IBM Tivoli and Cisco manual Does this concept help our mobile users

Note: Customers are responsible for ensuring their own compliance with various laws such as the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It is the customer’s sole responsibility to obtain the advice of competent legal counsel regarding the identification and interpretation of any relevant laws that may affect the customer’s business and any actions the customer may need to take to comply with such laws. IBM does not provide legal, accounting, or auditing advice, or represent or warrant that its products or services ensure that the customer is in compliance with any law.

The IBM Integrated Security Solution for Cisco Networks checks every client’s workstation when it attempts to connect to the corporate local area network (LAN) using predefined policies. For example, it can examine whether the workstation has the latest antivirus signature installed, whether a desktop firewall is running, whether the password length is correct, and so on. When a noncompliant client is detected, the IBM Integrated Security Solution for Cisco Networks quarantines the client by denying access to the corporate LAN and directing that workstation to either automatically download the latest antivirus signature or provide information why the workstation is noncompliant. This provides an opportunity for the user to either manually download the required updates from the remediation LAN or choose a path to automatically remediate using IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager.

1.3 Does this concept help our mobile users

The IBM Integrated Security Solution for Cisco Networks by default denies access to the corporate LAN for all noncompliant users and keeps them at bay. Enforcing this policy requires every telecommuter’s computer to be compliant before it is granted access to the corporate LAN.

Corporations must allow external partners and contractors to have access to limited IT resources as well. Most businesses are looking for ways to remotely connect to their corporate LAN using a secure virtual private network (VPN) connection from outside their office premises. The IBM Integrated Security Solution for Cisco Networks can be configured to allow only partners to connect to the Internet by using a policy that provides appropriate access to the partners’ workstations that do not have particular client software installed on their computers. This can be considered a winning situation for both parties involved, as it provides a network access method without additional infrastructure and yet assures protection from non-authorized users.

Chapter 1. Business context 7