Cisco is bundling anti-virus software with its routers,
switches, and security appliances to prevent attacks such as Sasser
infecting corporate networks.
The network supplier has signed a deal with anti-virus software
company Trend Micro that will result in Trend's anti-virus software
being loaded onto Cisco products from the end of this year. There
will be a gradual roll-out of the technology during 2005, with
Trend being paid by Cisco for each product shipped with the extra
protection.
The agreement follows Cisco's agreement with IBM, announced in
February, to provide an automated approach to information security
that would identify systems that were not compliant with
established security policies.
Roger Levenhagen, Trend's UK managing director, said, "With Sasser,
staff came in to work after the bank holiday and infected their
company's network by logging on with unprotected laptops they had
used over the weekend, and there was nothing their organisation
could do about it."
Most firms rely on traffic being filtered and checked before it is
allowed through their e-mail gateway. This does not keep out
infected laptops and PDAs that have not been updated with the
latest virus signatures or have had their anti-virus software
turned off.
When Trend's software is bundled on Cisco network hardware, every
time a user attempts to log on to the network, their machine,
whether a desktop, laptop or other device, will be checked by the
Trend software working with Cisco's Internetwork operating
system.
If the device is not authorised or does not have the correct
anti-virus signatures or patches installed, it will be quarantined
from the rest of the network to prevent infection.
Richard Palmer, vice-president of Cisco's VPN and security business
unit, said, "As internet threats continue to evolve in their
severity and complexity, it is critical that customers deploy
comprehensive outbreak-prevention solutions to help build
self-defending networks."
Trend and Cisco have not yet said how much users will have to pay
for this extra protection.
However, Trend maintains that a bundled package of measures at the
network level is the only way companies can protect themselves from
worms such as Sasser, which it said cannot be completely kept off
networks by perimeter-based firewalls.