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• Microsoft Joins Cisco's Enterprise Security Alliance
• Cisco Enterprise Security Solutions

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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- February 24, 1997 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced the industry's first enterprise-wide security initiative. Cisco's new Enterprise Security Initiative will provide a multi-technology framework that enables centralized administration and dynamic links between customer security policy, user or host identity and network infrastructures.

The framework will enable customers to centrally configure a security policy which will be transparently distributed across the enterprise and can associate the policy with a specific mobile user.

"Cisco provides a scalable, end-to-end security solution allowing us to retain our current technology investments and deliver a new class of reliable transaction services to our customers," said Rick Sternitzke, Chief Technical Officer of Transaction Network Services, Inc. "Cisco's unique approach to integrating security technologies gives us a way to design, implement and strictly enforce policy across an enterprise containing multiple devices and technologies. By consolidating security configuration and monitoring requirements, we expect that our savings for overall network costs will be significant."

New Enterprise Security Initiative

The new security initiative will roll out in several phases over the next 18 months. The new initiative framework is comprised of three basic principles for designing network security solutions: identity, integrity and active audit.

Identity refers to the dynamic linkage of user authentication, authorization, and location in the enterprise. This allows the use of a single policy for managing security for campus, dial, and firewall access.

Integrity provides cross-product line uniformity for physical and configuration security. This integrity also provides data confidentiality and a secure routing and switching fabric.

Active Audit will enable network managers to ensure that the policy is both consistent and operating correctly. It will detect network anomalies, misuse and attacks.

Enterprise Security Alliance

To ensure seamless integration in every part of the enterprise, Cisco will align itself with other market leaders to guarantee interoperability in strategic security technologies through its new Enterprise Security Alliance. Participants in the alliance include: Cylink, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Oracle, RSA Data Security, Security Dynamics and Verisign.