Enhances Physical and Cyber Security and Compliance

Hirsch Electronics, a leading supplier of physical security management solutions, has teamed with IT industry leaders Juniper Networks and Infoblox to tie physical and network security together, increasing protection for both environments. As a result, customers can improve security and enhance compliance efforts by establishing physical presence as a policy for gaining access to various network resources.

The solution was implemented by the three companies using the open Trusted Network Connect architecture and IF-MAP open-standard protocol for metadata exchange endorsed by more than 100 companies that comprise the Trusted Computing Group (TCG). For Hirsch’s part in this industry first, the award-winning Hirsch Velocity™ Security Management System sent IF-MAP based physical event messages (metadata) to the Infoblox appliance, which in turn notified the Juniper network appliance that enforced Network Access Control (NAC) policies.

NAC, widely embraced by the IT and networking industry, enforces a variety of network security policy checks. For instance, a NAC enabled network can prevent a computer from accessing other resources until the computer is confirmed to have an adequate level of anti-virus protection. NAC enabled routers, switches, and firewalls can grant or deny a given user wired or WI-FI network access to the Internet or access to other network resources such as datacenter servers, IP phones, and more. This new capability takes NAC one step further by allowing a person's physical presence to be used as a pre- and post-network admission policy.

A demonstration of this new linkage between physical and network security was showcased in the Trusted Computing Group's Interop Las Vegas booth in May. The demonstration garnered enthusiastic responses from end-users, integrators and industry analysts alike.

"This convergence concept has been discussed for some time but has been slow to actually gain market traction," noted Andrew Braunberg, research director, enterprise security and networks, for Current Analysis. "It is encouraging to see an ecosystem of companies coalescing around a set of open specifications that allow them to enable this convergence while also supporting best of breed functionality."

"This is an excellent proof-point for how extensible the Trusted Network Connect architecture and TCG's specifications are," commented Stephen Hanna, co-chair of TCG's Trusted Network Connect Work Group and Juniper Networks distinguished engineer.