How You Can Stay Safe

Sweeping digital transformation during the Covid-19 pandemic has changed how people use applications and cloud-based tools in their work and personal lives. This has led to increased cyber-related attacks as new and undereducated users put more and more of their private data online. 

Perimeter 81’s recent research indicates that 66% of companies experienced a significant cybersecurity incident in 2021. The main culprit? Phishing. 

To protect your organization’s finances and sensitive data, it’s imperative to implement cybersecurity best practices that prevent phishing and other techniques for stealing your credentials and breaching your network. 

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a type of cyberattack that uses social engineering to trick users into revealing their login credentials, credit card numbers, and other confidential information. This is done by sending a seemingly legitimate email that contains a link to a website where you are asked to enter your data or download an app. Keeping private information a secret seems like a no-brainer, but social engineering tactics can be challenging to identify. 

Attackers are skilled at pretending to be a trusted entity like a supervisor or a vendor, often using graphics and links to make it look like the email is coming from a legitimate source. Once the fraudster has successfully tricked the user into trusting them, they will send a link or a file hidden in an email with malicious code that works behind the scenes to steal your information.

Sometimes phishing emails are so deceptive that high-level employees are often targeted and successfully victimized by an attacker. 

How to Stay Safe From Phishing Attacks                                                                   

1. Continuously invest in cybersecurity awareness training

Phishing campaigns are meant to be difficult to identify. Scammers wouldn’t make any money if their tricks didn’t work, and scammers are getting better at deceiving employees. A recent survey revealed that 78% of users clicked on malicious links despite claiming to be familiar with the risks of phishing attacks. Regular company-wide cybersecurity awareness training for employees at all levels and clearances is essential for helping employees become better at detecting phishing emails, spoofed web pages, fake IT numbers, and other hints of fraud.

2. Comply with cybersecurity regulations

Rising cybersecurity incidents combined with growing numbers of remote workers have caused governing and regulatory bodies to re-examine their approach to security compliance in the Digital Age. Compliance regulations such as the EU’s general data protection regulations (GDPR) and California’s consumer privacy act (CCPA) were created to align companies with industry standards and best practices. 

Although not yet mandated in the US, recommended cybersecurity practices also include migrating resources to the cloud and deploying a Secure Web Gateway (SWG) with defined user roles. A Secure Web Gateway, like the one offered by Perimeter81, is designed to stop unauthorized traffic from entering an enterprise’s network. It accomplishes this by monitoring Internet traffic and filtering out malicious intrusions. 

If your organization suffers a breach, PCI incident response protocols can help you recover the stolen information and mitigate the damage that occurs, granted you remain in compliance with PCI DSS standards. 

3. Implement Zero Trust Network Access

At its core, a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) ensures that users have secure access to only the corporate resources that they need and nothing else. Implementing ZTNA with Perimeter 81’s Cybersecurity Experience Platform—recognized by Forrester consulting as a leading solution—can help reduce the impact of phishing attacks by micro-segmenting the pages and files that each user has access to. 

If an attacker obtains company credentials where zero trust is deployed, they will only have access to a small segment of the network. Network segmentation under zero trust models relies on centralized management to enhance network visibility and detect unknown threats before a data breach is initiated. 

4. Protect Your Accounts with Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

Multifactor authentication offers an extra layer of security by requiring two or more credentials to gain access. Multifactor authentication is similar to two-factor authentication in that it does require more than a simple username and password combination to access your online accounts.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, multifactor authentication can prevent phishing scammers from logging into your accounts even if they do obtain your username and password. Two-factor authentication often utilizes SMS confirmation to verify your identity and provide access. 

On the other hand, multifactor authentication utilizes tools like authentication apps, security keys, and biometrics to create a unique login for every individual, making it extremely difficult for scammers to break into your accounts. Perimeter81 supports multifactor authentication, including via SMS notification, Duo Security, or Google Authenticator. 

5. Deploy a Radically Simple SSE Solution

It’s common for business networks to deploy numerous security solutions to reduce phishing attacks and scams. However, 70% of executives feel that the number of cybersecurity tools impacts their ability to detect and prevent threats negatively. 

Security Services Edge (SSE)  is a unified approach to cybersecurity that includes multiple critical cloud-based security services inside one cloud-based administration panel.  Through SSE’s streamlined cybersecurity approach, you can have full visibility into all areas of the network and make discoveries to help prevent phishing and other cyber attacks from harming your organization.

