Cato Networks, a leading provider of single-vendor SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, has tackled the growing concern of insider threats by introducing measures to address security risks. Recent statistics from the Ponemon Institute reveal that incidents related to insider threats have witnessed a considerable surge of 44% over the past two years, resulting in a staggering cost of $15.8 million per incident.
Providing users and IT administrators with secure access to only the necessary resources is vital in preventing insider threats. Cato Networks has taken an innovative step in this direction by becoming the first company to extend Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) to users within the office premises without requiring any additional policies or infrastructure. By incorporating Role-Based Access Control (RBAC+), Cato enables fine-grained controls over the actions IT administrators can perform across the entire SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform. Moreover, Cato has also extended DNS (Domain Name System) protection to safeguard against insiders and attackers attempting to extract sensitive data or exploit potential DNS vulnerabilities.
Despite the adoption of ZTNA as a security measure, there are certain limitations that prevent it from comprehensively addressing access abuse. With enterprises undergoing layoffs and adopting hybrid work models, the risk of insider threats has increased significantly. ZTNA solutions, although effective for remote users, fail to apply access controls to in-office users, leading to complexities in access management. Additionally, these solutions lack the security engines required for continuous inspection of traffic flows, leaving the enterprise exposed to potential attacks by authorized users. Furthermore, the absence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms hampers their ability to identify suspicious behavior indicative of emerging threats.
John Grady, a Principal Analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group, emphasized the importance of allowing administrators to construct a single application access policy for users both within and outside the office. ZTNA tools that support this approach not only enhance security posture but also improve operational efficiency within organizations.
To simplify and optimize ZTNA, Cato Networks has extended its capabilities to include in-office users without the need for configuring additional policies. Through a single ZTNA policy, enterprises can seamlessly maintain a zero-trust security framework regardless of a user’s location. Cato’s ZTNA policy takes into account various parameters such as device posture, location, and time of day, in addition to user identity. The company has also enhanced their role-based access control (RBAC) to enable secure and granular access in converged networking and security teams. As enterprises increasingly adopt SASE, there is a growing requirement for a common management platform that incorporates granular networking, security, and access roles. With Cato, organizations can define separate global or site-specific roles for networking, access, and security personnel, as well as customize these roles for editing or viewing individual capabilities within Cato’s SASE Cloud.
Cato Networks has also bolstered its DNS protection to enhance the prevention of DNS-based attacks. After users are granted access to the network, Cato continually inspects their traffic to ensure compliance with the company’s security policies. The addition of advanced DNS protections enables the identification and blocking of domains associated with DNS tunneling, crypto miners, dynamic DNS, malicious domains, and Command and Control (C&C) domains. Furthermore, Cato has implemented Artificial Intelligence (AI) detections to identify newly registered or dynamically generated domains utilized for phishing activities.
All these enhancements introduced by Cato Networks are currently available to their customers at no additional cost. To obtain further information on Cato Networks and their SASE Cloud platform, visit their website at www.catonetwork.com.
References:
1. “2022 Ponemon Institute Cost of Insider Threats: Global Report,” Ponemon Institute.