NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NEAL WEINBERG ON PRODUCT REVIEWS
10/12/04
Today's focus:  Sygate's Secure Enterprise

Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED],

In this issue:

* The Reviewmeister continues his tour of endpoint security 
��products
* Links related to Product Reviews
* Featured reader resource
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Veritas 
Meta Group Whitepaper 
Database Infrastructure Performance Challenges: Approaches to 
Better Manage Application Database and Storage Subsystem 
Performance 

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business-critical data within the enterprise. IT organizations 
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discover several factors which will converge to challenge the IT 
organization's ability to manage its database software 
infrastructure. 
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Today's focus:  Sygate's Secure Enterprise

By Neal Weinberg

Let's continue our tour of endpoint security products with 
Sygate Technologies' Secure Enterprise 4.0.

Because setting up and deploying software that touches every 
client on your corporate network is no trivial matter, we 
assessed how each vendor handled this daunting process.

Secure Enterprise 4.0 provided on-site installs of the 
management server/console and several clients because it is 
included in standard purchases. We then re-performed their work 
to make sure there were no hidden "gotchas" in the process.

To test policy functionality, we attempted to create and deploy 
a policy that would block all inbound traffic except remote 
desktop, block outbound traffic to Port 23 on remote systems, 
block Netcat from binding to Port 468, and block Solitaire 
(sol.exe) from running.

Once the policy should have been deployed, we tested remote 
desktop connectivity, telnet connections and our ability to play 
Solitaire.

Sygate was successful at blocking Port 23 outbound. We then 
configured each policy to allow inbound Port 3389 for 
Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection Utility. Sygate 
successfully allowed the remote connection.

Overall, policy generation was challenging across products when 
determining how a specific product can implement a specific 
policy. Network-based policies were easier to implement than 
application-based policies.

Sygate provides some log viewers and a mechanism for generating 
graphs from the logs in the database. It also includes the 
ability to view statistics on client status by group or 
individual system, which lets you see which clients have not 
reported in for a while that may require investigation. We would 
like to see reports generated for this information.

We tested application control (also referred to as execution 
containment) features by running an application that accessed 
the network in a way prohibited by policy. We tested intrusion 
detection by performing a port scan. We tested intrusion 
prevention (which is implemented as anomaly detection, if at 
all) by running a Universal Plug and Play Protocol (UPNP) 
attack. We tested defense resilience by performing a "coarse 
uninstall" of the product. We defined a coarse uninstall as the 
deletion of files from the product's program files folder. We 
deleted all the files we could, as an attacker would.

Sygate handled execution containment and detected the network 
intrusion. For the full report, go to 
<http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/0920rev.html>

RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

New gadgets take on Starbucks security threat
IDG News Service, 06/21/04
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0621newgadge.html

Security vendors bolster lines of defense
Network World, 04/12/04
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0412mcafee.html
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Neal Weinberg

Neal Weinberg is features editor at Network World, in charge of 
product reviews, Buyer's Guides, technology primers, how-tos, 
issue-oriented feature stories and the Technology Insider 
series. You can reach him at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Veritas 
Meta Group Whitepaper 
Database Infrastructure Performance Challenges: Approaches to 
Better Manage Application Database and Storage Subsystem 
Performance 

Corporate relational databases now manage the majority of 
business-critical data within the enterprise. IT organizations 
face continuing challenges in managing increasingly complex, 
data-driven application environments. Read this white paper to 
discover several factors which will converge to challenge the IT 
organization's ability to manage its database software 
infrastructure. 
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=84688
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Reviews archive:
http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/index.html
_______________________________________________________________
FEATURED READER RESOURCE
THE NEW DATA CENTER

Today's top companies are accelerating toward Web-based 
computing. That means building the new data center -- where 
grids, virtualization, autonomic computing and other big changes 
shatter the traditional boundaries on applications and 
information, and bring the extended enterprise to life. Learn 
about The New Data Center on NW Fusion's Research Center at:
<http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/datacenter.html>
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