Le zero trust s’panouit chez Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks has strengthened its security portfolio with products for users of corporate networks planning to move to a zero trust environment. “The new features focus on a number of zero trust mechanisms – including SaaS, cloud and DNS which will be available in June – and will significantly facilitate zero trust adoption across the enterprise,” said Anand Oswal. , senior vice president and general manager of Palo Alto. “Because more and more people are working from anywhere, they need fast and constant access to data and applications in the distributed cloud, no matter where they are”, said he added. “A comprehensive approach to network security, based on zero trust, is essential to preserve productivity in these new remote, mobile and hybrid working modalities,” Oswal said.

And while traditional VPNs remain the primary means of controlling corporate security for remote users, zero trust is gaining momentum, especially for cloud operations. In October, a study by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) found that the Covid-19 pandemic had prompted 60% of companies to accelerate their zero trust network strategies. The analysts found that 61% of companies said pandemic-related changes in their operations directly led to an increase in safety concerns.

URL filtering

Regarding Palo Alto, the cybersecurity specialist has embarked on the path of zero trust with an integrated CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) to protect SaaS applications, which allows customers, in combination with Cloud Identity Engine, to authenticate and authorize their users on corporate networks, clouds and applications. “Every access policy decision should be made on the basis of verification of the identities of users, applications and devices,” Oswal wrote in a blog post about the announcement. “Our context-based access policies have always been fundamental, and context is derived from users, applications and devices,” he added. “Cloud Identity Engine can be set up and up and running in about 10 minutes for a large enterprise. Cloud-based point-and-click integrations with hybrid, multi-cloud, and on-premises software identity providers simplify authentication, authorization and single-sign on.

The OEM also added the Advanced URL Filtering service, which the company claims protects against zero-day web attacks with online machine learning capabilities. “Advanced URL Filtering uses real-time protection against threats and credential theft, combined with industry-leading anti-phishing capabilities,” wrote Anand Oswal. “Advanced URL Filtering prevents potentially the most damaging web attacks against corporate networks, over 40% of which are still unknown to other vendors,” he said. Palo Alto has also introduced seven other zero trust related features for DNS Security that can identify and hinder the latest DNS layer network attacks and data exfiltration techniques like DNS dangling or floating DNS and ultra slow tunneling, used to steal data stealthily, ”Oswal said.

Zero trust announced at Microsoft and IBM at RSA Conference 2021

Other zero trust enhancements made by Palo Alto include the addition to its firewall family of a high-end model for campuses and a hyperscale model, PA-5450, and PA-400 for branch offices. The PA-5450 delivers 120 Gbps throughput with security services enabled, four times the previous generation (30 Gbps throughput for threat prevention on the PA-5260). This template is specially designed to apply ML-powered decryption and security to stop zero-day attacks, and known threats. Customers can purchase the chassis and then upgrade from one to five cards as the business grows. “The PA-400 series delivers up to 10 times better performance than Palo Alto’s previous branch firewall and supports zero-touch provisioning to simplify deployment to large numbers of sites,” continued Mr Oswal said.

Zero trust was also at the heart of the RSA Conference 2021 online security conference May 17-21. For example, Microsoft announced additional security features for its Azure AD Conditional Access real-time policy engine, which makes it easier for customers to manage security policies and access control. “Hybrid work, which mixes remote and on-site work, has extended the attack surface, complexity and risk as perimeters are now more and more elastic,” wrote Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president Security, Compliance and Identity at Microsoft. “The zero trust strategy will be one of the main concerns for many companies because its principles – explicitly verify, grant the least privileged access possible and assume the violation – help to maintain security in the complexity of hybrid environments”, a- she declared.

More secure access to company resources

IBM has also embarked on zero trust by recently announcing a SaaS version of Cloud Pak for Security which now includes security models with a roadmap of security capabilities, plus guidance on how to integrate them into an architecture. zero trust. Based on these models, companies can define user access to data and reduce exposure in the event of a compromise. “This connection will help generate insights into data usage and privacy risks, enforce security policies, automate corrective actions, and help organizations detect and respond effectively to issues.” risk and compliance, ”IBM said. “Zero trust is the best way to approach the complexity of security that challenges our businesses today,” said Mary O’Brien, Managing Director of IBM Security, during her keynote at the RSA Conference. “Traditional security used to focus on building a perimeter of protection around valuable assets. This practice has worked well for decades for the majority of our assets. But this is no longer the case today. It is not uncommon for all users, data and applications today to be in different environments, and they all need to connect to each other quickly, transparently and securely, ”he said. -she adds. “Ultimately, zero trust is a multidimensional approach to risk management and data protection, where nothing is inherently reliable,” she said.

Present online during Mary O’Brien’s talk, Dow Chemical’s CISO Mauricio Guerra said that Dow Chemical decided to deploy a zero trust network architecture because it needed it to enable users to have full and secure access to all forms of Internet, cloud and IoT services. “One of our first zero trust implementations involved secure internet access. Next, we delivered secure access to our various sites, replacing the data pools we had previously. We are in the process of replacing our telecommunications network, and the zero trust is helping us with an SD-WAN solution, ”he said.