By Scott Goree - VP, Global Partners & Alliances, Skyhigh Security
October 27, 2022 3 Minute Read
Thanks for joining us for another topic in our Skyhigh Security “Ask Me Anything” series. Our audience selected “Top security issues that come with implementing a hybrid work schedule.”
The hybrid workforce expansion has caused a shift in how organizations operate, and it’s safe to say that’s not changing. To support a business in borderless work environments, organizations have accelerated the migration of their applications and workloads to public clouds.
Where Traditional VPNs Fall Short
Before this seismic shift to hybrid and remote working, companies often employed VPN access for those times when remote access was absolutely necessary, such as during business travel or to back up or access important documents or data. But VPNs are not designed for a majority of the workforce connecting remotely to cloud-based deployments, leading to challenges.
- Traditional VPNs require backhauling remote and distributed user traffic to data centers, creating an inefficient process and causing bandwidth and latency issues.
- The quick increase in remote workforce traffic has throttled the network bandwidth and overtaxed infrastructure capacity.
- Once a user is on a VPN, malicious actors can move laterally and exploit the open access to any resources on the corporate network.
Enterprises need a reliable solution that provides infinite cloud capacity to enable secure access to private applications. This means offering support for any load scenario and being able to extend cloud capacity when needed, no matter where you are. This type of connectivity could reduce network latency and allow a consistent and seamless user experience while accessing both SaaS and private applications.
The Zero-Trust Approach
The ideal alternative to VPN allows “least privileged” access to specific, authorized applications and not the entire underlying network. This tactic is in sync with a zero-trust network access (ZTNA) approach, which operates on the principle of “Never trust. Always verify.” ZTNA connects users to private applications by first determining the trust attributes of users, their devices, and their connections before allowing access.
But you’ll want to go beyond just providing data access; you also want to provide visibility on how data is used. In a distributed workforce, data can be accessed from client-based and clientless devices. It’s crucial to secure remote access to private applications as well as the sensitive data within those applications.
While traditional ZTNA solutions provide fast, direct access to private assets while employing granular dynamic access policies that prevent oversharing or lateral movement, they lack stringent data protection controls to secure the sensitive data hosted within those assets. So, you need integrated data loss prevention (DLP) to effectively control data collaboration and provide secure access to private applications from any location and device.
Many large enterprises are also considering wide-ranging Security Service Edge (SSE) solutions in order to regain the defense of on-premises web security. These solutions typically encompass a collection of integrated, cloud-centric security capabilities that facilitates safe access to websites, cloud, and applications.
Move Beyond VPN and Protect in New Ways
Skyhigh Security’s approach to hybrid work scenarios treats remote access differently than traditional VPN. Skyhigh Security SSE is the industry-leading comprehensive, cloud-native security platform that converges a set of security solutions, providing complete visibility and control over your data from a unified console, no matter where it resides. With access delivered from a secure service edge, you can protect users and data in new ways, from full visibility over remote worker traffic to unmanaged device control and cloud-native activity monitoring.
Skyhigh Private Access, part of the Skyhigh Security SSE portfolio, is a data-centric ZTNA solution that provides DLP scanning and seamless remote browser isolation (RBI) integration for robust data protection. It lets you apply a unified policy across web, SaaS, and private applications –from a fully converged platform managed from one single console to align with your roadmap to SSE. Private access offers:
- Blazing fast speed through hyperscale service edge with 99.999% availability
- Deep data inspection using inline DLP and classification
- Secure private applications from potentially risky user devices through RBI-driven isolated web sessions
To find out more about Skyhigh Security Private Access, click here or visit us here to learn more about Skyhigh Security SSE.
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