An Overview of Total Access Control (TAC) from PortSys
By Dr. Edward Amoroso
CEO, TAG Cyber
This is the final of a series of five blog posts by analysts from TAG Cyber, a trusted cybersecurity research analyst firm, providing unbiased industry insights and recommendations to security solution providers and Fortune 100 enterprises. This chapter examines how PortSys Total Access Control (TAC) works, along with guidance for enterprise teams on how the reverse proxy and remote access features of TAC can be used to drive Zero Trust and other desirable security attributes for their enterprise.
The primary functional capability that enterprise teams will benefit from through the deployment and use of the PortSys TAC solution is secure access to local and cloud resources for end users.
The Total Access Control (TAC) platform from commercial cybersecurity vendor PortSys provides a range of useful cyber protection features for the typical enterprise team. These protections focus on advancing support for Zero Trust and secure access across the organization.
This brief chapter offers an independent explanation of how this security platform works and how it can be deployed into a modern enterprise network.
Major TAC Functionality
The primary functional capability that enterprise teams will benefit from through the deployment and use of the PortSys TAC solution is secure access to local and cloud resources for end users. This includes employees, suppliers, partners and customers. Applications are made available to users with authenticated and authorized permission, as per the reverse proxy nature of the TAC platform shown in the diagram below.
PortSys TAC Functionality
It is this policy-based enforcement of access that allows enterprise security teams to transition their traditional access control mechanisms to a more flexible virtualized infrastructure. The result allows security teams to leverage the following capabilities:
- Proxy Connections: This ensures no direct access to applications.
- Device Support: Access is supported for a range of devices, including those that are personally owned.
- Persistent Authentication: Applications can be connected to single sign-on (SSO).
- Context Aware: Policy enforcement and access control context.
- Administration: Centralized management and monitoring can be enabled.
These functions support use cases involving access by users from corporate headquarters and the internet to applications that might be hosted in legacy environments, as well as through public and private cloud-based services.
Support for Remote Access
In addition to reverse proxy separation, the TAC platform enables highly secure remote access. In fact, this solution serves as an effective replacement for awkward virtual private network (VPN) platforms and infrastructure.
The simplicity of managing TAC for external access, along with its centralized administration, makes it an excellent solution for achieving Zero Trust.
Advancing Zero Trust
As suggested above, Zero Trust is dependent upon proper protection of endpoints, secure network connectivity, and run-time security for applications—usually hosted in a virtualized environment. The PortSys TAC solution supports these goals through a separation of users and applications via the proxied connection. This ensures that policy enforcement can be performed effectively for all sessions.
Dr. Edward Amoroso
CEO,
TAG Cyber
