Nowhere to Hide: Rooting Out Threats with Enhanced Network Visibility

Most organizations today struggle to evaluate what’s happening inside the complex and interconnected networks they rely upon. According to research from the Ponemon Institute, nearly two-thirds of organizations say they lack visibility into their network traffic. This essentially leaves them blind to ransomware, malware, zero-day exploits and other advanced threats that can piggyback on legitimate network traffic.

Monitoring and analyzing network traffic is critical for facilitating proactive threat detection, incident response and overall cybersecurity management. It enables organizations to detect abnormal patterns or suspicious activities that may indicate a security breach, which helps security teams respond swiftly to mitigate the impact of cyber threats before they escalate.

Network visibility issues have become acute with the shift to hybrid and remote work models and the increased reliance on multiple cloud platforms and services. This decentralization contributes to a constantly changing network topology that makes it difficult to identify and respond to potential security threats and performance issues.

Obstructed View

Shadow IT also hampers visibility. The use of unauthorized devices, applications or services without the knowledge or approval of the IT department creates security blind spots that can become entry points for malicious actors. Unapproved IT assets often contain serious vulnerabilities, including misconfigurations or malicious payloads, that dramatically increase the risk of malware attacks, data breaches and other liabilities.

Data growth is another issue. With annual data growth rates of 25 percent or more, many organizations are struggling to identify where their data resides. According to a report by the Institute of Directors and Barclays, nearly half of organizations cannot identify the location of their critical data. That lack of visibility seriously compromises their ability to secure and protect their data.

Device sprawl can also reduce visibility. According to the Ponemon Institute, the average organization today manages approximately 135,000 endpoint devices — but few have an accurate inventory of those devices. Poor visibility into the endpoint environment makes it difficult to monitor and validate device security.

Tools and Solutions

Fortunately, there are numerous tools and solutions that help organizations monitor, analyze and manage network activities. These include:

• Network traffic analysis (NTA) tools monitor and inspect data packets traversing a network, providing insights into communication patterns, bandwidth usage and potential security threats.
• Endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions monitor and respond to security incidents at the endpoint level. By providing visibility into the activities of individual devices, EDR solutions enable organizations to detect and respond to threats originating from both within and outside the network.
• Cloud access security brokers (CASB) provide visibility into traffic moving to and from the cloud. They also control access to cloud services by blocking unauthorized users or endpoints.
• User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) tools leverage machine learning to detect anomalies, unusual behavior, and potential security threats. By analyzing the behavior of users and entities within the network, UEBA tools can identify deviations from normal patterns.
• Data loss prevention (DLP) tools enhance network visibility by monitoring user devices, email clients, file-sharing services, network gateways and other network entry and exit points. They alert administrators when the sharing or transfer of data violates company policies.

In most cases, organizations will want to use a combination of tools to increase network visibility. However, that can be expensive. Plus, few organizations have the in-house expertise needed to implement, integrate, monitor and manage these tools.

Working with SageNet’s managed network services team can be much more efficient and far less expensive. We have more than 30 years of experience deploying and managing some of the world’s most sophisticated networks. Contact us to learn more about improving your network visibility.