Cisco to Integrate Security Tools

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cisco tomorrow will tie together several of its data security products in an effort to improve security management and administration in enterprises.

The networking giant says it has improved collaboration among its security applications, including the Cisco IPS, Cisco Security Agent, Cisco Security Mitigation Analysis and Response System (CS-MARS), Cisco Security Manager (CSM), and the Cisco SSL VPN product.

The idea is to pull together individual point products -- many of which were acquired from other companies -- and enhance Cisco’s Self-Defending Network concept, executives said at a briefing here this morning.

“There’s going to be tremendous consolidation in the industry, moving from point products to a systems approach,” said Jeff Platon, vice president of marketing at Cisco. “Manageability of the technology is going to be key.”

Cisco is improving collaboration among its applications to help enterprises take better advantage of its products. For example, improved information between IPS 6.0 and CSA 5.2 will help minimize false positives and enable IPS appliances to block threats before they proliferate, the company said.

CSA 5.2 also offers new quality of service and wireless controls, executives said. For instance, CSA 5.2 enables enterprises to enforce policies that require laptops to use encryption or secure VPN connections. IPS 6.0 and CSA 5.2 also will work more closely with CS-MARS, which aggregates security information, and CSM 3.1, which applies changes to policies across an enterprise, the company said.

“It allows customers to identify various threats -- policy violations, vulnerabilities, exploits, and anomalous behavior -- and simplify management of their threat control systems,” said Mick Scully, vice president of product management for Cisco’s security business.

In addition, Cisco is also announcing a new wave of SSL VPN enhancements, including a clientless offering as well as expanding its client products to support Microsoft Vista, Mac OS X, Linux, and mobile devices. The SSL VPN offerings also will now propose the ability to create “smart tunnels” that provide access to specific applications without requiring administrative rights, the company said.

Cisco also said it has enhanced its security services offerings, adding a new Security Center portal, which offers a central source of information on current security activity. Cisco also will offer other services designed to speed users’ reactions to new security threats, including the ability to collect data from IPS products and a new Signature Management Service that deploys and tunes signature updates as they become available.

— Tim Wilson, Site Editor, Dark Reading