It will help the oil company to implement security, access and compliance policies through a central management point rather than configure policies throughout the network on individual devices

Kuwait Oil Company has selected Cisco security solutions for its network hardware refresh.

It has installed Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC), a powerful, easy-to-deploy admission control and compliance enforcement component of the Cisco TrustSec solution, says a statement.

With comprehensive security features, in-band or out-of-band deployment options, user authentication tools, bandwidth and traffic filtering controls, Network Admission Control is a comprehensive offering for controlling and securing networks, it says.

It will help Kuwait Oil to implement security, access and compliance policies through a central management point rather than configure policies throughout the network on individual devices.

The Cisco Annual Security Report 2015 noted that malware encounters are on the rise in the energy, oil and gas sectors.

Maintaining network security and operational efficiency in today’s distributed enterprise networks demands new technology.

A more holistic approach to network access security incorporates accurate identification of every user and device; easy onboarding, provisioning and securing of all devices; and centralised, context-aware policy management to control user access – whoever, wherever and from whatever device.

Also integrated into Kuwait Oil’s network will be the Cisco Identity Services Engine, which will help conquer enterprise mobility challenges and safeguard the evolving network.

It is a security policy management and control platform that automates and simplifies access control and security compliance for wired, wireless and VPN connectivity. The Identity Services Engine offers an easy onboarding experience, so that personal devices can be secured and granted access through a simple self-service portal. It is primarily used to provide highly secure access and guest access, support bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives, and enforce usage policies in conjunction with Cisco TrustSec technology.

Abdulsalam Al-Matrouk, senior engineer - Telecommunications, Kuwait Oil Co says: 'The number of devices and applications accessing Kuwait Oil Company’s network both inside and outside our firewall has been steadily growing, thereby creating more attack vectors for hackers to exploit.

'Cisco’s broad set of solutions covering the broadest set of attack vectors, leveraging both global and local intelligence, met our company needs perfectly. Cyber-attacks are getting increasingly sophisticated and discreet and are driven by financial or political gain. The good news is that the oil and gas organisations like ours can put measures in place to counter attacks.'

Ziad Salameh, managing director and general manager Gulf, Levant and Pakistan and Middle East Services Leader, Cisco, says: 'We applaud the Kuwait Oil Company for putting security at the forefront of its agenda. Cisco has been helping securing countries, cities and businesses of all sizes for decades, and we understand the rapidly changing security landscape.

'Our continued investment in software, data analytics and threat intelligence along with our assessment, monitoring, response and operational capabilities offer advanced threat protection across the entire attack continuum.'