Concept: Israel’s cybersecurity startup Portnox has developed a network access control (NAC) cloud solution for enterprises with a suite of security services including authentication, access control, risk mitigation, and compliance enforcement. The solution provides decision-makers and security teams end-to-end visibility to network access that enables preemptive defense against malicious entities.

Nature of Disruption: The NAC solution provides real-time visibility of endpoints trying to connect to the enterprises’ network including additional context such as their location, device type, and requested access layer for authentication. It enables the security teams to define and enforce unique access control policies based on roles, locations, and device types across various network access layers. The risk assessment policy configuration capabilities of the platform enable the users to monitor the risk posture of connected devices including managed and Bring your own device (BYOD). This enables the network administrators to understand the true security posture of the network at any point in time. The data collected by the platform about devices connected to the network helps the network admins create access rules intended to block unwanted access requests. The platform enables the organizations to adhere to industry-specific regulatory and compliance standards such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Outlook: Lack of skilled staff is one of the main challenges faced by enterprises to secure the cloud. There is a lack of cybersecurity professionals across the globe that makes it difficult for security teams to effectively configure and maintain their defenses against advanced threat actors. Portnox claims that the new NAC solution enables the enterprises to have end-to-end visibility over the cloud environment which helps a small security team to authenticate users and mitigate risks quickly and cost-efficiently. In January 2022, the startup raised $22M in Series A funding led by Elsewhere Partners. It aims to use the funding to expand its team and geographical presence.

This article was originally published in Verdict.co.uk