Perimeter81’s Cybersecurity Experience Platform (CSX) radically simplifies your cybersecurity by utilizing SSE as a guide and allows enterprises to get rid of their legacy hardware. It comes equipped with tools such as Zero Trust Network Access, Firewall-as-a-Service, a Secure Web Gateway, and more to give IT teams and employees of the enterprise secure access to the resources they need.

In Conclusion

Preventing phishing scams begins with ongoing employee education. Next, you should make sure that your organization is using an IT infrastructure that is compliant with current security standards and enforce a zero-trust policy that relies on multi-factor authentication. Finally, make sure that you are using a unified SSE service like Perimeter 81’s CSX that provides a secure web gateway, ZTNA, and integrative tools to protect your most valuable assets.

Our First In-Person Show Since Covid

We were super excited to be back this year for Black Hat USA’s hybrid event. We’d arranged to have a booth on the floor of the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas as well as a virtual booth in which visitors could stop by and request a live product demonstration.

Our theme was built around our SASE for Superheros eBook (definitely worth a read!). We took a fun and light-hearted approach, in true Black Hat style. It was also well-suited for coming out of our Covid-induced hibernation.

We had a caricature artist at the booth to transform security pros into organizational superheroes as well as some great swag, including wireless earbuds, wireless speakers, and cool stickers (an homage to one of our founder’s first startup as a nine-year-old kid).

 

A Pre-Show Surprise

Preparations for the exhibition and travel plans seemed fairly normal. It felt good to have Covid behind us. But then, bit by bit, the Delta variant was all over the news. It started to cast a shadow over the whole event, but we were hopeful.

Then on August 1, just days before the show, the organizers announced that exhibitors and visitors would need to wear masks inside and that the requirement would be strictly enforced.

Would this reduce attendance?

Coexisting with a New Mask Mandate

Black Hat 2021 was nothing like the pre-Covid days with tens of thousands of visitors. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a success. The hybrid combination of having a virtual and in-person event was smaller, but attendees were much more ready to do business.

The Delta variant—and the show’s mask mandate—may have kept the tourists away, but IT pros and CISO who came to see the best technology on the market and hear from industry leaders weren’t disappointed. And they were ready to do business.  Leads were lower but more serious and interest in demos was high. With ransomware on the rise, interest in SASE and Zero-Trust Network Access is high.

Having a parallel virtual event was good, but it didn’t offer the same dynamics as approaching a passerby on the show floor.

 

Perimeter 81 team at Black Hat 2021

 

The Show Must Go On

Despite the challenges, Black Hat 2021 was indeed successful. Virtual attendees said that they hope to attend in person next year, but it’s clear that Covid still has a major effect on events. This is especially true with the sudden outbreak of the Delta variant.

Like the hybrid workplace, hybrid events are here to stay for the foreseeable future, possibly forever. It’s challenging today to plan for exhibitions because changes can happen in an instant. 

The bottom line is that you need to stay resilient—like your network. 

 

Illustration of Gold Stevie Award

“An Entrepreneurial Dynamic Duo”

Perimeter 81 has won a Gold Stevie® Award in the Founding Team of the Year category in The 18th Annual International Business Awards® (IBAs). According to the IBA judges, company co-founders, Amit Bareket and Sagi Gidali, are an “entrepreneurial dynamic duo” delivering a “masterclass in business development.”

The International Business Awards are the world’s premier business awards program. The 2021 IBAs received entries from organizations in 63 nations and territories. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the traditional gala IBA banquet honoring the winners will be celebrated during a virtual ceremony on Wednesday, December 8, 2021.

In giving the Gold Award to Perimeter 81, the judges also cited the company’s “cutting-edge technology” and its ability to help transition businesses “from outdated, expensive hardware to a simplified cloud-based SaaS solution for the modern and remote workforce. A lot of hard work went into this and the perseverance paid off for this company. It’s an excellent success story worth emulating. The future is bright.”

Hypergrowth During Covid

“We’re excited that the founding story of our rapidly growing company resonated with the judges,” said Amit Bareket, CEO and Co-Founder of Perimeter 81. “We have poured our energy into the dream of helping companies of all sizes deliver secure access to their on-premise and cloud-based network resources to geographically dispersed employees. While we did not expect COVID-19and the seismic changes it caused—and continues to cause in the workplace—we were very fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we entered a period of hypergrowth, and were able to help thousands of businesses securely embrace the hybrid workplace, literally overnight.”  

