Network Access Control Technologies

By Richard Langston
Contributed by Sygate Technologies, Inc.

Today, businesses must face the very real threat of their systems being compromised by misuse, misconfiguration and malicious access. In fact, Gartner estimates that 20 percent of managed systems are already compromised. Add to that their estimate that 20 percent of systems on corporate networks are entirely unmanaged and it becomes clear that most enterprises are vulnerable to loss of productivity, leakage of confidential information, and other expensive (and potentially embarrassing) abuse.

HIPAA - Final Security Rule
Information Security Reference Guide

Author: Gary Swindon
Contributed by Sygate Technologies, Inc.

The HIPAA Final Security Rule is divided into three broad categories of safeguards; administrative, physical, and technical and contains 42 security specifications. This reference guide lists the requirements of the Final Security Rule in point format with the action that needs to be taken in order to achieve compliance for Healthcare Operations by April 21, 2005, the final compliance date. More to the point it provides explanations for each specification in plain English.

Metric of Network Integrity

Author: Kevin Soo Hoo
Contributed by Sygate Technologies, Inc.

The recent spate of network worms has focused attention, once again, upon information security, particularly network security. After more than a quarter century of corporate computing, business managers and technologists alike can do little more to articulate the state of their network security than give qualitative descriptions of their "gut feel" about it. Why is this the case? Certainly, the lack of concrete metrics may confer a certain degree of job security for some, but they, alone, cannot account fully for the absence. A more plausible root cause may rest in the fast pace of innovation in network technology and the inherent difficulties associated with measuring security itself.

Examining the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Author: Robert P. Abbott
Contributed by Sygate Technologies, Inc.

This paper briefly describes sections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)1 that are relevant to Information Technology (IT). The subjects of Controls and Control Objectives are introduced enroute to identifying the properties of Sygate products beneficial to complying with SOX. The bulk of the paper identifies specific control objectives wherein Sygate products provide audit evidence of compliance. A number of control objectives are also put forth as state-of-the-art contributions to the overall need for IT controls and for the automated monitoring of those controls.