CoCo compliance

Resources

• LANGuardian architecture
• Online demo

 

Code of Connection compliance

LANGuardian provides a composite network view and reporting that enables local authorities in the United Kingdom to demonstrate compliance with the Code of Connection, which is a prerequisite for connection to the Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSx).

GCSx is a network that provides secure connectivity for communications and data transfers between local authorities and government departments in England and Wales. Local authorities must access this network over secure connections. The security of these connections is specified in the Code of Connection, often referred to as the GCSx CoCo in England and Wales, and as the GSx CoCo in Scotland. The CoCo specification is confidential and can be accessed only by the GCSx community, who must implement the necessary controls and ensure their networks comply with the specification. Member networks are audited annually for compliance with CoCo.

The network monitoring and reporting capabilities of LANGuardian provide the information you need to help you demonstrate CoCo compliance:

• Access control

  You can validate access to the network by IP address, machine name or username. LANGuardian provides an audit trail for forensic and compliance auditing purposes and can show which users are trying to access sensitive areas of the network. It can also raise alerts to notify network administrators of access to resources and data by non-privileged users.

• IP addressing

  CoCo requires that a compliant IP address be defined for internal network use. LANGuardian can identify and report on the IP address block in use by the internal network within an organization.

• Firewalls

  The LANGuardian traffic analysis engine accepts raw traffic and flow data. It can monitor inbound traffic through the firewall to provide validation of acceptable inbound traffic.

• Intrusion detection

  LANGuardian includes an advanced network intrusion detection system that enables real-time detection and alerting of malicious events that occur on your network. Configured via a rule-based language, it can monitor network traffic using the signature, protocol, and anomaly methods of inspection.

• Historical network data

  As time goes on and you have been running LANGuardian for a while, its built-in database stores the details of past network activity, which you can use to create an audit trail for the Code of Connection compliance audit.

• Proxies

  LANGuardian includes a proxy traffic decoder engine that enables you to passively monitor Internet traffic that is routed through proxy servers.

• Content analysis

LANGuardian monitors all incoming and outgoing traffic that passes through the network’s core switch. It identifies and alerts to critical network events such as infected machines, large data transfers, and the presence of spyware and malware on the network.

• Mail servers and labelling

  LANGuardian decodes incoming and outgoing SMTP traffic to extract details of the IP address, date, sender, recipient, and subject from email headers. You can configure LANGuardian to generate alerts when it encounters mail messages containing specified senders, recipients, or subject headers.

Who uses LANGuardian?

Many local authorities in the United Kingdom use LANGuardian as part of their toolset for Coco compliance, including:

• Tower Hamlets Council
• Staffordshire County Council
• North Tyneside Council
• Merton Council
• Nottingham City Council
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• South Holland District Council

Find out more

If you have any questions about how LANGuardian can help you with your CoCo compliance requirements, please contact us. If you would like to see LANGuardian in action, please try our online demo system or download a free 30-day trial to try it on your own network with your own data.