Perimeter 81 improves network visibility and delivers seamless onboarding and full integration with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Splunk, and other major cloud providers. Since its founding in 2018, Perimeter 81 has been selected for numerous other awards, including Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, Gartner Cool Vendor recognition, the Red Herring Top 100, and more.

A Company Inflection Point

“Some might say that my cofounder Amit and I are like an old married couple as we have been working together day and night for almost a decade,” says Sagi Gidali, CPO and Co-founder at Perimeter 81. “We have shared an office for the better part of 10 years, even as we have rapidly grown. This award comes at an inflection point in the company’s evolution. In the coming days, Amit will be moving to the USA to rapidly grow our already-established US presence.”  

Stevie Award winners were determined by 260 executives worldwide who judged more than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes in a variety of categories, including Company of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year, Best New Product or Service of the Year, Startup of the Year, Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year, and more. The judging process took place from June through early August.

“What we’ve seen in this year’s IBA nominations is that organizations around the world, in every sector, have continued to innovate and succeed, despite the setbacks, obstacles, and tragedies of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher.  “All of this year’s Stevie Award winners are to be applauded for their persistence and their resilience.”

 

Hamlet Circa 2021

If Hamlet were an IT Manager or CTO in 2021, there’s a 37% chance that his company would have had a serious cyber incident, whether from ransomware or phishing. He would bemoan the fate of his network, the company’s business, and maybe its customer data. And of course, he’d be faced with a huge question: “to pay, or not to pay.”

According to the anti-virus company Kaspersky, more than half (56%) of ransomware victims paid the ransom to recover their data. But for 17% of the victims, paying the ransom did not guarantee the return of the stolen data. Kaspersky recommends that ransomware victims do not pay the ransom as this only encourages cybercriminals to continue their nefarious work.

 

Why Organizations Still Pay Ransom

Many ransomware victims or their insurance companies still pay the ransom despite the cybersecurity companies and law enforcement recommendations. For the victims, paying the ransom is often the quickest—and cheapest—solution. 

The May 2019 ransomware attack on the City of Baltimore, Maryland, is a case in point. At the advice of the FBI, the city did not pay the 13 Bitcoin ransom (about $100,000). However, the non-payment cost the city nearly $18 million in cleanup costs and lost revenues—or almost 180 times more.

But as the size of the ransoms grows, the cost parity is disappearing. As a result, cyber insurance coverage for ransom payments may be ending. AXA, one of Europe’s biggest insurers, announced that it would no longer cover ransom payments in its cyber insurance policies at the request of the French justice and cybersecurity officials.

 

Decrypting the Mystery at Kaseya

While the supply chain ransomware attack on Kaseya and the $70 million ransom was a huge topic of discussion even outside of IT circles, some recent news regarding the ransomware attack has surprisingly received less attention to date. 

On July 22, 2021, Kaseya announced it had obtained a REvil ransomware decryptor “from a third party.” The company reports that the decryption tool is “100% effective” at decrypting files that were encrypted during the attack. Some have speculated that the company paid the ransom directly or through a third party, but Kaseya has vociferously denied this: 

“While each company must make its own decision on whether to pay the ransom, Kaseya decided after consultation with experts to not negotiate with the criminals who perpetrated this attack and we have not wavered from that commitment. As such, we are confirming in no uncertain terms that Kaseya did not pay a ransom – either directly or indirectly through a third party – to obtain the decryptor.”

So how did Kaseya get the decryptor? It’s possible that they received it from the US government, the Russian government, or someone in the REvil group who caved in to pressure from Putin. Or maybe one of Kaseya’s partners paid the ransom. It’s unlikely we’ll ever know. 

Phishing Strikes Close to Home

There are approximately three billion phishing emails each day. The odds are that you have recently received some or have some in your email spam folder right now. Fortunately, a good IT Manager will keep your office’s systems up to date. More importantly, you should know how to look for the signs of a phishing attempt, such as an unusual or misspelled email address. For example, in the email below, the sender was pinterest *at* suporrt.com.  (Yes, that’s “support” with one “p” and two “r”s.

