SC
Magazine Group test Vulnerability assessment
Article in SC Magazine at
http://www.scmagazineuk.com/Assuria-Auditor/Review/2857/
Assuria Auditor
Assuria Auditor is a security and compliance scanner for enterprise
servers. It features capabilities such as vulnerability assessment,
system change detection, system information and regulatory compliance.
The Auditor can actively scan systems using agent deployed across the
enterprise network and these agents report back to the main console.
This was an easy install. The initial install of the console application
is guided by a setup wizard that is easy to follow. With the product up
and running, we started to deploy the agents. The only problem we had
with this process is that the agents are in executable format, so they
cannot
be
deployed using something like Active Directory Group Policy for
Windows-based systems, The console is easy to use, with an intuitive
tree navigation structure.
Agents can be deployed across many system and server types throughout
the enterprise. Assuria offers agents not only for Windows based systems
but also for Linux, such as Red Hat Enterprise and SuSE Enterprise, as
well as Unix systems, such as Solaris. Policy and scanning is also easy
to organise and scans can be set up with a number of various properties.
Documentation for the product includes an installation guide that
illustrates the overall installation and setup process for the console
and agent deployment. There is also an administrator guide that focuses
on policy creation and compliance checks. Finally, a user guide details
using product
All these manuals are well organised and easy to follow. However, there
are no
screenshots or diagrams. Assuria offers 24/7 phone and
email technical support, as well as
product updates, as part of a
maintenance contract at 20 per
cent of the licence fee. There is a
support area on the website, but
it only contains support contact
information. There are no other
support options, such as a
knowledgebase or user forum.
These are planned for the future.
At a price starting at £3,500 for the console and five agents, with
additional agents from £750, this
product is good value for the
money. While it does have some
small deployment hurdles to
jump, it is quite easy to use and
provides a multi-platform
vulnerability scanning
engine.
For
Scanning support across many
server platforms in the enterprise
Against
Documentation lacks visuals
and agents must be deployed manually
Verdict
A very good tool, but it requires
extra effort to install and manage
Article in SC Magazine at
http://www.scmagazineuk.com/Assuria-Auditor/Review/2857/
66 SC -May 2009 •
www.scmagazine.com/uk
