurvey.

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