FullArmor EPM to Help Enforce Security Policies for Mobile Workers

FullArmor is offering corporate networks a shield against threats with a new release that automates the deployment and enforcement of security policies on endpoint devices with temporary network access.

FullArmor Endpoint Policy Manager assesses endpoint compliance prior to granting access to the network or application, and deploys security policies and device settings contained in the active directory to laptops, mobile devices and other endpoint devices that rest outside a corporations network.

Thomas Winckler, director of product management for FullArmor, said the product is aimed at telecommuters, temporary workers and "road warriors" that access a typical corporations network.

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"The problem with that for IT departments is they know nothing about that machine," he said.

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Winckler noted that Microsoft requires users to be connected to an active directory for settings to be applied to endpoint devices. That can be problematic, he said, because machines may not be able to connect to a directory regularly, and therefore may not get security configurations on a regular basis. In addition, giving people the ability to configure machines on their own allows for the possibility of a mistake, he said.

FullArmor EPM enforces consistent policy settings on endpoints whether they are connected or disconnected from an enterprises Active Directory. The information is captured from active directory in a "policy bundle" by a server communicating with the active directory, Winckler explained. The policy settings are then distributed to the various devices, he continued.

FullArmor EPM enables organizations to use their existing Group Policy infrastructure to enforce endpoint policy settings as devices drift in and out of network, and it can be used to apply specific policy settings to devices and users. For example, an authorized user authenticating to the network from an unmanaged device such as a home computer or Internet kiosk could be subject to stricter policy settings.

For organizations that are governed by regulatory and industry mandates such as GLBA, HIPAA, FISMA or PCI, FullArmor EPM maintains a comprehensive audit trail of applied security settings to automate compliance reporting, company officials said. The EPM dashboard identifies compliance problems and inconsistencies between expected policy status and actual policy settings for each machine, officials said.

Pricing for Endpoint Policy Manager starts at $20 per user or managed endpoint.

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