ForeScout CounterACT v6.3.3 is an out-of-band appliance solution that provides authentication-based protection for endpoint and VPN devices. The components include the appliance; the enterprise manager, which provides high-availability options for redundancy and automatic recovery; and the console, which is the application for managing information about network endpoints and devices.
CounterACT works through the user authentication management to determine network access and, if agent-based, compliance with policy. Using the inline-like capabilities, CounterACT monitors all traffic on the network (ARP requests, RPC, SSH, SNMP, 802.1X, and other techniques) and immediately can detect when a device is attempting to connect to the network or to access it remotely. At that point, the tool automatically will apply whatever policies the administrator has created using the CounterACT policy configuration manager, which is built into the product. A basic policy might be to deny network access to any device or user that is not present in the enterprise directory (e.g., Active Directory).
The appliance can disable the switch port or perform numerous other network-level actions to deny access. Another feature provides a VLAN firewall capability that can assign endpoints to various VLANs based on policy, and provide the firewall capability in an inline-like fashion without truly sitting as a proxy or a pass-through solution.
CounterACT has a real nice dashboard that is highly customizable. There is a pleasing pop-up-help feature to assist with configurations. The policy wizard is easy to use. There is built-in customizable alerting and numerous plug-ins to interact with other network devices.
There is no basic support provided. Support options can be purchased for 18 or 23 percent of the purchase price.
CounterACT works through the user authentication management to determine network access and, if agent-based, compliance with policy. Using the inline-like capabilities, CounterACT monitors all traffic on the network (ARP requests, RPC, SSH, SNMP, 802.1X, and other techniques) and immediately can detect when a device is attempting to connect to the network or to access it remotely. At that point, the tool automatically will apply whatever policies the administrator has created using the CounterACT policy configuration manager, which is built into the product. A basic policy might be to deny network access to any device or user that is not present in the enterprise directory (e.g., Active Directory).
The appliance can disable the switch port or perform numerous other network-level actions to deny access. Another feature provides a VLAN firewall capability that can assign endpoints to various VLANs based on policy, and provide the firewall capability in an inline-like fashion without truly sitting as a proxy or a pass-through solution.
CounterACT has a real nice dashboard that is highly customizable. There is a pleasing pop-up-help feature to assist with configurations. The policy wizard is easy to use. There is built-in customizable alerting and numerous plug-ins to interact with other network devices.
There is no basic support provided. Support options can be purchased for 18 or 23 percent of the purchase price.
