FAQ - Technical

FAQ - Technical

The following is a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) of a technical nature, focusing on better understanding the Vanadium solution:

1. Where is the Vanadium server located on the network?

Vanadium is usually installed on the management subnet of the enterprise network. Vanadium requires network visibility the same as any NMS or SOC system, in order to provide its full capabilities and utilize its monitoring and configuration grabbing features.

2. How does Vanadium collect the information? Does it require agents on network elements?

Vanadium requires no agents installed on network elements or on end stations. All of Vanadium functionality is enabled by using existing management protocols and the relevant credentials.

3. What types of credentials are required for Vanadium operation?

Vanadium requires READ ONLY credentials in order to perform information grabbing. For Windows based end points, Vanadium requires a Power user (with read only rights and the proper commands enabled) or Domain administrator credentials. For Linux and Unix machines, Vanadium requires a SUDO user (with read only rights and the proper commands enabled) credentials or root.

4. What protocols are utilized by Vanadium in order to grab the information from the IT?

Vanadium utilizes protocols such as RPC and WMI in order to grab information from Windows based machines. For other types of elements such as network devices, Unix and Linux, Vanadium utilizes protocols such as SNMP, Telnet and SSH.

5. What is the technology basis of the Vanadium management interface?

Vanadium is operated and controlled by using a simple and friendly Vanadium client. By using the Vanadium client, the user is able to control all operations of Vanadium.

6. Does the Vanadium server require a special kind of hardware or OS?

No. The Vanadium server is installed on standard hardware with Windows 2003 OS.

7. Does Vanadium require any updates? How is it done?

Vanadium requires updates in order to keep up with new critical patches, P2P applications, malware, internal functionalities, and new capabilities. The updates may be done automatically by using a secured and encrypted web connection to the Vanadium-Soft server, or off-line using update files (issued by Vanadium-Soft) that can be easily uploaded to the Vanadium server using the Vanadium client.

8. What is the frequency of the network scans performed by Vanadium?

Vanadium performs various types of scans such as port scans and inventory scans. Vanadium administrator has full control on the frequency of each type of scan on each part of the network. Scans frequency may be defined based on scanned components importance and/or network links capacity.

9. How much traffic does Vanadium generate on the network? Is there any control on the generated traffic?

Vanadium administrator has full control on the amount of traffic generated by Vanadium. The amount of traffic generated by Vanadium is derived from the concurrent number of scans, scans frequency and network size. By using Vanadium client, it is also possible to set an upper limit for the bandwidth consumed by Vanadium.

10. Can Vanadium utilize Vulnerability Assessment results performed by 3rd party scanners?

Vanadium can import Vulnerability Assessment results / reports from 3rd party Vulnerability Scanners and use their data as part of its information.

11. What types of policy templates are available for Vanadium users?

Vanadium includes various types of templates for IT security policies and for IT regulatory compliance. These templates include: hardening templates based on CIS, NIST, PCI DSS and more; as well as IT regulatory compliance templates such as COBIT 4.1, ISO 27001, and more.

12. What is the common usage of Vanadium IT regulatory compliance templates?

Vanadium templates of IT regulatory compliance provide a walk through of the whole regulation. Based on the type of IT controls, the user can provide various types of answers to all sections of the regulation (such as attach file, manual control or automatic). The bottom line is an updated status of the compliance.

13. Can the user adjust the hardening templates to his specific requirements?

Yes. Since Vanadium is a platform, it enables GUI based capability of editing hardening templates and even creating tailor made hardening templates. The user can create as many hardening templates as required for unlimited groups of machines in the IT infrastructure (as derived from the business environment of the organization).

14. How can the user adjust Vanadium for his unique requirements?

Vanadium supports a state-of-the-art grouping capability that enables the user to slice and dice all of the gathered network information (topology, inventory, and vulnerabilities) according to his unique requirements. The groups are utilized as building blocks for IT regulatory compliance and / or security policy definitions. The grouping mechanism is always updated and re-validated with the most recent information gathered from the enterprise network.

In order to facilitate the usage of the group feature, Vanadium includes hundreds of automatic groups that are automatically created and may be used. For example: subnets (all IPs located in a subnet), OS (all IPs that share the same version of Operating System), etc.

There is no limitation on the number of groups, the number of network elements in each group, or the number of groups of which each network element is a member.

15. Does Vanadium include alerting capability? What are the events that can be alerted by Vanadium?

Vanadium includes an advanced alerting system that is capable of alerting the user on any event such as: (1) Add/remove from a group; (2) Security policy breach detected; (3) System alert (CPU, Disk). Vanadium user can configure the alert severity, frequency and type (email, syslog).

16. Can Vanadium install patches or make configuration changes in order to fix detected problems?

Vanadium is a monitoring and alerting tool that causes no changes in the enterprise network. However, its advanced reporting capability includes full details of each finding and recommendations can be utilized by IT operation teams in order to fix detected breaches and problems.

Future releases of Vanadium will include basic and non-automatic remediation capabilities for workstations.

17. Can I use Vanadium on my laptop computer?

It is not recommended installing and running the Vanadium software solution over a laptop due to performance issues. However it is possible to install it on a laptop running Windows XP operating system.

18. Can I define my own policy templates on the Vanadium?

Yes. The Vanadium solution provides an easy to follow Wizard for adding and editing policy rules. The Vanadium solution also provides you with the option to mix and match tests from several pre-defined templates (based on best practices such as CIS, NIST, and PCI-DSS). You can add a schedule to every policy you define, in order for it to be re-validated by required and defined time frame.

19. Can the Vanadium solution work in a passive mode?

No. The Vanadium solution is based on real-time prevention and policy compliance validation goals that can only be achieved by actively quarrying network elements and operating systems.

20. Are there any special applications or drivers that I need to install before the Vanadium installation takes place?

No. The Vanadium installation process includes all necessary components in order to make sure that Vanadium functions correctly. It is important to have a fresh installation of the operating system before running the Vanadium installation.