Background: Securing the Nation’s Air Defense Infrastructure
Under the South Korean Ministry of National Defense, the nation’s Air Force operates advanced computing sensors, weapons, vehicles, and aircraft, all equipped with connected device platforms across its operational commands. Like all military branches, the Air Force must manage diverse connected devices and secure all IT assets against evolving cyber threats. Enhancing network visibility and maintaining the highest levels of endpoint compliance at all times are paramount for national security.
Addressing Critical Visibility and Compliance Gaps
The Air Force sought a comprehensive NAC solution to address specific challenges within its highly sensitive environment:
- Endpoint Visibility Gaps: Lack of complete visibility for all IP-enabled devices (wired and wireless), including the detection of endpoints moving between intranet and internet without proper permission.
- Insufficient Management: Inadequate patch and antivirus management leading to persistent endpoint security and compliance issues.
- Security Silos: Fragmentation among existing IT security solutions hindering comprehensive management.
- Lifecycle Control Deficiencies: Ineffective monitoring and control over the entire lifecycle of endpoints, whether connected or disconnected.
Solution: Genians NAC Delivers Real-time Endpoint Command
Genians helped the Air Force effectively detect, deter, protect, and report on any connected devices in real-time without disrupting critical operations. Genians NAC provided:
- 360-Degree Visibility: A real-time “bird’s-eye view” of all IP-enabled devices via Genians’ non-disruptive sensing technology, eliminating network blind spots.
- Enhanced Device Intelligence: Increased device detection accuracy using Genians’ Device Platform Intelligence (DPI), without requiring an agent. This enables easy correlation of contextual data to improve security policies by providing:
- Accurate device platform identity.
- Contextual access information (Who, What, Where, When, How).
- Business context related to devices (e.g., End-of-Life, End-of-Service, Manufacturer Info).
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) for each detected device.
- Identification of anomalies from inside the network.
- Comprehensive IT Management:
- Improved IP Address Management: Managing static IP/MAC addresses, preventing IP conflicts, and provisioning IP addressing via an on-demand service.
- Automated Software & Patch Management: Installing and maintaining all required software and patches on time.
- Peripheral Device Control: Regulating access for USB and Bluetooth devices.
- Windows Security Enforcement: Ensuring proper Windows security settings.
- Proactive Threat Response: Proactively blocking unknown, unauthorized, insecure, or rogue devices, and immediately quarantining them for remediation through an intuitive guide to achieve compliance.
- Complete Audit Trail: Logging all connectivity information (including IP/MAC and user name in real-time) and providing a complete audit trail for all IP-enabled devices to demonstrate compliance and generate audit reports.
- Unified Security Framework: Enhancing the full IT security policy framework by removing existing security silos.
Summary: Enhanced National Defense and Streamlined Compliance
The South Korean Air Force now achieves enhanced monitoring, evaluation, and maintenance of all connected devices, applying correct policies and procedures to protect military staff, networks, and IT assets by leveraging Genians NAC capabilities.
Optimizing Endpoint Compliance and Operational Efficiency
This military branch now saves significant cost and effort by maintaining endpoint compliance at the highest levels and by substantially reducing the complexity of their NAC deployment. Genians has provided a robust, integrated solution that secures critical national defense infrastructure while streamlining IT operations.
