TippingPoint aims to deliver intrusion prevention tools for laptops

The vendor believes IPS solutions for laptops will help secure guest access to corporate networks

TippingPoint aims to make end-to-end network security a reality later this year by releasing an intrusion prevention system (IPS) for laptops.

Securing guest access to corporate networks for contractors and visiting business partners has long been a problem, because the laptops and PDAs they use often open holes in network security when they connect. These vulnerabilities can then be exploited by hackers or infiltrated by viruses and other malicious code.

James Collinge, TippingPoint director of product management, believes the problem can only be fully solved by putting an IPS on the laptop, backed by network access control, security policy management and bi-weekly vaccine updates.

“Ultimately, you want to put an IPS in front of every end-point, but realistically different customers have different risk tolerance; healthcare may want to protect mission-critical applications, but other organisations may not need to,” he said.

“The piece that is missing for us is the client, which is the only way to provide 360-degree coverage, but we will look to add that over the next year, either through development or partnership.”

TippingPoint launched a dedicated network access control product costing $14,900 earlier this month. The TippingPoint NAC Policy Server and Policy Enforcer interoperate with the vendor’s IPS to perform ongoing security checks after a user has been granted access to the network, identifying suspicious traffic patterns that could indicate that a user's machine has been infected by a virus or other form of malicious code.