Network access control is an approach to network management and security that enforces policies and management of access control to a network. This approach is a network access solution that enables authenticated and trusted endpoint devices and nodes to access network resources and infrastructure. In addition, network access helps in improving the safety of a patented network by limiting the availability of network resources to endpoint protection device that meets the defined security policy.
It is essential and important that organizations possess a tool that provides access control, visibilities and compliance capabilities that serves as a catalyst for strengthening network infrastructure, because organizations should be able to account for the growth of devices accessing their network and the security they come with. The network access control mechanism is important, as it will deny access to node that does not meet the defined policy by restricting access to network resources or placing them under network quarantine, thus keeping insecure devices from infecting the network.
Access control solution is of vital importance to businesses and organizations in the protection of sensitive and confidential data. As an organization grows, so do its employees, visitors, third party providers and contractor. Some of the critical roles played by network access control solution in any organization include:
Network Visibility: The implementation of NAC aids organizations in gaining access to the actionable intelligence and information on the state of their network security posture. The NAC solutions are able to account for the devices connecting to the network and provide information to network and security admin regarding suspicious behaviors and connections
Unified Management: Network access control offers a unified management console that simplifies key tasks for network and security administrators, as it provides opportunity to effectively implement network security policies on a singular platform, which will then implement automated control and remediation procedures across the network.
Access Control: By controlling access to network resources, organizations are able to restrict rogue and compromised device/nodes off the network and understand the states of endpoint and software that have access to their network and its resources. This benefit is essential and important for distributed organization that has different types of devices.
Integration with existing infrastructure: Network access control devices can be seamlessly integrated into the network, thereby working coherently with other existing security policies. This then provides organizations with the advantage of having and even more secured network.
Addresses the internet of things security vulnerability: Internet of things are entering the enterprise space with a great speed and this comes with a number of security challenges with those devices as they are mostly designed with weak processing power so as to accommodate security software. Network access control addresses this bottleneck by allowing IoT visibility on agentless system which account for the connectivity of IoT and its data transmission over the network as well as controlling the area of the network they can access.
Today with the increasing number of mobile devices and IoT both on BYOD programs and cooperate based devices, managing and controlling the access to your network becomes challenging .IT team and business owners must address issues that come along with; byod, guest access, policy enforcement, threat prevention/detection, onboarding and delivering a realizable user experience by leveraging on the functionality that network access control solutions provides.
Written By;
Olasehinde Victor.
