In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, businesses are facing themselves in the midst of growing cybersecurity threats, right from sophisticated malware attacks to data breaches and ransomware. One of the main reasons behind this sudden rise is businesses’ growing reliance on cloud-based apps and distributed teams. Traditional networking architectures are constantly struggling to keep pace with the demands for flexibility, scalability, and security leading to security loopholes.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the correlation between Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) and cybersecurity, examining how SD-WAN can promote network security, how businesses use SD-WAN for enhanced digital security, and approaches for integrating a security-first SD-WAN solution.
How Does SD-WAN Enhance Cybersecurity
There are a number of ways SD-WAN providers are promoting using the model for enhancing security in-offices. Let us look into the top ones.
1. Visibility and Control – SD WAN network offers companies a granular-level visibility into their network traffic, apps, and platform users, enabling improved control and end-to-end management of network resources. With the centralized management consoles and advanced analytics, the administrators can easily identify unsafe behavior and potential security threats in real time.
2. Traffic Segmentation – SD-WAN also enables the categorization of network traffic on the basis of application, user, or location, leading to the creation of several micro-segmentation zones which limits the lateral movement of threats inside the network. By keeping the critical assets and sensitive data away, businesses can lower the effect of security breaches and prevent threats more effectively.
3. Dynamic Threat Intelligence – Majority of the SD-WAN solutions can be integrated with threat intelligence feeds and security information and event management (SIEM) platforms for a proactive identification and mitigation of security threats. By using next-gen technologies such as machine learning algorithms and behavioral analytics, SD-WAN can also identify and then respond to the emerging threats with much better speed and accuracy.
4. Encryption and Authentication – SD-WAN backs robust encryption protocols and multi-factor authentication mechanisms that are popularly known for securing the data in transit and authenticating users that are accessing the network. Through the encryption of traffic between data centers, branch offices, and cloud environments, businesses can easily safeguard their operations from eavesdropping and unpermitted access.
5. Application-Aware Security Policies – Providers that understand what is the difference between sdn and sd wan are able to empower businesses to enforce application-aware security policies based on context-based functionalities like the device type, user identity, and location. By dynamically adjusting the different security controls on the basis of application requirements, organizations can also optimize performance without compromising on data security.
How are Companies Using SD-WAN for Better Cybersecurity
Understanding the correlation between cybersecurity and SD-WAN will make more sense when you have a set of use cases in front of you. Here are the top ones.
1. Branch Office Security – Multiple organizations tend to deploy SD-WAN solutions for securing their branch office connectivity, replacing the traditional MPLS circuits with safe, encrypted tunnels over the internet. By merging security-focused elements such as intrusion prevention, firewalling, and malware detection within the SD-WAN edge device, businesses can simplify their branch office security while reducing the complexity of their hardware.
2. Cloud Security – As businesses move their workloads and apps to a cloud-first environment, SD-WAN can play a critical role in making sure that they have secure connectivity and access. By merging with cloud access security brokers (CASBs) and cloud security posture management (CSPM) platforms, SD-WAN powers a safe access to cloud applications while promising consistent security policies across the many distributed environments.
3. Remote Workforce Security – With the increase in remote and mobile teams, companies are using SD-WAN solutions for extending security controls to their remote users accessing corporate resources from disparate locations. By deploying SD-WAN client software on the endpoint devices, businesses can easily establish safe VPN connections and put security policies in place for remote access.
4. Threat Intelligence Integration – A majority of the leading SD-WAN providers tend to offer integrations with security-first ecosystems and threat intelligence feeds, helping organizations with enriching network telemetry with threat intelligence data and automating all the threat detection and response workflows. By correlating all the network events with threat intelligence indicators, businesses are also able to identify and remediate security incidents more efficiently.
Ways to Implement a Security-Focused SD-WAN
Ensuring that your SD-WAN aligns with your cybersecurity goals will call for a proper implementation of the technology.
1. Risk Assessment and Compliance – Perform an extensive risk assessment activity for identifying security vulnerabilities and the necessary industry-specific compliance requirements. Next, define your security objectives, regulatory requirements, and risk tolerance levels to then chart out SD-WAN design and implementation plans.
2. Secure Connectivity – Ensure a safe connection between data centers, branch offices, and cloud environments by integrating strong encryption, authentication, and unhackable access controls. We also suggest configuring SD-WAN edge devices for establishing secure tunnels and enforcing security policies constantly across the network.
3. Unified Threat Management – Consolidate all the security functions within the SD-WAN edge device to ease the management process and lower the attack surface. You should also deploy unified threat management (UTM) elements such as intrusion detection, firewalling, web filtering, and antivirus to safeguard against a vast scope of security threats.
4. Zero Trust Security Model – Follow a zero-trust security model for verifying user identities, validating device posture, and enforcing the least privilege access controls. It can also help to implement micro-segmentation and least privilege access policies to limit the lateral movement of threats and mitigation of the security breaches impact .
5. Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response – Integrate a well-planned set of continuous monitoring tools and security analytics platforms for the detection and response towards security incidents in real time. Additionally, establish incident response processes and playbooks to seamlessly align incident triage, investigation, and remediation processes.
In conclusion, SD-WAN offers a powerful opportunity for businesses to enhance their cybersecurity by offering high visibility, control, and better agility over their networks. By using SD-WAN’s advanced-set features and integration of security best practices, businesses can easily strengthen their defenses against growing cyber threats and safeguard their critical assets and data in today’s vulnerable digital era.
