The days of simply providing a user name and password for network access surely are numbered. Pursuing the new grail of policy-based
access control, the ECS (Elemental Compliance System) Version 1.1 is a server-based system that uses small Java agents on
Windows, Red Hat Linux, and Sun Solaris hosts to collect system information and to monitor and control all computer access
on the network. Based on the details of the access policy, the agent may allow a computer to connect to a group of hosts while
denying connections to others.
ECS knows all about each system the agent is installed on. There are literally hundreds of attributes an ECS agent reports
back to the server for classification. ECS agents not only run integrity checks on hosts and enforce client-side configuration
policies, but also provide a mechanism for managing hosts not running the agent, gathering information about unmanaged hosts
and dynamically placing them into an “unknown” group. Managed hosts will then either allow or deny connections from the unknown
computers based on the defined “unknown hosts” policy.
I tested this feature recently by deploying the ECS agent on two Windows Server 2003 servers and attempting to connect to
both from another PC with valid domain credentials. Because my PC was unknown to ECS and the unknown host policy was to deny
all connection attempts, I was completely blocked from my servers.
The ECS server allows you to express policies that govern host configurations and all communications among hosts throughout
the network; controlling rogues represents just a small slice of what this innovative product can do. I’ll plumb the depths
of ECS’s capabilities in an upcoming review.
Elemental Compliance System V.1.1
Elemental
Cost: Starts at approximately $100,000
Availability: May 17, 2005
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(InfoWorld) - In the litigious world we live in, deploying a unified communications platform in your enterprise could...
