NAC: What went wrong? ComputerWorld looks at why NAC devices don’t play together very well.

What’s Right with NAC The TCG official blog replies to the above article.

Cisco’s NAC goes off track, customers taken aback Problems with Cisco, one of the hold-outs not implementing the TNC standards.

NAC standards wars end in truce Why TNC and the IETF NEA working group are important for NAC standards.

Views clash on best NAC policy How to choose your NAC solution.

And finally, a product announcement press release from InfoBlox on their dedicated IF-MAP server.

My first reaction was one of apprehension, as Google’s foray into China has not been without criticism, but:

The company argues it can play a more useful role in China by participating than by boycotting it, despite the compromises involved.

I do not for one second believe that the TCG will water down standards to meet Chinese government requirements as such an action would surely affect acceptance by western governments, but to not participate would give the local Trusted Cryptography Module a free rein, and I know which one of the two chips I’d wager did not have a back door…

By the way, the official Trusted Computing Group web site now also has a Chinese-language sub-site.

In short, cryptography demands a fair amount of trust. Like the atom bomb before it, it’s a technology that’s profoundly shaping the modern world but whose complexities only a few individuals, most of them sworn to absolute secrecy, fully understand.

No, these days the best cryptographic algorithms are public algorithms, and people like Bruce Schneier will tell you secrecy is cryptography’s worst enemy.

Next, we reach Trusted Computing:

Yet another area where cryptography is likely to have significant impact is in so-called trusted computing.

[… ]

But some 170 companies, including Intel, Microsoft, and Seagate Technology, are backing it as a way to prevent pirating and to keep malicious and offensive programs from disrupting the computing environments for which they provide relatively costly support.

Ahh, the Trusted Computing Group, all a cunning plan to sell you an expensive service plan.

Find the press release at SYS-CON here.

You can read the full press release in a number of places, and I found it at Euro Investor.

What they hope to bring to the group is described thus:

Fujitsu will strive to satisfy customers’ needs for secure and trusted systems by applying its technologies and know-how to TCG activities, promoting TCG specifications, and offering the most advanced products and services.

I know some of the people involved and their projects, so we should see a lot of good things coming out of this. Read the full press release here.

In addition, it also mentioned that the TCG’s “TNC 1.3 Framework Makes Coordinated Multi-vendor” (hmm, looks like a word is missing from that title) regarding the IF-MAP (Interface Metadata Access Point) from the TNC (Trusted Network Connect) specification won a Best of Show Award from Interop Tokyo.

See the full story at here.

its unique and highly scalable architecture for automating change in heterogeneous, globally-distributed networks. NOVA stands out from traditional change and configuration management solutions by providing automation and control across IT silos (applications, network, security, server, virtual environments, etc.) to ensure all IT resources comply continuously with internal and external compliance mandates as well as provide the foundation for an operational CMDB, that is federated with other process oriented CMDBs.

The interest to this blog is that the NOVA appliance will be showcased at the Trusted Computing Group’s, Trusted Network Connect’s (TNC) Multi-Vendor Demonstration, at Network World’s IT Roadmap and Conference, June 18th, Boston’s Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC).

Read the full press release on Marketwire here.

Michael Markulec, chief operating officer of Lumeta, had this to say:

“By joining the TCG to establish an industry-standard approach, we’re helping create a roadmap on how to share critical network infrastructure information among the different platforms of other leading network and security solution providers. While having access to updated network data is critical, it is also important that network and security personnel are able to leverage it in a number of different ways to establish and enhance security standards.”

Read the full press release at PR Newswire here.