Cisco Products To Get Security Infusion
2/14/2005 -- At the RSA Conference in San Francisco this week, Cisco Systems Inc. is expected to announce major security updates for many of its products.
Among other anticipated updates, Cisco is expected to announce an enhancement for its SSL VPN offering that gives users access to non-Web applications, like corporate instant messaging or e-mail. This gives Cisco rough feature parity with competitors like Juniper Networks, which—thanks to its acquisition of Netscreen last year—offers similar capabilities.
Cisco’s 16-month-old Network Admission Control (NAC) program could also get a security shot in the arm. At RSA this week, Cisco will announce that its desktop security agent, an endpoint component in the NAC security architecture, will be outfitted with new anti-spyware capabilities, which—in some cases—could enable it to detect and eliminate malicious spyware before it’s able to propagate throughout an enterprise network.
Elsewhere, Cisco is expected to announce as-yet-undisclosed IP telephony enhancements to its PIX Firewall. These features, too, are designed to address shortcomings vis-ŕ-vis competitive products. Similarly, Cisco is expected to add new capabilities to its IDS offering that should enable it to more proactively identify potential attacks. Once again, these capabilities will help bring Cisco’s IDS offering up to par with competitive offerings from Symantec, McAfee and others.
Enabling all of these new capabilities are as-yet-undisclosed enhancements Cisco has made to IOS.  -Stephen Swoyer
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