IBM Proventia Endpoint Secure Control

Overview:

IBM Proventia Endpoint Secure Control (ESC) streamlines security and operations for desktops, servers, and local and remote mobile computers. A single console manages best-of-breed products from multiple vendors. For infrastructures with 250 to 250,000 endpoints, Proventia ESC provides security visibility, preemptive protection and centralized management. The end result is increased efficiency, stronger protection and a reduction in security vendors and agents.

Highlights:

• Combines threat prevention with real-time IT configuration management
• Provides consolidated, continuous visibility and control over endpoint security, data security and IT operations
• Helps demonstrate and enforce regulatory compliance by instantly deploying new security technologies
• Reduces operational costs by enabling hardware and software consolidation, labor savings, rapid deployment and risk reduction

Managing endpoint security, data protection and IT operations solutions from a single console
Meeting regulatory compliance demands and combating Internet threats requires constant vigilance, especially for enterprises with thousands of endpoints to secure and maintain. When even basic asset management can be an IT hassle, enterprises need an endpoint protection platform to help streamline security across large, diverse computing environments. Additional endpoint security management goals include:

• Increased efficiency through centralized management
• Improved protection
• Reduction in the number and complexity of agents at the endpoint

To help progressive enterprises achieve these goals, IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) has launched Proventia ESC as the first solution to combine endpoint security and operations in a single management console. Proventia ESC can manage best-of-breed products from multiple vendors to increase protection while reducing costs and complexity for infrastructures ranging from 250 to 250,000 endpoints.

Using best-of-breed security products without sacrificing visibility and control over thousands of endpoints
Proventia ESC delivers real-time visibility and policy-driven control over distributed IT infrastructures. Enterprises can centrally manage a complete infrastructure of preemptive IT security solutions from the consolidated, single-agent/ single infrastructure Proventia ESC platform. Proventia ESC gives you the freedom to use best-of-breed endpoint and data security solutions without locking you into a “suite” from a single vendor. In addition, Proventia ESC helps to continuously protect and remediate desktops, servers and mobile computers—whether local or remote, on- or off-network.

Proventia ESC is a single-console, single-agent unified management solution designed to provide:

• Consolidated real-time visibility and control over endpoint security, data security and IT operations.
• Massive scalability at a low dedicated infrastructure cost. A single server can manage the Proventia ESC solution for up to 250,000 endpoints.
• Unified, anytime, anywhere management of fixed and mobile assets across heterogeneous platforms.
• A robust yet lightweight service delivery architecture able to maintain effective asset visibility and control over almost any connection—including constrained bandwidths.
• Flexibility to handle spontaneous custom inquiries and management actions to custom user- and solution-specific content.
• Aid in reducing operational costs through labor savings, rapid deployment, security risk reduction, hardware and software consolidation and other sources.

Proventia ESC augments the IBM Proventia product family with the following features/functionality:

• A management platform to distribute IBM ISS security capabilities across thousands of endpoints.
• An automated transition from outmoded, reactive anti-malware packages to preemptive security.
• A powerful patch management solution that includes automatic updates and remediation.
• The ability to deploy and enforce security configuration management on both fixed and mobile computers—whether online or offline.
• Centralized management reducing the need for point products with separate management consoles.
• The ability to continuously define and enforce security configuration baselines.

Enjoying policy-driven, preemptive protection at a lower cost
The Proventia ESC solution helps clients quickly develop custom policies using fixlet technology and easy-to-use policy definition language. The solution also provides real-time access to malware definition files and updates to reduce periods of vulnerability from months to hours. The reporting helps organizations keep up with endpoint configuration and IT security status in real time. Proventia ESC includes all of these capabilities to reduce system utilization, vendor management headaches and licensing costs.

Combating threats with state-of-the-art security technology from IBM
Proventia solutions from IBM ISS are backed by continuous security research and are designed to preemptively stop both known and evolving threats. With a combination of innovative, behavior based protection technologies with conventional, signature-based technologies to help identify and block new attacks before they happen, its comprehensive support helps you fight both network-based and application-based threats. With Proventia ESC, organizations can manage preemptive security across all desktop, server and mobile computers without gaps or blind spots. In addition, they can avoid the confusion, conflict and complexity associated with multiple security updates from varied sources. Proventia ESC boosts operational efficiency and enhances the value of security by combining threat prevention with real-time IT configuration management.