This particular email especially devious because it gives you links to reset your password or to enable two-factor authentication. In other words, doing the “right thing” is actually doing the wrong thing. Clicking on these links could install spyware, ransomware, or even lead to a hack of your company’s on-premises and cloud-based networking resources.

 

 

The Need for a Unified Cybersecurity Approach

The wave of attacks against high tech companies, municipalities, fashion retailers, and more prove that all organizations need to adopt a unified cybersecurity and networking approach such as the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).  One of its core features is a Secure Web Gateway (SWG) with URL filtering that can block suspicious links and prevent employees from opening them. Another feature, Device Posture Check (DPC), enhances network security by ensuring that employees can only connect to network resources using devices that comply with a company’s security policies. This prevents malicious access and cyberattacks by automatically denying access to insecure or unknown devices at login. Even if they are using valid credentials, yet lacking a specific hidden file, the device can be identified as using stolen credentials and denied access to networking resources. 

 

Illustration of CRN Emerging Vendors logo

 

300% Growth of the Channel Business in 2020-2021

CRN, one of the top technology news and information source for Managed Service Solution Providers, channel partners, and VARs, has selected Perimeter 81 as a 2021 Emerging Vendor for Security. Perimeter 81 was selected for its innovative Zero Trust networking solution and the 300% growth of the company’s channel business in 2020-2021.

The CRN 2021 Emerging Vendors list will be featured in the August 2021 issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/EmergingVendors.

“These are exhilarating times at Perimeter 81 as our business—especially our channel business—is experiencing some serious hypergrowth,” says Bob Kilbride, VP Channel Sales  at Perimeter 81. “MSPs really like our partner program and multi-tenant platform that enables them to turn Perimeter 81 into a secure Network-as-a-Service offering that generates recurring revenues. Perimeter 81 is very easy to use and our intuitive and elegant interface allows our partners to deploy a secure network for their customers in minutes.”

With the recent high-profile cyberattacks at Colonial Pipeline, VW, and Kaseya, businesses of all types and sizes realize that they can no longer ignore the dangers of ransomware and that Zero Trust Network Access is a necessity, not a luxury. 

“We’re thrilled to have been selected as one of CRN’s 2021 Emerging Vendor for Security,” said Amit Bareket, CEO and Co-Founder of Perimeter 81. “This award acknowledges our success in providing a holistic, rapidly scaling SASE framework that delivers the highest levels of cybersecurity for the hybrid workplace.”  

 

Other Awards include Fast 500, Gartner Cool Vendor & More

“The CRN 2021 Emerging Vendors list honors forward-thinking technology suppliers that are redefining IT channel success by focusing on innovative products that help customers overcome the complex and ever-changing IT demands,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “Solution providers in search of the latest innovative technologies can depend on the Emerging Vendors list as a trusted resource.” 

In addition to the CRN 2021 Emerging Vendor Award for Security, Perimeter 81 has been selected for numerous other awards, including Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, Gartner Cool Vendor, the Red Herring Top 100, and many more.

Hybrid Work at Sydney’s Largest Sleep Disorder Clinic

The Meredith Respiratory and Sleep Centre is the largest sleep disorder clinic in Southern and Western Sydney, with four locations. They offer personalized sleep treatment and care with various sleep studies, oxygen studies, and wakefulness tests accompanied by a full range of expert advice and service.

Before Covid-19 hit Australia, Meredith was a hybrid workplace with about one-third of the staff working from home. Everyone could easily access the cloud-based Office 365 for email, but the on-premises electronic patient medical record system was accessed using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and a VPN.

RDP seemed like the logical choice to access the corporate network as it came standard with Windows and was easy to set up. More importantly, it was easy to use for non-techies who needed to enter an IP address and password. But RDP was just as easy for hackers.

Ransomware Becomes a Monthly Occurrence

“Because of the RDP, we were getting hacked every month,” says Omar Matter, IT Manager for Meredith Respiratory and Sleep Centres. “After detecting a ransomware attack, I would have to shut down the network for an hour and roll back our electronic records system using our offsite backups. Usually, we only lost an hour or two of data. But if it was a severe attack and I caught it relatively late, we could lose a full day of data.”

Omar was looking at Perimeter 81, but a high-speed VPN wasn’t yet a priority. That changed overnight when the hackers locked the company out of its accounting system.

