Cisco vs Forescout

About Forescout

Forescout sells the Vistaro platform, which delivers Universal Zero Trust Network Access, OT security, and continuous exposure management. Forescout Vistaro continuously discovers, assesses, controls, and governs every connected asset across IT, IoT, IoMT, and OT. Forescout's platform includes skills-based agentic AI, generative AI, and ML, with human-in-the-loop control across discovery, analysis, and response. VistaroAI continuously analyzes asset intelligence, exposure changes, threat context, and policy posture, then puts the right work in front of the right people, automatically. Forescout integrates with hundreds of security and IT products.^{[1][4][6][7][10][13]}

Forescout assigns devices to appropriate VLANs or applies access control lists based on predefined policies. Forescout's agentless controls enforce access policies without requiring software installations on devices. The Forescout Device Cloud has over 12 million device fingerprints and provides device classification.^[6]

Forescout delivers adaptive Universal Zero Trust Network Access for IT, IoT, IoMT, and OT, on-premises and remote. Forescout Vistaro analyzes 800+ data points from activity logs, threat intelligence, compliance, identity management, SIEMs and more to orchestrate policy enforcement among PEPs. Forescout Vistaro lets users simulate segmentation designs using actual traffic flows and risk overlays to validate controls, fine-tune policies, and flag violations before enforcement. Forescout has contributed to NIST SP 1800-35 Zero Trust Architecture reference implementations.^[7]

Forescout's exposure management continuously discovers, assesses, and prioritizes cyber risk across the entire connected asset estate, with automated compliance to NIST CSF, IEC 62443, and HIPAA. Forescout exposure management uses multi-factor scoring based on configuration, behavior, and threat intel, including KEVs, EPSS, and IoCs. Forescout eyeFocus is an asset intelligence solution that provides the foundation for understanding the security posture of an attack surface, through Agentic AI, risk-based prioritization, and persistent asset intelligence. Forescout eyeFocus keeps contextualized asset data in a searchable 90-day persistent asset inventory to track changes in configuration and risk posture over time. Forescout eyeFocus calculates a multifactor risk score based on configuration, function and behavior. Forescout eyeSentry is a cloud-native platform for Continuous Threat and Exposure Management.^[8][9]

Forescout provides in-depth OT/ICS network visibility, real-time threat detection and cyber risk mitigation. Forescout supports passive discovery, active queries, direct infrastructure integration or APIs across IT, OT, IoT, IoMT, and BAS systems. Forescout detects and manages unpatched systems using a curated vulnerability database enriched with EPSS, CISA KEVs, and Vedere Labs threat intelligence. Forescout integrates over 180 data sources to bridge the divide between IT and OT. LAN CP maps network communication flows and detects anomalies such as undesired hosts, irregular communication patterns, and unexpected process commands. Vedere Labs uncovers emerging threats and feeds purpose-built intelligence directly into the Forescout platform.^[6][10][11]

Forescout SRA is a controlled access layer that governs how users connect to critical systems, what they can reach, and what can happen during the session. Forescout SRA supports on-prem, cloud, and hybrid deployments with options for appliances, virtual machines, and containers on existing hardware. Forescout Vistaro combines a wide range of discovery techniques with cloud-powered intelligence for every medical device connected to a clinical network. Forescout Vistaro automates the discovery, assessment and control of every connected device, including vulnerable IoT assets that are increasingly exploited to gain network access. Forescout discovers and tracks which devices are not PQC compliant.^{[4][6][7][10][12]}

Forescout Vistaro offers options for on-premises installations, virtual machines and Docker-based containerized deployments. Forescout sensors can be configured as active sensors that query network infrastructure. Global manufacturers, energy providers, MoDs, and critical infrastructure operators use the Forescout platform. Forescout states that its customer data includes more than 300 healthcare providers. Forescout's detection system is built on over 20 years of field experience and operates across IT, IoT, OT, BAS and IoMT environments.^{[6][7][8][10][11][12]}