Fortinet, Bradford Networks Partner on BYOD Security

The platform offers a full security solution for corporate-owned and personal mobile devices, including malware detection and automatic discovery.

As the popularity of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives grows, security specialists are partnering with network-access specialists to offer comprehensive protection to organizations considering BYOD policies but unsure of the security and implementation challenges. On Oct. 30, secure network access firm Bradford Networks and network security specialist Fortinet announced a partnership to offer a BYOD platform that will provide protection from network-security threats to corporate-issued and personally owned mobile devices.

Fortinet's FortiGate security platform offers an array of security and networking functions, including firewall, application-control, virtual private network (VPN), antivirus, intrusion-prevention, Web filtering, anti-spam and wireless area network (WAN) acceleration capabilities. Bradford Networks' Network Sentry delivers a network access control (NAC) solution to help enable a secure BYOD strategy. Together, the companies’ technologies will correlate network traffic and security data with endpoint device and user information to provide visibility, control and secure network access for mobile devices.

"While BYOD is a great enabler for the enterprise, the influx of devices used by employees and other users creates significant security and management challenges. It is critical that organizations have full visibility and management of devices and users on their network," Patrick Bedwell, Fortinet’s vice president of product marketing, said in a statement. "The integration of technology from Fortinet and Bradford Networks provides enterprises with an end-to-end view of network activity, including users and devices, to improve security while increasing productivity—essential to any successful BYOD strategy."

The platform automatically discovers all mobile devices on the network and provisions network access based on user and device policies. It also proactively detects suspicious network traffic, events and anomalies, and allows only trusted mobile devices to access network resources. In addition, the platform provides granular control of more than 2,400 applications and behaviors within each application to prevent application-borne threats or risky user behavior.

“We expect our partnership with Fortinet to drive greater awareness around the need for organizations to proactively address the security implications introduced with BYOD," Vincent Ma, Bradford Networks vice president of business development, said in a statement. "Fortinet understands the inherent value of striking the right balance between accessibility and security for personal and corporate-owned mobile devices, and we look forward to enabling a scalable and secure BYOD solution for our joint customers."

The BYOD platform's Client Reputation feature delivers a cumulative security ranking of each device based on a range of behaviors and provides specific, actionable information to help identify compromised systems and potential attacks in real time.

Additionally, the BYOD platform provides the ability to automatically remove or isolate non-compliant or infected devices from the network based on risk-tolerance policies. The solution also offers visibility into all the wired and wireless devices connecting and disconnecting from a network to help identify and locate a suspicious device.