IGI Cybersecurity Blog

Nodeware®: Your New Favorite Agent

Written by Todd Nielsen | Dec 18, 2020 5:13:37 PM

Who do you prefer?

    • Agent Carter (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
    • Agent Cody Banks (CIA)
    • Agent Sydney Bristow (SD-6)
    • James Bond. (Agent 007 in Her Majesty’s Secret Service)

or

    • Jerry Maguire (Sports Management International)  

Whoever your favorite agent from the fictional universe, you will no doubt agree that they all have more than one thing in common, including that they capture our imagination, maybe even our admiration.

Any agent works on behalf of another. Most of the characters above were in the tricky business of espionage, working on behalf of their country. Espionage is an inherently dramatic endeavor owing mostly to ample doses of danger and high stakes.

That’s true in cybersecurity as well; only our agents are mostly digital, and the missions they perform are entirely real. High stakes? You bet your ransomware they are. With hospital systems, elections and governments being hacked and ransomed, cybersecurity is more critical than ever before.

Done properly, security is an exercise in layered planning and multi-dimensional defenses.

Securing the physical world means lights, fences, door locks, cameras, and motion sensors—all serving a role in on-premise security. Silent alarms and the option to call 911 also play a part. This combination of prevention, prediction, deterrence, and response form resilient layers of protection. The same principals apply in the domain of cybersecurity.

It’s universally agreed among experts that the fundamental layers of a sound cybersecurity program include layers that inventory hardware and software assets, then identify and prioritize asset vulnerabilities. IGI built Nodeware to be the most efficient, simple, and lightweight Vulnerability Management solution available, and it addresses all of those layers with continuous inventory and vulnerability scanning.

We’re proud to announce this month that we’ve expanded the shields of protection to layer in a dedicated agent, which we call Nodeware® Agent. Nodeware Agent is a lightweight, single-computer credentialed scan for Windows that travels with the protected host. Simply install the agent on remote computers, like those used by remote employees, and connect it to your Nodeware account. Your distributed network will now include scans of all the remote hosts where Nodeware Agent is installed and running, even if not connected full time to a network .

Here are the most common questions we fielded in the beta testing of Nodeware Agent:

Q: What Operating Systems does Nodeware Agent run on?

A: Windows 10 64-bit, Server 2012 or later.

Q: How does the Nodeware Agent run?

A: Nodeware Agent runs as a Windows Service, meaning it runs silently in the background of the Windows environment.

Q: What does it cost?

A: Subscription customers can download unlimited Nodeware Agents, and software sensors free of charge as part of their existing subscription.

Q: Is a computer running the Nodeware Agent counted as a monitored asset?

A: Yes.

The Nodeware Agent is simple and lightweight, running as a Windows Service silently in the background of the Windows environment. With an annual Nodeware subscription, customers can download unlimited Nodeware Agents and software sensors free of charge.

The Nodeware Agent was made available to customers on December 7th. 

Contact your Nodeware representative for more information, or if you’re already using Nodeware, just visit the Sensors area to find the instructions to download, install and configure agents to your Nodeware account.

If you’re still on legacy sensor pricing, contact your Nodeware representative for more details on making the migration to subscription pricing, which opens the door to free software sensors.

Learn More about Subscription Pricing: https://support.Nodeware.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050424514-Asset-Subscription-Pricing-FAQ-s

New to Nodeware? See a Demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8KOybT-g0o