Secure Service Edge for Hybrid Work Environments

As employees use hybrid work environments to access applications and information, organizations must secure remote workers. A secure service edge can help achieve this.

SSE is an architecture built for the cloud that combines security and networking in one platform. This enables continuous security coverage across cloud, SaaS and private applications from an unified policy framework.

Access Control

It is important to have an SSE solution that covers all aspects of secure service edge. As employees and trusted partners increasingly access content, apps, data, and other resources via mobile or internet devices, a SSE solution will become more and more essential. SSE provides protection against malicious or unauthorized access. SSE also allows secure access to cloud, web and private applications.

SSE, a cloud platform, integrates networking functions and security, including software-defined wide-area network (SDWAN), firewalls as services, secure web portals (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). It provides consistent application and security enforcement for users and locations while providing centralized visibility of traffic.

SSE has a zero-trust approach to access control, which is based on user identity. Users are never placed on the corporate networks. This allows for fast and reliable WAN connectivity without the need of a virtual private network (VPN). In addition, a robust defense-in-depth strategy for detecting and preventing malware and other threats is an important part of SSE.

Threat Protection

SSE protects internet sessions from threats, so users are able to connect securely with critical business apps no matter their location. This enables hybrid-work for employees, secures data and cloud connectivity, accelerates migrations to the cloud, and simplifies M&A integration.

Security services are delivered from a single cloud platform that can follow user-to-app connections regardless of location or device. This reduces risks by eliminating gaps between products and removing the need for manual updating of traditional legacy appliances.

Zero trust access: SSE should only allow access to the least privileged users based on zero trust policies, which include user roles and behaviors, devices, applications and content. This reduces the attack surface by preventing lateral movement, protecting applications from discovery and preventing lateral movements.

Enforcing policy control: SSE combines unified threat prevention capabilities with CASB and ZTNA technologies to enforce corporate policies on all end users, regardless of where they are in the network or what devices they are using. This reduces the risk of ransomware, insider threats and other threats when employees access sensitive data or use cloud apps that do not comply with corporate policies.

Data Security

The information of remote and portable users is important to organizations. Secure service edges delivers security through the unification of web gateways (SWG), cloud-access security brokers (CASB), as well as zero-trust network access (ZTNA).

SSE offers cloud-based data loss protection capabilities that allow sensitive data to easily be found, classified and secured. This can be used to support compliance policies like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard(PCI DSS), and GDPR.

SSE products must also offer advanced threat prevention, such as cloud-based firewalls (FWaaS), CASB analysis of data stored in SaaS software, and adaptive security access control. SSE solutions must include adaptive access control, which identifies and adjusts access based on changes in device posture.

Monitoring

It is crucial to monitor Internet sessions when you are working with a Secure Service Edge. This lets you see how your network works and what applications are being utilized.

Monitoring will help you identify problems before they occur and safeguard your business. It can also improve user experience and lower costs.

SSE platforms which can monitor web and data traffic on a global level are essential. You should choose a vendor who has solid service-level agreements and is experienced in evaluating the traffic of major multinationals.

One of the main use cases for security services edge is the enforcement of policy control over mobile, cloud, and internet access. This can include enforcing corporate internet and access control policies for compliance or mitigating risk through content blocking and malware isolation.