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ConSentry Intelligent Switching Controls Network Access at Market Harborough Building Society

Posted on: Monday, 22 September 2008, 09:00 CDT

ConSentry Networks, the leader in intelligent switching, today announced that Market Harborough Building Society, a UK financial institution, has selected the ConSentry intelligent switch to build a network that protects sensitive customer financial data and the availability of the LAN while providing the required network access for staff, guests, and contractors at its head office.

With contractors accessing the corporate network, and staff bringing laptops into the office from home, Market Harborough Building Society wanted to protect network resources and the LAN itself by controlling access of users and devices at the network edge. After evaluating ConSentry and other competitive solutions, the company selected ConSentry LANShield CS-4048 intelligent switches to deliver granular network control and visibility.

According to Neil Williams, Head of IT, Market Harborough Building Society, "Our challenge was to secure contractor, and also guest, access to the LAN and Internet respectively. In addition, the migration of staff laptops from untrusted environments onto our network, and the hosting of contractors' devices, made the LAN susceptible to malware propagation. ConSentry's solution automatically scans new laptops or other network-attached devices to ensure they are free of spyware and are up to date with the latest virus-protection definitions."

The ConSentry LANShield Switch authenticates users against standard identity stores and automatically learns their roles. For each traffic flow, the switch identifies the application in use, applies policies based on role, and fully tracks all activities. This user and application intelligence allows Market Harborough Building Society to effectively separate employee, contractor, and guest access. Employees have full access to the LAN, contractors are automatically limited to specific network resources, and auditors are provided with basic guest access to the Internet rather than sharing a dial-up modem as they previously did. This level of granularity enables Market Harborough Building Society to be constantly aware of activity on the network and manage that activity by individual user.

The ConSentry's LANShield Switch provides the essential access control and protection required by financial institutions to protect customer records while supporting staff, contractors, and guests over a single network. "Non-intrusive and easily deployed and configured, the ConSentry solution has enabled us to achieve the twin goals of providing access to the network for third parties without compromising security and ensuring a vital layer of protection against threats on the LAN," commented Williams.

In addition to role-based LAN segmentation, the ConSentry LANShield Switch provides the full set of network access control functions, including authenticating users, scanning their machines for endpoint compliance, limiting the applications and servers users can reach, tracking all user activity, and detecting anomalous machine or user behaviour.

"We've only touched the surface of what ConSentry's intelligent switching can help us achieve. Later this year, we will look at role-based access control to gain granular visibility and control over all users and applications on our network and to support our auditing requirements," concluded Williams.

"In an age of compliance and changing workforce practices, financial institutions need to enhance security on the LAN and protect their sensitive data with stringent network access controls," said Joe Golden, CEO of ConSentry. "Our intelligent switching architecture has a range of integrated features that simplify the deployment of visibility and control across the LAN."

About Market Harborough Building Society

Market Harborough Building Society (www.mhbs.co.uk) was established in the south Leicestershire town of Market Harborough in 1870. With assets now exceeding GBP 419m, nearly 50,000 savings customers and 9,000 mortgage customers, the Society has grown steadily and prudently over the last 138 years.

The Society is committed to supporting the local community and continues to provide sponsorship to local schools, charities and community based organisations. In addition Market Harborough Building Society Charitable Foundation, which is funded by the Society, provides grants to many local good causes in the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland area.

About ConSentry Networks

The ConSentry Networks Intelligent Switching architecture delivers native user and application control at the LAN access edge. With this technology, ConSentry's award-winning LANShield product family enables IT managers to improve the visibility, control, and performance of users and applications and radically simplify LAN deployment and operations. ConSentry is backed by blue-chip venture capital firms Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, INVESCO Private Capital, and Sequoia Capital and is headquartered in Milpitas, California.

ConSentry Networks, the ConSentry Networks logo, and LANShield are trademarks of ConSentry Networks Inc., for use in the United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.

For more information, please visit www.consentry.com

Source: Business Wire

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