Exterior image of Meredith Sleep Centre

Attacks Drop to Zero with Zero Trust

Omar worked from a backup to restart the accounting system and then rapidly deployed Perimeter 81’s Zero Trust access. After completing the initial setup within a few hours, Omar installed Perimeter 81 on the remote users’ laptops. 

“Right after we switched, ransomware attacks dropped to zero, without making life more difficult for the users. They found the desktop agent with Two-Factor Authentication very easy to use. More importantly, they reported that their connections to network resources at any of our offices were faster. The increased performance is from Perimeter 81’s Site-to-Site Interconnectivity and Split Tunneling features.”

Ready for COVID-19 or Anything Else

As a cloud-based solution, Perimeter 81 scales easily and lets you make very rapid changes to your network. For example, when COVID-19 hit Australia, Meredith quickly shifted all of its employees to remote work at no risk to the corporate network or its applications.

“Today, Perimeter 81 is an essential part of our IT strategy. In general, I don’t think Meredith could do business without it. It’s also made the network much more agile. Our ransomware issue was really a blessing in disguise. If we had gone through the Covid period without Perimeter 81, we would have been in a lot of trouble.”

Illustration of Kesaya hack

 

1,000 Victims and Counting

The Kaseya cyberattack was just the latest in a slew of high-impact attacks in 2021. Hackers are becoming more strategic. Rather than targeting a specific small company for small gains, they are thinking big—both in terms of impact and the ransom size.

The hack represents an evolution over the Microsoft Exchange, and Solar Winds hacks which attacked the software supply chain. By targeting Kaseya, a platform for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), the hackers were able to shut down many companies at once—up to 1,000 at last count.

The cybercriminals are apparently “affiliates” of the Russia-linked REvil ransomware-as-a-service group. This group, which also shut down the JBS meat processors, is demanding $50,000 to $5 million in ransom directly from affected companies rather than from the MSPs or Kaseya. This approach will be more challenging for the FBI to track and manage and could be a workaround the hackers developed following the FBI’s seizure of the JBS ransom. 

 

Owning Up to a Data Breach (or Not)

Last week there was—or wasn’t— a data breach at LinkedIn. LinkedIn initially denied that any new data was being sold on the dark web but later claimed that 700 million users’ profiles were scraped, not stolen via a breach. Either way, the data of 700 million Linkedin users is up for sale with potentially serious consequences, including identity theft and phishing—which could lead to ransomware attacks on corporations, government agencies, utilities, and more.

Unlike LinkedIn, which has still not officially notified its users, Kaseya quickly went into very visible public action. On July 2, Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola announced a potential attack against their VSA remote monitoring and management tool used by Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to provide networking services to external customers. Kaseya customers were told, even urged, to take their VSA Servers offline so that hackers could not get control of end-customer networks.

In addition, the company notified customers about the breach via email, phone, and  regularly updated notices on their website. Finally, Kaseya has released a diagnostic tool for enabling MSPs to identify infected systems, and the company’s response team is working 24×7 to develop a fix.  

 

SASE: A Unified Cybersecurity Approach

The attack against Kaseya is an additional proof-point for adopting a holistic and unified cybersecurity approach in today’s one-network world. One of the core benefits of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) model is its ability to mitigate phishing attacks in which employees open unfamiliar or deceptive emails and click on malicious links. 

With SASE, one of its core features is a Secure Web Gateway (SWG) with URL filtering that can block suspicious links and prevent employees from opening them. In addition, a SASE-based platform allows IT teams to segment various parts of the network to limit the extent of a successful cyberattack. For example, suppose a computer or managed device is infected. In that case, the attack will only reach a limited number of resources in the specific network segment, preventing the ransomware from spreading across the organization. 

Additionally, many ransomware attacks are generated from unmanaged devices connected to a secure network. SASE isolates unmanaged devices from the network through agentless Zero Trust application access, giving unmanaged devices access to specific networks by emulating the user’s session in the cloud and transmitting only an image to the user’s browser.

 

Become Invisible

In today’s world, anyone can be hacked, whether you’re one of the world’s leading companies or an SMB receiving managed services from a trusted provider. 

The most basic action to take is to “hide” your computing environments from the Internet so they’re invisible to outside hackers. Then, even if the hardware is vulnerable, it cannot be exploited from the outside.

