Powerful Zero-Trust Network Access Control (NAC)
Network Access Control (list) serves as a the backbone of any strong enterprise cybersecurity program.
Determining the correct NAC security policy for your organization can be challenging. It doesn’t need to be.
Traditionally, NAC solutions have been designed to strengthen the security of an organization’s internal infrastructure by enforcing risk and remediation policies across all users and devices. This holds true today, but the means of delivering such functionality has changed remarkably thanks to the rise of the cloud.
What is Network Access Control (NAC)?
Network Access Control (list) sits within the larger field of cybersecurity, and more specifically network security. It is a technology that enables organizations to enact its own unique policy for how and when endpoints (desktops, laptops, smartphones, etc.) can connect to their corporate networks. Network Access Control products & solutions are typically designed to allow IT security teams to gain visibility of each device trying to access its network, and specifically the type of device and access layer being used (i.e. wifi, wired ports, or VPN).
Today, Network Access Control(list) provides a number of powerful features on top of what it was originally designed for years ago. These include security posture assessments for endpoints, which pinpoints any associated endpoint risks, allowing network security administrators to control network access based on their organization’s risk tolerance threshold.
With the rise of cloud computing, remote workforces, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, and the internet of things (IoT), network access control(products) has become a much more critical part of the larger cybersecurity technology stack at most companies. The technology itself has also evolved quite drastically in response to these emerging trends and their impact on networking and ensuring network security.
The use cases for NAC today are constantly expanding. Network security professionals leverage NAC solutions for network visibility, the discovery of endpoints, security profiling, compliance enforcement, remediation…the list goes on.
In general, NAC is designed to do two core tasks:
Authenticate the Endpoint trying to connect to the network, and Authorize Access Based on authentication and posture assessment.
