Geha Selects Identity-Based NAC

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Nevis Networks, a market leader in identity-based policy enforcement solutions that control network access and secure sensitive resources, announced today that the Government Employees Health Association (GEHA) has deployed its LANenforcer 2024 appliances to meet federally mandated HIPAA compliance requirements and enforce pre- and post-connect access controls to fully secure users on its internal LAN. GEHA’s large-scale deployment of LANenforcers extends to nearly 1,600 access switch ports and delivers secure access control for nearly 800 users. GEHA is documenting its entire NAC deployment project with an unbiased technical blog at www.bumpinthewire.com.

As the second-largest national health insurance plan serving federal employees and retirees and their families, GEHA operates under strict HIPAA guidelines that require the ability to distinguish between corporate-owned and guest assets seeking admission to the network, as well as control over individual user access to network resources. Given the sensitivity of health insurance data that GEHA handles for over 221,000 health plan members, finding a mature, simple to deploy, and cost-effective NAC solution was mandatory. GEHA evaluated the LANenforcer 2024 appliance at the suggestion of Steve Allen, security manager at DPSciences, a trusted advisor to GEHA and a certified Nevis reseller based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“Not knowing the identity of every user and what resources they are authorized to access on a network as sensitive as ours was the trigger point for investigating NAC solutions,” said Justin Gerharter, senior systems engineer with GEHA. “Ironically, despite all of the hype surrounding NAC, it was surprising how few solutions there are that are mature enough and integrate easily into a large enterprise environment like ours without requiring fundamental change to the network infrastructure or impacting network performance.”

Nevis Networks Inc.