But a better way is to move your computing resources to the cloud and employ secure networking as a service using a unified framework like SASE. The SASE framework offers an even better solution than the VPNs recommended by the FBI following the Kaseya malware hack. SASE doesn’t need costly hardware, easily scales, and offers Zero Trust access based on identity and context. As a result, this is the best way to stop the next ransomware attack.

 

Employ Zero Trust for All

The attack against Kaseya is an additional proof-point for adopting a holistic and unified cybersecurity approach in today’s one-network world. One of the core benefits of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) model is its ability to mitigate phishing attacks in which employees open unfamiliar or deceptive emails and click on malicious links. 

With SASE, one of its core features is a Secure Web Gateway (SWG) with URL filtering that can block suspicious links and prevent employees from opening them. In addition, a SASE-based platform allows IT teams to segment various parts of the network to limit the extent of a successful cyberattack. For example, suppose a computer or managed device is infected. In that case, the attack will only reach a limited number of resources in the specific network segment, preventing the ransomware from spreading across the organization. 

Additionally, many ransomware attacks are generated from unmanaged devices connected to a secure network. SASE isolates unmanaged devices from the network through agentless Zero Trust application access, giving unmanaged devices access to specific networks by emulating the user’s session in the cloud and transmitting only an image to the user’s browser.

 

A Few Last Thoughts on Safety

All social media, even LinkedIn, carries risks, and everyone should minimize the amount of offline contact information they share. Multi-factor authentication should be used wherever possibleespecially with anything financialand everyone should be wary of attachments, even from family members and coworkers. If something doesn’t feel quite right, whether it’s the style of the email, or the context, contact the sender via another form of communication to verify that they have indeed sent you something. 

It’s no coincidence that the 50 MSPs affected by the Kaseya malware hack were using the on-premises version of the company’s VSA Server, not unlike the victims of the MS Exchange Server hack. The MSPs who were using the cloud were unaffected.

Secure cloud networking is undoubtedly the way to go.

Debunking SASE Myths & Highlighting Business Benefits advert with images of the speakers

The world of cybersecurity is undergoing an incredible transformation birthed by the introduction of Secure Access Service Edge, more commonly known as “SASE”. The core of SASE is to offer a unified cybersecurity solution that caters to all the unique cloud and network security needs harbored by any company.

The arrival of SASE is already producing incredible benefits for organizations, businesses, and enterprises that are securing their networks or remote workforces with cutting-edge cloud technology. SASE was coined in Gartner in 2019 and by definition specializes in  “simplifying WAN networking and security by delivering both, as-a-cloud-service directly to the source (user, device, office, edge location), rather than only the enterprise data center.”

But, when it comes to the realities of SASE, myths exist that can prevent organizations from tapping into its incredible power. Our Co-founder and CEO, Amit Bareket, spoke with Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research to debunk these myths in our most recent webinar.

“Don’t fear change. It will only hold your company back.”
– Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst, ZK Research


Watch the Webinar On-Demand:

 

Myth #1: SASE should be deployed in one go

The incredible benefit of SASE is that it does not require a business or organization to deploy the services all at once. Companies can choose to begin with Zero Trust services for remote access, then scale upwards as needed. Not only is this a simpler setup process, but it far more cost-effective for smaller and medium-sized operations. The shift to the cloud is wrought with potential for issues that prevent companies from maximizing security success, with SASE, greater flexibility exists when deploying solutions.

The power of SASE is now replacing traditional firewalls and networking, which sounds appealing but also frightening to business decision-makers. Where do they start? What about current hardware investments? Will this disrupt the bottom line? It is fair for businesses to be concerned over massive migrations to the cloud, eliminating the need for hardware that has already been invested in. The advantage of SASE is that it’s purely cloud-based and driven by software. This makes it exceptionally simple to integrate with existing infrastructure, allowing companies to slowly shift into the cloud from on-premise networking. 

When it comes to massive data migration, big lifts and shifts are intensive and disruptive to existing operations. Decision-makers should be focused on developing a migration strategy and plan when approaching the transition to the cloud from the current hardware infrastructure. Luckily, SASE licensing is flexible, giving decision-makers the chance to make a smaller investment to get started small with an option to scale for growth. 

