Free Privileged Account Discovery Tool: Identify & secure credentials to stop lateral movement. Download Free

BeyondTrust
  • Products
    Privileged Password Management
    Discover, manage, audit, and monitor privileged accounts
    Password Safe DevOps Secrets Safe
    Endpoint Privilege Management
    Manage privileges on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix endpoints
    Windows and Mac Unix and Linux Active Directory Bridge
    Secure Remote Access
    Centrally manage and secure remote access for service desks and vendors
    Remote Support Privileged Remote Access
    BeyondInsight Analytics
    See All Solutions
  • Resources

    Universal Privilege Management

    Our innovative Universal Privilege Management approach secures every user, asset, and session across your entire enterprise.

    Watch Video

    Learn

    Case Studies
    Competitor Comparisons
    Datasheets
    Glossary
    Product Demos
    Whitepapers

    Attend

    Events
    Go Beyond
    Training
    Webinars

    Support

    Changelog
    Professional Services
    Technical Documentation
  • Blog
  • Partners
  • Contact
  • Support
  • Services
  • Training
  • Events
  • Company

Security Is Not One-Size-Fits-All

July 19, 2011

  • Blog
  • Archive
When it comes to security, specifically when it comes to vulnerability management, one size doesn't fit all. Organizations need to customize their tools based on a wide variety of business requirements. These include everything from scan windows, frequently changing credentials, report distribution and most importantly the architecture and volume of data that needs to be processed. As matter of experience, and I am sure many of you can relate, products that work fantastic in the lab fail miserably in production because of the one size fits all philosophy. Problems range from basic scalability, to usability, and even the security of the security solution itself. There have been many times when I have found myself answering an RFP or in a pilot for an environment with tens of thousands of assets to potentially be assessed and the client chooses only a dozen assets to scan and report on. This typically involves a make shift lab, with virtual machines, and only a scan engine. Users typically fail to consider firewalls, a multi tier architecture, role based security, ticketing systems, and time to implement when installing a solution of this nature. The ones that do have experience understand other technologies of this magnitude or are in a rip and replace scenario due to short comings with the other technology. One size does not fit all to scale from a single asset all the way to every TCP/IP enabled device on the wire. Consider this small fact. A typical vulnerability management solution needs to assess every single device connected to your network. Is there any one device on your network that can communicate with every other device, using unrestricted ports and protocols, from a single location? The answer is probably no and in many organizations, absolutely not; it's just not permitted. This is why organizations deploy multiple domain controls, DNS, and mail servers to service devices all the way down stream (outside of bandwidth and resource scalability) and keep networks segregated for regulatory compliance requirements such as PCI. A single vulnerability scanner and installation will fail miserably to assess these remote devices and isolated networks. This is why architecture, scaling, and management are so important. In a typical enterprise a vulnerability management solution is an independent multi tier agnostic installation that can communicate with everything to determine vulnerabilities and calculate risk. If we consider the typical RFP and lab environment again, they fail to take into consideration these critical components in producing the desired results. It is much more than determining whether the host is vulnerability or not, or if this vendor has this "check box feature" or not. It is how the data is identified, escalated, reported, and managed throughout a complex infrastructure that is important. Consider that no one person can tell you the complete architecture of your enterprise and every device online at any given time. This is why we have information technology tools to help use document and illustrate the status of the infrastructure. When building a vulnerability management program, consider that one size does not fit all. Sometimes you need scan agents, scan engines, management consoles, and even a data warehouse to complete the task and design the proper architecture for your business. The next time you are presented with a one size fits all solution from your vendors, make sure it is not the same solution for all sizes. It needs to have components that truly scale, allow for growth or shrinkage, and provide flexibility for any of your needs. How could one installation of a scan engine do all that ? Realistically, it can't. That’s why a fixed subscription price for a single scan engine just does not work for most organizations. If you would like more information on how Retina can scale to your needs and define how its components can manage your requirements, please click here. We take a multi tier approach to solving this problem from a single scan agent to a full "n" tier multi server architecture that can debunk the one size, one scanner license, fits all architecture that many solutions fail to disclose. Morey J. Haber Product Management
Photograph of Morey J. Haber

Morey J. Haber, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at BeyondTrust

Morey J. Haber is Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at BeyondTrust. He has more than 25 years of IT industry experience and has authored four Apress books: Privileged Attack Vectors (2 Editions), Asset Attack Vectors, and Identity Attack Vectors. In 2018, Bomgar acquired BeyondTrust and retained the BeyondTrust name. He originally joined BeyondTrust in 2012 as a part of the eEye Digital Security acquisition. Morey currently oversees BeyondTrust strategy for privileged access management and remote access solutions. In 2004, he joined eEye as Director of Security Engineering and was responsible for strategic business discussions and vulnerability management architectures in Fortune 500 clients. Prior to eEye, he was Development Manager for Computer Associates, Inc. (CA), responsible for new product beta cycles and named customer accounts. He began his career as Reliability and Maintainability Engineer for a government contractor building flight and training simulators. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Stay Up To Date

Get the latest news, ideas, and tactics from BeyondTrust. You may unsubscribe at any time.

I agree to receive product related communications from BeyondTrust as detailed in the Privacy Policy, and I may manage my preferences or withdraw my consent at any time.

You May Also Be Interested In:

Whitepapers

A Zero Trust Approach to Windows & Mac Endpoint Security

Whitepapers

Mapping BeyondTrust Solutions to the Qatar National Information Assurance Policy v2.0

Whitepapers

KuppingerCole Executive Review - BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management

BeyondTrust Logo
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Keep up with BeyondTrust

I agree to receive product related communications from BeyondTrust as detailed in the Privacy Policy, and I may manage my preferences or withdraw my consent at any time.

Customer Support
Contact Sales

Products

  • Endpoint Privilege Management
  • Password Management
  • Privileged Remote Access
  • DevOps Secrets Safe
  • Remote Support

Resources

  • Blog
  • Case Studies
  • Competitor Comparisons
  • Datasheets
  • Glossary
  • Videos
  • Webcasts
  • Whitepapers

About

  • Company
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Leadership Team
  • Partner Program
  • Press

Languages

  • English
  • German
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Korean
  • Portuguese
  • Japanese
  • Privacy
  • Security
  • Manage Cookies
  • WEEE Compliance

Copyright © 1999 — 2020 BeyondTrust Corporation. All rights reserved. Other trademarks identified on this page are owned by their respective owners. BeyondTrust Corporation is not a chartered bank or trust company, or depository institution. It is not authorized to accept deposits or trust accounts and is not licensed or regulated by any state or federal banking authority.