Montreal-based Above Security is now offering an identity-based access control tool aimed at companies with regulatory compliance and auditing issues.
The IT security services firm announced its partnership with Jersey City, N.J.-based Xceedium Inc. on Tuesday. The agreement will give Above Security customers access to Xceedium’s Gatekeeper hardware appliance, a tool which gives administrators the ability to centrally manage a users’ access to IT systems.
With the appliance, IT managers can not only manage access control, but it can also contain a user to certain resources and audit their actions when using corporate systems. This will eliminate the risk of privileged users or other third parties from running rampant on the network, said Dave Olander, president and CEO of Xceedium.
“Today, there are access solutions, there are audit solutions, but there’s nothing out there that’s providing an integrated set of capabilities that covers the full breadth of the access challenges that we see our customers facing,” he said. “The containment problem is something that nobody else is solving today.”
Olander added that the Gatekeeper appliance is especially useful for managing and tracking the access control, policy rights and activities of third-party vendors.
“Today most large organizations are having to deal with outsource providers, partners, remote administrators, people managing equipment on their networks, and they just don’t have the controls in place today to feel confident they are containing these people to just the areas to which they’ve granted them access,” Olander said.
Bob Demchuk, vice-president of business development for Above Security’s Canadian region, said an identity-based access control product was requested by many of its clients, including heavy interest from Quebec government and the financial sector. Health care, pharmaceutical, retail, and engineering companies are also prime candidates for the tool, he said.
“In Canada, about 60 to 70 per cent of businesses outsource to some degree and they have to demonstrate to their clients that their data is secure,” Demchuck said. He added that the emergence of virtualization and cloud computing were also acting as a driver for better identity-based access control tools.
For companies worried about Payment Card Industry compliance, the ability to generate reports and audit the systems privileged users are accessing is crucial, Demchuk said.
Other features of the Gatekeeper appliance include real-time alerting, keystroke logging, and full session recording capabilities. Both Above Security and Xceedium also hyped the tool’s Leap Frog Prevention technology, which will prevent users from moving from their authorized work areas to other secure areas within the network.
An entry-level rollout on about 25 devices could cost anywhere from $12,000 to $15,000, Xceedium said. The product, which is part of Above Security’s portfolio of risk management solutions, is now available for Above Security customers.