Hexis Cyber Solutions: a new entrant to the NAC market

Hexis Cyber Solutions, a subsidiary of KEYW Holding Corporation, which was spun off to address the commercial market, offers a family of products under its HawkEye brand, so named because of the visibility that they offer into network security events. Its HawkEye G is a threat investigation and automated malware removal system for detecting, investigating and removing advanced threats to minimise the disruption that even the most sophisticated attacks can cause. Its HawkEye AP is a data analytics platform that enables organisations to generate actionable intelligence by collecting, storing, searching and analysing big data sets comprising feeds from throughout the network.

In August 2014, Hexis unveiled a new product line featuring two new products—NetBeat NAC and NetBeat MON—that aim to simplify network monitoring, analysis and control for organisations, providing full network visibility to improve security and foster greater productivity.

NetBeat NAC offers network access control functionality to discover all devices, users and applications connecting to the network, ensure their security state is as required and to monitor their activity whilst on the network. As such, NAC systems help to prevent zero-day attacks and enforce access policies by blocking or quarantining non-conforming devices, users or applications until they are brought into conformance.

NetBeat MON is, as the name suggests, a network monitoring tool that offers diagnostics tools, including advanced intrusion detection, forensics packet capture, network flow, and network analysis capabilities, leveraging popular open source tools and software developed by Hexis. NetBeat MON is designed so that network monitoring capabilities can be extended to field sites and remote locations.

The new product line from Hexis expands its capabilities in areas that organisations are grappling with today. The consumerisation of IT is a fact for most and vastly expands the range of devices and applications that are connecting to networks, many of which are outside of the direct control of the IT department. Being able to monitor and control what is connecting to networks and what is being accessed is key for winning the battle against today’s advanced, sophisticated security threats.

Together, they extend Hexis’ capabilities in providing visibility over all events occurring on networks, providing continuous network awareness that generates actionable insight for better decision making and for achieving a higher level of security. Today’s dynamic threat and advanced technology landscape are driving greater demand for efficient and effective monitoring and access control technologies and these new products answer that demand, helping organisations to realise their security, internal governance and external compliance objectives.