The new normal - decentralized networks

Exploding SaaS usage. Proliferating remote locations. Swelling ranks of roaming workers. It’s the new normal, and it’s driving a transformation in enterprise security and networking. The wide-scale use of cloud applications has become fundamental to business operations. New research from ESG notes that 86% of organizations today are extensively or moderately using public cloud computing services (Saas or IaaS).

One cloud service, multiple powerful security features

Your users are working from anywhere, accessing applications everywhere, while using a myriad of devices. With these shifts, centralized security policy enforcement diminishes, and the risk of successful attacks or compliance violations increases. How can you protect roaming workers, secure branch offices, and control the use of cloud-based applications without installing another appliance?

This new way of working demands a modern cybersecurity solution. Cisco Umbrella Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) is a cloud-delivered security service that unifies multiple functions in a single solution that traditionally required multiple on-premises appliances or single function cloud security services. Umbrella empowers organizations to adopt the cloud at their pace and be confident in the security, performance, and reliability of their direct-to-internet connections.

Security challenges

With these shifts, centralized security policy enforcement diminishes, and the risk of successful attacks or compliance violations increases. Security teams struggle to keep up. Many organizations have lots of separate point solutions that are difficult to integrate and manage. Sixty-four percent of organizations reported that network security at the edge has become more difficult than it was 2 years ago. And, 26% said that the number of disparate network security tools was a major contributor to that increased difficulty.1 These point products are generating thousands of alerts, but many go untouched. In fact, 52% of daily alerts are not investigated.

IT security pain points

Network decentralization and the accompanying security challenges underlie the top IT security pain points with which organization of all sizes, in all industries grapple. To lessen the pain (and create new value) security leaders are moving toward consolidated, cloud-delivered solutions that provide broad protection for users while also simplifying the environment, reducing bandwidth costs, and relieving resource constraints.

Secure web gateway

Gain more control and transparency and shield your workers from malware and other dangerous attacks. Umbrella’s secure web gateway (SWG) is a full proxy that logs and inspects your organization’s web traffic to deliver full visibility, URL and application-level controls, and advanced threat protection.

Cloud access security broker

Expose shadow IT quicker and more efficiently. Umbrella’s cloud access security broker (CASB) detects and reports on cloud applications in use across your environment. Insights can help guide cloud adoption, reduce risk, and block the use of offensive or inappropriate cloud applications. CASB secures user identities, prevents accounts from being compromised, and ensures cloud-based data is safe from threats or loss.

Cloud-delivered firewall

The Umbrella cloud-delivered firewall provides visibility and control for all traffic across all ports and protocols. This could include mobile apps, peer-to-peer file sharing, collaboration (for example, WebEx or Zoom), or any non-web or non-DNS traffic. It logs activity and blocks unwanted traffic using IP, port, and protocol rules (layer 3/4 firewall), application rules (layer 7 firewall), and intrusion prevention system (IPS) rules.

DNS-layer security

By enforcing security at the DNS-layer, Umbrella uses the internet’s infrastructure to block requests to malicious and unwanted destinations before a connection is even established, stopping threats over any port or protocol. Organizations can provision Umbrella’s DNS-layer security in minutes, typically while improving performance for users.

Data loss prevention

Umbrella data loss prevention (DLP) analyzes sensitive data in-line to provide visibility and control over sensitive data. DLP does more than retroactively alert you of potential leaks and abnormal file transfers. It blocks the transfer of your sensitive data before it even leaves your organization.

Remote browser isolation

Users who need to access potentially risky sites or uncategorized destinations for legitimate purposes require an added layer of protection against browser-based threats. Umbrella remote browser isolation (RBI) isolates web traffic from the user device and the threat in an “air gap,” so that users can safely access those sites without the possibility of malware infections.