Network access control (NAC) helps to protect your organization from cyber threats by fortifying the network perimeter with granular control and visibility capabilities. It evaluates devices and users attempting to connect, notifying IT of non-compliant ones while denying access or placing them in quarantine.
It’s an especially important tool for companies with BYOD policies, as each device increases the attack surface and makes it easier for fraudsters to infiltrate your organization.
Authentication
The most basic function of network access control tools is to ensure devices, users and apps are authenticated. These solutions use digital technology to identify the user or device and either admit them into the network or deny them entry based on specific security standards. They also provide multi-factor authentication, which adds another layer of security by requiring the user to enter a password or perform some other action that is unique to the individual.
You can track all devices, users and apps connected to your business’s network using NAC. This enables you to log what is connected and detect and act on changes that may have happened over time. You can also implement a continuous risk posture assessment, which works to thwart cyberattacks that attack the weakest points of your network.
BYOD and expanding remote working have created a larger attack surface for corporate networks. NAC helps you address this by ensuring that employees’ devices comply with the firm’s security policies while allowing for efficient collaboration. This also prevents unauthorized or suspicious behavior from being allowed into the network by denying access to users, devices and apps that aren’t approved. This can help your business be protected from cyberattacks such as malware, ransomware and DDoS attacks. It can help reduce the threat of hackers seeking to resell your private data on the Dark Web.
Scanning
Vulnerability scanning helps to identify threats and weaknesses in your network. A scan can detect open ports, misconfigured services, unpatched applications, and other vulnerabilities that cyber attackers use as an initial entry point into your business. Scanning is necessary for security operations to help identify and manage exposures before they can cause significant damage.
Depending on your organization’s needs, a vulnerability scan can be non-intrusive or intrusive. Non-intrusive scanners use CVE (Common Vulnerability Enumeration) data and threat intelligence to assess and prioritize vulnerabilities. Invasive scanning uses penetration testing techniques to test systems and identify vulnerabilities, but this approach requires more time and resources than other scanners.
The results of a scan can guide your remediation efforts, including patching and eliminating existing malware. Vulnerabilities that are identified and ranked as critical or high should be addressed first, with less-critical vulnerabilities following. This will minimize the impact of any disruptions to your organization’s business processes and operations.
Your security policy should be continuously evaluated and updated to protect your network from the latest threats. A continuous risk posture evaluation helps protect your business from advanced persistent threats (APTs) that penetrate network perimeters and access sensitive information and services. NAC solutions can help with this by identifying devices that do not meet your security policies and automatically blocking or isolating them without the intervention of IT staff.
Enforcement
An organization’s data is a precious asset that needs to be protected. Network access control (NAC) tools act like sentinels standing guard at the gates of your digital infrastructure, preventing unauthorized entry and providing granular security controls.
NAC solutions offer pre-admission checks for devices that attempt to connect to your business’s network, evaluating whether they comply with business security policies or are susceptible to malware. This prevents rogue software or hardware from accessing sensitive data, reducing the risk of cyberattacks that could be initiated with stolen credentials, denial-of-service attacks and more.
Once an incoming device has been authenticated and authorized to join the network, it is subjected to post-admission security scans that verify that the user and device are still compliant with policies after connecting. The network access control tools solution may monitor for new or unusual behavior and take action accordingly, such as removing the device from the network or placing it in quarantine to prevent malicious activity from spreading within your business’s networks.
Large organizations often work with contractors, partners and third-party suppliers who must be granted limited network access to complete their tasks. This can be challenging without an effective NAC strategy in place. NAC solutions provide visibility into all the devices on your business’s network and perform a health check on each to ensure that they are secure and do not pose any threat.
Reporting
With network access control, companies can monitor user and device movement throughout the perimeter of their networks. This allows them to prevent visitors from connecting to sensitive customer data or internal business resources that could be vulnerable to hackers. It also helps them be prepared for compliance management, as many industries face regulatory mandates like HIPAA or PCI-DSS that demand specific network security settings and limits on unauthorized devices.
NAC systems can be configured to provide visibility, detection, profiling, and control for everything that connects to the network—including IoT devices and the work-from-anywhere demands of today’s knowledge workers. These solutions can use agent-based or agentless technology to gather information about devices and users and provide real-time automated responses. They can also provide network segmentation that automatically groups and admits users and devices based on preconfigured security rules, helping reduce the attack surface and speeding mitigation efforts if a threat does make it inside the organization.
Fortinet’s NAC solution, FortiNAC, offers all these capabilities and more in a physical or virtual appliance. It performs a security assessment on every device or user attempting to enter the network, evaluating its hardware and software for vulnerabilities and patch levels. It then authenticates the user and ensures the machine complies with policies before granting access or placing it on a quarantined network segment until issues are resolved.