Portnox & CrowdStrike team up for real-time access control

Portnox has introduced an integration with CrowdStrike to enable organisations to enforce network access policies using real-time risk intelligence derived from endpoint telemetry.

The integration brings together Portnox's cloud-native Network Access Control (NAC) platform with CrowdStrike's device telemetry and Zero Trust Assessment (ZTA) scoring, allowing organisations to tailor access controls based on continuous device risk evaluation.

Portnox stated that addressing endpoint visibility and risk-based access control is essential to modern cybersecurity, and that the collaboration with CrowdStrike directly supports this goal by aligning endpoint intelligence with network access enforcement.

Denny LeCompte, Chief Executive Officer of Portnox, commented: "In an era where cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, dynamic, real-time access control is paramount. Our integration with CrowdStrike delivers on this need by empowering organizations to make informed, automated access decisions based on the most current device posture. This partnership significantly fortifies our customers' security posture, enabling them to confidently embrace Zero Trust principles and adapt to an ever-changing risk landscape."

CrowdStrike's Falcon platform is a cloud-delivered solution employing artificial intelligence to provide protection for endpoints, workloads, and identities. It features real-time detection and response, threat intelligence, and behaviour-based protection mechanisms aimed at preventing security breaches.

A distinctive metric offered by CrowdStrike is the ZTA score, which evaluates the risk level of a device based on inputs such as its health, known vulnerabilities, recent threat detections, patterns of user behaviour, and the operational status of the CrowdStrike agent. This score is represented on a scale from 0 to 100, and allows security teams to determine the appropriate level of network access or if device remediation is necessary.

Through the integration, Portnox's platform enhances its ability to implement detailed and adaptive access controls without relying on on-premises hardware or complex setups. New capabilities provided by the integration include:

• Automatic verification of whether a device is managed by the CrowdStrike Falcon agent before granting network access.
• Incorporation of ZTA scores into policy decision-making, so that only low-risk devices can receive full access, while devices assessed as high-risk may be assigned to guest networks or receive restricted access.
• Utilisation of real-time CrowdStrike risk signals to reinforce least-privilege models in both corporate and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scenarios.
• Automated network access control policies that adjust to changes in device risk posture as reported by CrowdStrike, with the goal of limiting threats before escalation.

The companies note that this collaborative capability is intended to benefit organisations pursuing Zero Trust architectures, particularly those managing hybrid work environments or BYOD programmes. The system is designed to ensure only trusted and compliant devices connect to corporate networks, blocking unauthorised or insecure devices and helping to maintain ongoing security as threat patterns change.