Hundreds of millions of malware attacks occur worldwide every year, and businesses deal with the effects of viruses, worms, keyloggers and ransomware each year. Malware is a pernicious threat and the number one reason companies look for cybersecurity solutions.
Naturally, companies want to find products that stop malware and are looking for solutions to do so.but malware protection It’s not enough, we need a more holistic approach. Enterprises need to prevent malware from entering their networks. Additionally, systems and processes should be put in place to limit the damage should malware infect user devices.
This approach not only stops and mitigates damage caused by malware, but also defends against other types of threats such as phishing, insider threats, and credential theft through supply chain attacks.
Factor 1: Malware Protection and Web Filtering
The first and most sensible starting point is an anti-malware solution. It’s important to look for malware solutions that can address today’s major threats, including known malware, polymorphic variants, ransomware, zero-day exploits, and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). This requires a powerful toolkit of virus signature databases, virtual code execution, heuristics and other machine learning techniques.
Ideally, also use malware protection for both your network and endpoints. This requires two different solutions, but a multi-layered approach means that something is less likely to work.
In addition to malware protection, web filtering keeps employees away from potential threats by banning known malicious sites, suspicious sites, and other places online you don’t want your managed devices to access. increase.
Factor 2: Zero Trust Network Access
All security strategies in modern network environments must embrace the principles of Zero Trust.The most practical implementation is Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).
Zero Trust itself is a set of security ideas based on the idea of “never trust, always verify”. That is, no one should be allowed to log into the network and stay as long as they like. When you do this, you can’t really know if the logged-in user is who they say they are, or if it’s a threat actor who has obtained a legitimate user’s login credentials.
Instead, each user should be granted access only to the resources they need to do their job, not all cloud resources or on-premises servers within the company. For example, a HR employee has no practical reason to access her company’s Git server, which contains the codebase, or her SQL database, which contains sensitive customer information. So, by default, the network should keep HR employees in one group for her and not allow access to that information.
This approach applies to all departments. Only allow access to the resources they need to do their job, and not allow access to anything else.
However, simply segmenting access at the application level is not sufficient to be considered Zero Trust. In fact, this level of access restriction, known as microsegmentation, is only part of the Zero Trust approach.
A full ZTNA implementation also includes contextual checks, including security status of managed devices, time-based access rules, and geographic requirements.
For example, managed devices may be required to run a specific minimum version of Windows or macOS. You can require that all devices run a specific antivirus solution, or that a specific security certificate be installed somewhere on the device.
Micro-segmentation, which allows specific people to access specific applications, combined with context-based authentication rules, provides a complete Zero Trust approach.
Additionally, access rules are required not only for users on managed devices, but also for users on unmanaged devices. The latter is best handled by an agentless ZTNA solution. In this solution, people access individual applications through web portals that cannot be found on the open Internet. Again, contextual rules can be applied, such as allowing access only during certain hours or disallowing access based on location.
With a ZTNA strategy in place, it becomes much more difficult for attackers to traverse business networks in search of sensitive data. Ransomware will have a much harder time encrypting all of a company’s files, and a disgruntled employee won’t be able to steal so much data or cause other chaos in the company. .
Fight malware and protect your network from the cloud
All these tools and technologies: ZTNA, malware protection, and web filtering Works best as part of a cloud-based integrated network security solution such as perimeter 81Being cloud-based means there is no hardware to maintain or upgrade and scalability is much easier. means that you can manage
An integrated security solution that helps you manage your network and network security is off to a great start in protecting your business.
