Auditor Enterprise

NetClarity’s Auditor is a fine example of a fully featured appliance that offers not just vulnerability assessment, but also ties results to compliance and ongoing information systems audit programs. Beginning from the superb documentation and ending with the high value for the money, this product shines.

The documentation is complete, well-illustrated and straightforward. We ran into no installation or use problems that we could not solve from the included manuals. The appliance is very quick and easy to set up and use. Just plug it in, follow the installation guide, and go. The setup guide was clear and the appliance was up and ready for testing in well under an hour.

Support is available by phone or email. The company pledges to respond to calls and email within 24 hours and a premium support service is available for a fee.

Auditor is rich in features. For example, it can create and save several different types of reports, including full report, executive report (a simple, clear summary), and a management report. The appliance scans for around 9,000 different vulnerabilities and it is very fast and efficient. It includes a Vulnerability Quarantine System that reconfigures firewalls and smart switches based on vulnerabilities it discovers. It incorporates an encrypted (local) backup and restore feature. The product can be set to notify system administrator via email or cell phone when an audit is completed.

This product performed very efficiently on our test network. One interesting capability is its ability to audit against credit card security programs and regulatory requirements. Scans/audits can be setup with specific compliance requirements and the final report will rate the target system relative to those requirements. Several regulatory reporting schemes are included with the appliance.

Auditor Enterprise is excellent value, starting at around £11,500 for 256 addresses. There is a subscription service, updates, maintenance and support all rolled up into one pre-paid annual maintenance fee of 20 per cent.

We rate NetClarity Auditor Enterprise as our Best Buy in the fully featured appliance category. The product does everything one would expect it to do and does it all extremely well.