SAN JOSE, Calif. -- February 24, 1997 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. todayannounced the industry's first enterprise-wide security initiative.Cisco's new Enterprise Security Initiative will provide amulti-technology framework that enables centralized administration anddynamic links between customer security policy, user or host identityand network infrastructures.
The framework will enable customers to centrally configure a securitypolicy which will be transparently distributed across the enterpriseand can associate the policy with a specific mobile user.
"Cisco provides a scalable, end-to-end security solution allowing us toretain our current technology investments and deliver a new class ofreliable transaction services to our customers," said Rick Sternitzke,Chief Technical Officer of Transaction Network Services, Inc. "Cisco'sunique approach to integrating security technologies gives us a way todesign, implement and strictly enforce policy across an enterprisecontaining multiple devices and technologies. By consolidatingsecurity configuration and monitoring requirements, we expect that oursavings for overall network costs will be significant."
New Enterprise Security Initiative
The new security initiative will roll out in several phases over thenext 18 months. The new initiative framework is comprised of threebasic 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 asingle policy for managing security for campus, dial, and firewallaccess.
Integrity provides cross-product line uniformity for physical andconfiguration security. This integrity also provides dataconfidentiality and a secure routing and switching fabric.
Active Audit will enable network managers to ensure that the policy isboth consistent and operating correctly. It will detect networkanomalies, misuse and attacks.
Enterprise Security Alliance
To ensure seamless integration in every part of the enterprise, Ciscowill align itself with other market leaders to guaranteeinteroperability in strategic security technologies through its newEnterprise Security Alliance. Participants in the alliance include:Cylink, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft,Oracle, RSA Data Security, Security Dynamics and Verisign.
