Frequently Asked Questions

Action1 cloud servers are hosted by Amazon Web Services in data centers located in Virginia, USA, and Frankfurt, Germany. If your organization is subject to any local data privacy regulations that restrict you from trusting the above-mentioned location, please contact technical support to discuss your requirements.

Action1 was designed to take full advantage of state-of-the-art built-in security mechanisms of Amazon Web Services and with strict internal processes that ensure the highest standards of customer data protection. For example, internally we use multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and access on the need-to-know-basis, ensuring that no single person in our organization has ‘keys to the kingdom’ at any time. All communication between Action1 Cloud and Action1 Agents and Deployer occurs via the latest revision of SSL/TLS protocol with mutual authentication and encryption that provides complete protection against eavesdropping, data tampering, and even man-in-the-middle attacks. The Action1 Agent and Deployer distribution packages have security authentication information automatically embedded into them at download time (private encryption key, authentication certificate, and your customer ID) and no unauthenticated or clear-text communication ever occurs. Automatic agent updates are also secure from DNS spoofing and other sophisticated attacks because each downloaded update is verified for integrity to make sure it comes from the trusted source. To learn more about our secure architecture and internal organizational practices, please schedule a free demo and we will happily walk you through this.

Multi-factor authentication is designed to bring an extra layer of security to the sign-in process — after entering credentials, you are prompted to provide a one-time code. SMS is no longer considered safe since phone number ownership can be easily revoked and violated. In Action1, we recommend using authentication apps such as Google Authenticator, Twilio Authy, Duo Mobile, or Microsoft Authenticator. Also, you can leverage one-time codes sent to your corporate email. MFA ensures a higher level of protection while keeping your organization in line with data security standards.

Action1 Deployer and Action1 Agents use secure connections over TCP port 22543 to communicate with Action1 Cloud, so you need to have this TCP port open for direct outbound connections (bypassing any proxy servers). The inbound port 22551 should be open as well to allow 2P2 file distribution. For detailed information, see Firewall Configuration.

Action1 was designed from the ground up as a cloud-based technology with almost unlimited scalability to support millions of endpoints. Multi-tiered architecture automatically scales as more agents are rolled out.

Your storage quota depends on the number of endpoints connected to Action1 Cloud. Action1 typically reserves 1 GB per endpoint. For example, for a 100 endpoints license, we’ll provide you with up to 100 GB to store packages. If you need additional space, feel free to contact us. We can extend your storage quota for an upcharge.

Action1 agent is a tiny executable file (less than 6 MB) with a minimal resource footprint. Unless alert rules are enabled, it sits idle most of the time, waiting for your queries. If alerts are enabled, it uses slightly more CPU, memory, and disk resources, depending on the number of alert rules enabled and the complexity of these rules (such as filters applied to it). Generally, it uses only about 10-15 MB of disk space, 30-50 MB of memory and occasionally consumes 1 CPU to process queries and monitor alert conditions.

Action1 uses an efficient communication protocol that has little overhead. When using queries, the amount of bandwidth utilized depends on the query output (number of results returned). When using alerts, it generally consumes about 5 KB per alert generated (and there is a fixed number of alerts that can be generated: it’s currently set to 10 alerts per rule per hour). Plus there is some overhead related to automatic agent updates, which happen from time to time. Every update is roughly 6 MB in size for each endpoint and it generally happens a few times per month as we continuously improve the functionality of the service. However, the update overhead can be substantially reduced if Action1 Deployer is utilized. In this case, the update is downloaded from Action1 Cloud only once and then it automatically gets distributed to all the agents via the local network.

Action1 was built from the ground up without using any third-party products or services other than Amazon Web Services. We do not host any third-party products on our servers, and we do not utilize any third-party products or services. Also, as a technology company, it’s our policy to NEVER outsource any of our core technology activities, including development, DevOps, or technical support.

Fair question. Yes, you can accomplish almost everything under the Sun by utilizing scripting. However, in this case you have to take into account all the risks and maintenance costs, deal with complexity, scalability, and reliability issues. You can find almost any kind of script or utility online and use it at your own risk, running it under administrative credentials. You also have to maintain the scripts as your systems and processes evolve. Managing, interpreting, and automatically analyzing data generated by scripts on a regular basis is a very tedious task that can require substantial management framework (scheduled tasks, encrypted data storage, email alerts, etc). On top of all that, add network connectivity issues (are all of your endpoints online 100% of the time?) and general reliability and security of your custom system. Action1 takes care of these issues and adds a lot of additional value via uniform data analytics capabilities and efficient real-time data processing.