Myth #2: SASE starts with SD-WAN

There is no right answer to deploying the right security solution for a business. Before the arrival of COVID-19, decision-makers started with SD-WAN but were driven to SASE for its ease of deployment and its cost-effective nature. But today, many SD-WAN deployments are on hold as businesses are enabling SASE to secure their remote workforces. This is helping today’s business to secure the return for work for companies getting back to normal.

SD-WAN may be an excellent choice for some as it possesses a wide array of features, but it’s not always suitable for internet security and remote access. Traditionally, remote access agents and technology are too complex for the average user that simply needs to access corporate assets. It boils down to the specific needs of the company and reacting with the right solution for them. 

Ultimately, it’s up to the decision-maker to decide on what to deploy first and how. There is no right or wrong way to deploy SASE. The most important thing is to develop and follow the pre-determined migration strategy. 

Myth #3: SASE is a complicated security model

The preliminary steps of deploying a new network security solution are always a challenging feat. However, for SASE services, setup is simpler, faster, and future-proofed to guarantee seamless service management. Traditional network security solutions have never been regarded as simple. They relied on expensive equipment to control traffic, but that opens to many blind spots that remain uncovered. SASE offers greater agility and options, which may seem complex at first. But, it truly forces IT professionals and decision-makers to re-think their approach to cybersecurity. 

While SASE is software-based and centralized to make it easy to use and control, its benefits are still largely unknown. For the uninitiated that are unsure how to navigate the world of SASE and cybersecurity, companies like Perimeter 81 are sherpas of change, helping to guide customers along their unique journey. This lets companies feel comfortable embracing the new paradigm shift and opening the door to SASE solutions.

Myth #4: SASE primarily secures corporate networks

Companies are now understanding that the future requires security beyond the perimeter of an office, to wherever employees are accessing resources. For example, a medium-sized company needs to tunnel data to a branch office but with multiple firewalls in place, the complexity level of configuring policies and managing access is a burden. While implementation and configuration become less complex, so too is the user experience when interacting with a cutting-edge network security platform. Difficult to decipher dashboards with complex wireframes have been replaced by the modernized user interface for the modern workforce. Once deployed, SASE is controlled with a centralized console to manage every component of the network security stack, simplifying future management and support. 

Most companies, corporate or otherwise, are unaware of the exceptional benefits available to them via SASE security services because they make assumptions that evolved into modern myths. It’s important to break down these myths and clarify misconceptions to ensure that decision-makers can learn which solutions are right for them and why. The future of network security will go hand in hand with SASE, making today ideal for businesses to get started. 

Myth #5: SASE is only for enterprise

Traditionally, most small or medium-sized businesses may neglect SASE as it may appear exclusive to large corporate companies and enterprises. The distributed nature of enterprises makes them an ideal use case for SASE solutions, but industry experts believe all companies can benefit from its power and agility. Legacy solutions were also previously unavailable (and unaffordable) to most businesses, but today, these organizations can activate enterprise-grade SASE in the same fashion as setting up a new Office 365 account. This allows SASE to be commoditized, consumable security in the same way that we subscribe to apps and subscription services.

The prevalence of SASE has expanded the potential and the availability of cyber services to easily offer comprehensive security coverage. This can be applied to corporate banks with dozens of branches, or small businesses with only a few devices in a local area network.

Moreover, Secure Access Service Edge can be for any type of business or organization, ranging from healthcare startups to financial institutions. Smaller operations now have an opportunity to tap into previously unobtainable security services at a cost that is fair for any business budget.

SASE Infographic Perimeter 81

With the rise of remote and hybrid work following COVID-19, IT teams are growing increasingly frustrated with the overload of security tools and products, more commonly known as tool sprawl. 

In fact, the average IT team is using between 10-30 security monitoring solutions for applications, network infrastructures, and cloud environments according to a recent 451 Research survey. But there is a better and more effective way to combat tool sprawl. 

SASE to the rescue! SASE or Secure Access Service Edge offers a unified solution to eliminate tool sprawl and allow IT teams to easily secure all of their organization’s valuable resources and users in an agile, cost-effective, and scalable way.

Our SASE for Superheroes infographic visualizes all of the major pain points IT and security teams face and why organizations are rapidly embracing SASE as part of their long-term security strategy plan.

