2014 Digital Yearbook of Homeland Security Awards
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MEET THE SPONSORS<br />
Continuous Network Monitoring for<br />
Government Agencies<br />
by Jennifer Collis, Government Solutions Marketing<br />
Manager, Tenable Network <strong>Security</strong><br />
When Tenable Network <strong>Security</strong> ® was founded in 2002, its<br />
founders knew that there were no quick and easy solutions<br />
for solving complex security problems. Tenable’s first<br />
product, Nessus ® , went on to become the most widely deployed<br />
vulnerability scanner in the world and is acknowledged<br />
as the global standard in detecting and assessing<br />
network data.<br />
4<br />
But a lot has changed since 2002. The modern IT landscape<br />
has expanded to include laptops, mobile devices,<br />
virtual systems, and cloud-based applications. In a BYOD<br />
(“bring your own device”) environment, employees use<br />
their own personal devices for work, introducing a significant<br />
risk into the traditional IT infrastructure. While these<br />
devices increase the agility <strong>of</strong> an organization, they also<br />
introduce visibility and security gaps, leaving the organization<br />
open to vulnerabilities and breaches. Periodic scanning<br />
helps, but it can miss devices that are not connected<br />
to the network 100% <strong>of</strong> the time. And if those devices have<br />
been surfing the Internet or shopping online, they may be<br />
completely unprotected from exploits and attacks.<br />
Another significant risk on the modern IT network is the<br />
prevalence <strong>of</strong> cloudbased<br />
applications<br />
and virtual systems.<br />
IT security managers<br />
may not be aware <strong>of</strong><br />
all virtual machines,<br />
many <strong>of</strong> which might<br />
be created and used<br />
for transient purposes.<br />
And the security<br />
team may also be unaware <strong>of</strong> the many cloud-based<br />
hosted services used by various departments.<br />
This is why Tenable has been pioneering continuous<br />
network monitoring since 2004: to ensure that your entire<br />
security program is aligned and working 24/7 to assess<br />
and protect today’s hybrid network systems. Continuous,