As hackers have honed their ability to get dangerous code, like the Sasser worm, to jump right through an Internet browser without the inconvenience of having to wait for an e-mail user to open a file, vendors quickly moved their security and antivirus technology outward from the PC and on to the network.

This shift in intrusion protection spurred industry partnerships like Cisco Systems' Network Admissions Control (NAC) program, which brought rivals Symantec, Trend Micro, McAfee and others together under the banner of integration at the network level. It also unleashed a flurry of appliance-based security products that could be placed strategically about the network to scan for vulnerabilities and detect attacks.

By Dan Neel at Security Pipeline.

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