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Security Policy Monitoring

It may start innocently enough, perhaps with a user installing a seemingly innocuous piece of software on a networked enterprise PC. This might annoy the desktop people, but as the security manager, it's not your problem, right? Wrong. Can you be sure that the application did not change vital configurations on the machine, possibly making your entire network vulnerable? Worse, if your security policy is not continually enforced, such a hole might go unnoticed indefinitely. And even if your desktops are locked down tight, HIPAA requires all health-care organizations to have a system in place ensuring the security of all patient information; the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act makes similar demands on financial institutions. Security policy enforcement, clearly, is taking on new urgency.

The best way to stay in the Feds' good graces is security policy monitoring, whereby you lay down the law across your organization and then constantly audit for compliance. We gathered security policy monitors from BindView, Computer Associates International, Configuresoft, NetIQ, Pedestal Software, Polivec and Symantec in our Syracuse University Real-World Labs® and deployed them on a 100-node network. In the process we nailed some hideously out-of-compliance production systems. Ouch.

After a few months of poking and prodding, we were impressed with all the products we tested. Price was, of course, a factor--this level of control does not come cheap. Still, each allowed for stringent compliance checks and offered strong reporting; some even helped us write policies via templates and could proactively slap around deviant systems. We awarded BindView's bv-Control 7.2 our Editor's Choice for its all-around strong feature set. Shops with tight budgets should take a look at our Best Value Award winner, Pedestal Software's SecurityExpressions 3.0.