Cyber threats continue to evolve and become more difficult to address. The advent of more advanced artificial intelligence is making attacks worse in quantity and sophistication. Organizations have to contend with the reality of incessant attacks that only get worse over time, especially as they embrace more complex IT infrastructure that involve multiple cloud assets and SaaS solutions.
Cyber threats, cybersecurity – illustrative artistic photo. Image credit: Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels, free license
With IT resources now located on the cloud and away from the protection of on-premises security solutions, it is important to adopt security tools that extend into resources wherever they may be. This is where the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution comes into play. This security concept was introduced in 2019 by consulting firm Gartner, and has since become one of the most dependable security solutions for modern enterprises. It brings network security together with wide-area networking (WAN) functions to provide protection against a wide range of new threats. It offers a unified way to address various cyber attacks without compromising connectivity.
SASE’s approach in cyber defense
SASE is designed to address the weaknesses in the traditional hub-and-spoke network architecture, wherein traffic is usually routed through centralized data centers and security appliances. This arrangement is associated with a number of challenges, particularly the emergence of latency problems, reduced security efficacy, and increased infrastructure complexity.
With SASE, various network security functions are integrated with WAN capabilities to ensure secure access to apps and resources irrespective of their location. Secure Access Server Edge provides a comprehensive and adaptive cybersecurity approach that effectively addresses possible cyber attacks.
SASE’s defense model centers on the following key goals: the reduction of the complexity of using multiple network security tools, flexibility and scalability in protecting systems, and zero trust. These goals help attain key advantages that define SASE’s role in addressing new cyber threats.
Simplifying the complexity
One of the biggest challenges in the way organizations address security threats is the use of multiple cybersecurity products. They can result in cybersecurity tool bloat, which makes security operations inefficient. It is difficult to manage several tools and keep up with all the security incident alerts and related notifications. They pose a complexity problem that can be addressed with the help of SASE.
SASE provides a unified interface for the management of multiple security tools. It makes it easy to manage Firewall-as-a-Service, secure web gateways, data loss prevention systems, cloud access security brokers, and various other tools. Additionally, it enables centralized security policy orchestration and enforcement wherein administrators define granular access controls and security policies based on various factors for consistent enforcement across the entire network architecture.
It also leverages threat intelligence feeds from various sources, consolidating all relevant threat information to optimize their impact on threat detection. SASE also conducts advanced analytics in real-time to extract insights from threat intelligence beyond the threat identities. Through machine learning and behavioral analysis technologies, it is possible to anticipate threats or detect obscure vulnerabilities that would otherwise be overlooked given the multitude of security solutions used in an organization at the same time.
It is also worth noting that SASE emphasizes identity-driven security. It focuses on the identity of users and devices instead of prioritizing traditional network perimeters to determine the areas to be protected. It maximizes the use of identity and access management (IAM) tools to enforce granular controls and detect threats more accurately with the help of contextual information. This identity-focused defense does not only improve threat prevention; it also simplifies the complexities that come with using multiple threat detection solutions.
Ensuring scalability and flexibility
Another major challenge for cybersecurity at present is the need to adjust to the changing demands for cyber protection. Cybersecurity has to be dynamic and scalable. It must be capable of agilely keeping up with the changes in an organization’s IT infrastructure and expanding potential attack surfaces. It also needs to be flexible to address security across different platforms.
SASE provides the scalability and flexibility modern organizations need to ensure adequate cyber defense with its cloud-native protection. It integrates various security functions as a cloud-native service that can be used to secure systems in different locations. This cloud service can provide security across a variety of platforms, making it unnecessary for organizations to install security solutions locally and undertake maintenance routines per device.
Additionally, SASE delivers edge-centric security. This means that it brings security enforcement in close proximity to the users and devices, near the edge of the network. Instead of routing all traffic through centralized data centers, security controls are implemented at the edge. This results in significant improvements on latency and performance, ensuring faster responses to threats or attacks. This also infers the possibility of continuous threat monitoring and response. SASE platforms can include advanced capabilities to detect and remediate threats by continuously tracking network traffic and user behavior.
Moreover, SASE helps achieve optimized WAN connectivity while securing connections. It integrates software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) to dynamically choose the most efficient network paths based on the network conditions and what the apps require, ensuring the quality of connections between users and apps. This ensures consistent access to resources even in remote branch locations, which is important as the IT infrastructure of organizations keeps broadening with the adoption of new technologies and expansion of operations.
Implementing zero-trust security
SASE is also associated with zero-trust security, a crucial cybersecurity principle designed to combat the evolving sophistication of modern cyber threats. Security posture management systems that include SASE implement security scanning mechanisms that take away any presumption of regularity. No access or resource request is considered safe regardless of who makes the request. Everything is examined for possible anomalies or indications of malicious action.
Also, the zero-trust principle comes with the enforcement of the principle of least privilege, wherein the access privileges granted are always kept at a minimum. Users are only given the exact level of access or privileges they need to complete specific tasks to make sure that privileges are not abused or exploited especially in insider attacks.
Security without performance compromises
Secure Access Server Edge provides protection that competently addresses existing and emerging threats. Its cloud-native nature makes it suitable for the IT infrastructure of most modern organizations. The integration of multiple security tools under a unified interface simplifies the management of multiple security solutions while maximizing their impact on an organization’s overall security posture. Also, its edge-centric security approach makes it highly scalable and flexible and the implementation of zero-trust security makes SASE in-tune with the cybersecurity best practices at present. Importantly, SASE delivers all of these without having a noticeable impact on network performance.