Features and Benefits:

Benefits

• Provides a single management console for security and operations
• Reduces time-to-remediation and IT security and operations workload
• Delivers real-time visibility into security-critical endpoint client configuration specifications from a user-friendly dashboard
• Enables clients to select best-of-breed endpoint security solutions without the management hassles associated with point products
• Reduces endpoint agent overhead by more than 50 percent with zero removal expense

Features

• Combines threat prevention with real-time IT configuration management for 250 to 250,000 endpoints
• Provides powerful patch management that includes automatic updates and remediation
• Provides the ability to deploy and enforce security configuration management on both fixed/mobile and online/offline computers
• Centrally manages all instances of anti-virus, data loss prevention (DLP) or network admission control (NAC) software
• Enables continuous definition and enforcement of security configuration baselines

Key Features:

• All security functions administered and monitored through a single, lightweight management console.
• Scalable from 250 to 250,000 endpoints.
• Any time, anywhere security management for all computers—local or remote, fixed or mobile.

Proventia Endpoint Secure Control Functional Capabilities

Endpoint Security

• Vulnerability-centric intrusion prevention system (IPS)
• Endpoint firewall
• IBM X-Force® protection
• Anti-malware technologies
• Signature and behavioral anti-virus (AV)
• Buffer overflow exploit prevention (BOEP)

Endpoint Data Security

• Network access control
• Data loss prevention
• Encryption management
• Device control
• Content analysis for sensitive data

Endpoint Systems Maintenance

• Patch management
• Power management
• Anti-virus and anti-spyware client management
• Deployment/removal tool

Endpoint Security Configuration Management & Compliance

• Application control
• Security configuration management
• Security policy management
• Vulnerability assessment

Enhance Proventia ESC with a full suite of IBM education, support and professional services. IBM ISS offers professional development and migration services designed to help you lower operating costs through the consistent deployment of security policy and procedures, provide secure extension of business applications, improve productivity by optimizing security efforts for efficient management and maintenance, shorten implementation cycles for new security solution deployments and software updates, and comply with regulatory guidelines. ISS’ elite team of security experts combines proprietary toolsets and the latest security threat intelligence with advanced countermeasures to help you build effective security programs that enhance business operations and improve security posture. In addition we help you get the most out of your investment in IBM ISS solutions with a variety of product training courses.

Proventia Network Software Comparison Matrix:

Uncompromising Protection for Every Layer of Your Network

Combines multi-layered technologies to protect desktops and servers from the growing threat spectrum while enabling them to keep data and applications reliable, available and confidential.

• IBM Proventia Server Intrusion Prevention System
• IBM RealSecure Server Sensor
• IBM Proventia Endpoint Secure Control

Proventia Network Software
Model:
	Endpoint Secure Control	RealSecure Server Sensor	Proventia Server
Typical Deployment	Workstations/Laptops	Servers	Servers
Maximum Recommended Nodes/Users	Client-based license	Client-based license	Client-based license
Security Content Updates	Powered by X-Force; 3rd party anti-virus, DLP & encryption capabilities available	Powered by X-Force	Powered by X-Force
Form Factor	Software	Software	Software
Capabilities Summary
Intrusion Prevention	Yes	Yes	Yes
Intrusion Detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Antivirus (behavior-based)	Yes	No	No
Antivirus (signature-based)	Yes	No	No
Content Filtering	Yes	No	No
Protected segments	Yes (via 3rd Party Integration)	N/A	N/A
Web Application/ Database Protection	Yes	Yes	Yes
VoIP Security	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spyware Prevention	Yes	Yes	Yes
VPN	No	N/A	N/A
Hardware-Related Specifications
Monitoring or scanning interfaces	N/A	N/A	N/A
Inline protected segments	N/A	N/A	N/A
Throughput available	N/A	N/A	N/A
Concurrent sessions (rated maximum)	N/A	N/A	N/A
Maximum connection per second	N/A	N/A	N/A
High Availability/ Failover	N/A	N/A	N/A
Host Protection Featrues
Log Auditing	N/A	Yes	Yes
Application Control	Yes	No	No
Buffer Overflow Exploit Protection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supported Operating Systems/Platforms	Windows	Windows, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, VMware	Windows, Linux, VMware
Vulnerability Management Features
Scanning Discovery	N/A	N/A	N/A
Asset Classification	N/A	N/A	N/A
Vulnerability Assessment	N/A	N/A	N/A
Scanning Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
Workflow Solution	N/A	N/A	N/A
Results Reporting	N/A	N/A	N/A
Mail Security Features
Spam detection rate	N/A	N/A	N/A
False positive rate	N/A	N/A	N/A
Spam and compliance analysis modules	N/A	N/A	N/A
Anti-phishing/Image-based Spam	N/A	N/A	N/A
Granular policy control	N/A	N/A	N/A
Global/group/user settings	N/A	N/A	N/A
End user access	N/A	N/A	N/A

Documentation:

Download the IBM Proventia Endpoint Secure Control Datasheet (PDF).