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ANB Financial Turns To Enterasys For Security
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2005-04-04
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ANB Financial has deployed Enterasys Secure Networks solutions to ensure information security and protect customer privacy on its highly advanced community banking communications infrastructure.
ANB worked with VeriSource, an Enterasys partner, to standardize its network infrastructure on an all-Enterasys Secure Networks solution. Enterasys' ability to guarantee information assurance across its customers' networks has enabled ANB Financial to keep pace with recent regulatory initiatives, including Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Sarbanes-Oxley and Check Clearing for the 21st Century acts, as it continues to introduce secure new online banking services.
Founded in 1994 and growing to $650 million in managed assets in just 10 years, ANB Financial has 11 full-service facilities--each offering a wide range of financial products and services. The firm has been at the forefront of the technology revolution, as one of the first banks to adopt document imaging technology (1994), offer Internet banking services (1996) and offer mobile ATMs (1999). In 2004, the bank--also with the assistance of VeriSource--augmented its network capabilities to build the most advanced fiber-optic community bank network in Arkansas. All of ANB's data transmissions, photo identity verifications, digital phone and fax communications, as well as all Internet communications, traverse its Enterasys Secure Network.
"We're continually re-thinking our business," said Dan Dykema, chairman and CEO of ANB Financial. "Security is on the permanent to-do list; you're never done. The Enterasys Secure Network enabled us to employ existing technology in a new way--and the result was a manageable, much-improved network. There's no question that it was the right call for us."
ANB has been such a technology leader over the years that the Federal Reserve Bank Services has used it as an early test bed for a number of initiatives. ANB's high-performance network connects 10 banks and an insurance agency in Arkansas and a facility in Utah, its first outside of Arkansas.
ANB's Secure Network consists of Enterasys Matrix N3, C2 and E1 switches and XSR Security Routers. ANB centrally manages its network using NetSight Console software. From a single location, ANB's IT team can quickly and efficiently manage network performance and usage, and define and deploy granular security policies to a single user or port or to the entire network.
At the heart of ANB's Secure Network is the Enterasys Dynamic Intrusion Response solution, one of Enterasys' portfolio of solutions, which detects abnormal behavior on the enterprise network, then intervenes to quarantine the offending user or affected device, thereby mitigating the threat and protecting the enterprise network against both known and undocumented security risks.
The DIR solution features the Dragon Intrusion Detection System and NetSight, Enterasys' suite of network management software, which includes the Automated Security Manager (ASM). ASM takes security events from Dragon, locates the exact port on the switch where attacks are entering the network, and takes action on the port, stopping the threat. DIR also leverages another core Enterasys Secure Networks solution--Acceptable Use Policy--a unique, role-based system that allows the network to provision required business services to users or devices automatically, based on their policy definition, while preventing undesirable and malicious traffic from entering the infrastructure.
DIR's tight integration with NetSight Console and the advanced intelligence within Enterasys' switches and routers enables ANB to identify suspicious behavior anywhere on the network, and act rapidly and with pinpoint precision--allowing all other business activities to proceed unimpeded. In fact, ANB estimates that in the past few months alone, it has identified and completely shut down more than a dozen serious electronic break-in attempts before they could reach the network.
"When we worked with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency--which regulates and supervises all national banks--to investigate products to enhance our security, Dragon quickly rose to the top of the list and impressed us all," said Cris Carter, senior vice president of ANB Financial. "With Dragon in our network, we've been able to lock down vulnerabilities and disable would-be attackers. In fact, Enterasys' solutions enabled us to identify one attacker, find him through his ISP and force him to stop his activities."
Michael Rivers, executive vice president of worldwide sales and services for Enterasys Networks says the ANB Financial story is becoming a familiar one throughout the financial services industry.
"The heart of Secure Networks is its policy-based architecture that provides unparalleled levels of granular control on a network-wide basis, so IT professionals can easily manage a large network with many users, which maximizes resources and saves time and money. As financial services firms such as ANB--and all types of enterprises--face increasing security threats and more stringent regulation, Secure Networks enables them to address these challenges head on and never take their eyes off of their most important job--running their businesses."
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SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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