Nevis Offers Comprehensive Network Security Control

Computer security threats such as identity theft, fraud, viruses and worms, and improper employee access to information continue to loom large for businesses. Nevis Networks Inc. is looking to offer a more comprehensive approach to these challenges with its new LANenforcer security appliance.

LANenforcer, which will start at $13,000 and be available early next quarter, centralizes management of access controls while also providing a firewall, intrusion-detection and intrusion-prevention systems, and incident monitoring. Rather than relying on IP addresses, LANenforcer watches the actions of individual users. This enables the appliance to block specific users and user groups from accessing certain information and applications.

Nevis also says LANenforcer's chip circuit can identify threats like viruses and worms instantly to stop them before they spread into organizations.

Other devices can do one or a few of these things, says Matthew Todd, chief security officer of financial services company Financial Engines Inc., whose company is a test user of LANenforcer. What makes Nevis' product intriguing, he says, is that it does so much, enabling both administrative control and policy enforcement.

The new product "is further evidence of the continued blurring of the lines between network and application level-security," says Aberdeen Group research director Stacey Quandt.