The integration between Top Layer’s IPS 5500 E-Series Intrusion Prevention System and Bradford Networks’ Campus Manager and NAC Director solutions allows organizations to automatically thwart network attacks and vulnerabilities, and to take appropriate responsive actions – such as quarantining threatening endpoint devices – at the edge of the network where traffic originates. Modeled on a defense-in-depth approach, this joint solution combines award-winning IPS and NAC solutions from Top Layer and Bradford to extend security protection from the network core out to the point of network access. The technology integration allows organizations to continuously assess their networks for security threats, identify responsible users and/or devices, and take appropriate actions to ensure continued security and availability of network services.

How it works

If endpoints on the network begin to exhibit malicious or threatening behavior, Top Layer’s IPS 5500 E-Series quickly identifies the offending behavior and sends alarm notification to Bradford Networks’ NAC solutions via SNMP or Syslog. 

Bradford Networks’ SNMP/Syslog management feature allows these Top Layer IPS notifications to become NAC event/alarm pairs, which are mapped to specific network access control actions. Depending on the environment and the policy, this action could be as simple as sending an email to an administrator or as drastic as moving the offender’s switch port to an isolation VLAN. Top Layer’s ability to monitor real-time network traffic for threats and Bradford Networks’ ability to enforce granular access control policies across wired, wireless, and VPN connections delivers a true end-to-end, integrated security solution.

By working together, the combined technologies deliver pre-connect user authentication and endpoint compliance assessment with post-connect monitoring, policy enforcement, and threat containment to deliver a cost-effective and comprehensive security solution.