[Infographic] SASE for Superheroes - Defending Your Perimeter and Beyond

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It’s called SASE, or Secure Access Service Edge – but perhaps only for now. When the next analyst firm puts a label on it, the acronym will have competition, but the letters describing the newest concept in security could spell anything: it’s the solution behind them that matters. SASE was named first by Gartner to describe a new type of SaaS product that combines both security functions (such as the ability to deploy 2FA, firewalls, or traffic monitoring) with networking tools (micro-segmentation, access rules, Hosted VPNs) so that companies can streamline their consumption of these two crucial ideas.
Easier deployment of security across disparate cloud and local networks, and easier setup and management of said networks are just the icing on the cake. The revolutionary benefits of SASE go deeper, and entail tangible advantages that are inspiring enterprises in extraordinary numbers to adopt the solution – or at least to initiate a transformation in SASE’s general direction. In just a handful of years, SASE will have transformed the security landscape to be nearly unrecognizable.

You’re Why Your Firm is Considering SASE

Users like yourself might not intend to do damage or expose the network, but now that we connect to countless apps spanning the cloud, and with many more devices, we each present a unique risk. The skyrocketing prevalence of insider breaches, and not those occurring from the outside, are one primary reason why SASE is a future-focused tool. Since 2018, data breaches caused by insiders have risen by a whopping 47%, and 68% of firms cite this as their chief security concern. Consider also that it’s common for companies to conceal breaches caused by an insider and to not report them, so their consequences and frequency are worse than reported. 
SASE is inherently user-centric, meaning that the security and networking functions typically included in a SASE setup help IT teams to follow and restrict users through their network journey. This is better than giving them approval for unlimited access at the door, as we used to do. It might sound like a lot of work, but the tools provided by a SASE solution allow it to happen in a very scalable way.

Security That Gets Close Up to Users

We all know that network resources have varying sensitivities: The local server containing a proprietary algorithm is more sensitive and therefore should be restricted to more people than, say, a cloud-based Salesforce app. Perhaps only a few trusted developers and the CEO need access to the former, while several departments use the latter every day. Selective access to certain parts of the network used to require hardware and software together, plus lots of manual work from the IT team. SASE makes it easy from a single spot in the cloud.
The two features that underpin user-focused security, also known as Zero Trust security, are micro-segmentation and access management based on Identity Providers (IDP). IT can enforce user logins via a centralized IDP like Okta or Google, and then based on the user or their device, automatically apply relevant security to them. This might include a specific encryption protocol, a custom access profile for resources, 2FA, and much more. When a new part-time worker abroad is onboarded, IT can enter their administration panel, quickly assign the employee an IDP, and drag and drop it into a profile built to consider all the various data sensitivities relevant to remote contractors, limiting access accordingly.

SASE: Giving Small IT Squads Big Power

The benefits of SASE are highlighted when thinking about how much effort IT teams go through to close gaps in the network. Unification of two ideas close to the heart of any IT manager – networking and security – can bring the resources they are tasked with protecting under one roof and their job much easier. The cost savings are also mouth-watering for enterprise IT managers, who are able to trim their towering stacks, and get leaner and meaner than ever before. 


The Internet of Things grows more massive with each passing year, as devices gain internet connectivity and impart new convenience on our lives – and in many cases new novelty. No matter if the “thing” in question is a manufacturing robot or a Brita that automatically reorders filters upon expiration, if it can receive instruction from and send data to the greater internet, then there’s an IT guy somewhere worrying about how it may expose his or her network.

This goes double for IT personnel in companies that make good use of IoT for work purposes, but bad use of IoT security by neglecting to factor in the network’s exposure. Addressing this idea is now part of IT’s list of responsibilities, and when creating a plan for how to walk the line between trusting IoT and being wary of it, multiple factors come into play. Thankfully, this part of the job is getting easier.

IoT’s Slow Security Onboarding

IoT is useful for countless industries, and its benefits far outweigh security risks in any circumstance. In healthcare, for example, IoT data is used to more deeply understand what conditions patients are in, and how practitioners should respond. Internet-connected devices that record patient outputs such as heartbeat, blood pressure, blood sugar levels and other biological metrics feed their data to centralized IT systems, telling hospital admins where frontline staff are most urgently needed, and how.

But IoTs vital role in cases like these is also its weakness. IoT boosts mobility in many business environments, so much so that security is something that it has always grappled with as an afterthought. For businesses, the advantages of IoT have meant securing these devices is a second step, and the world is slow to wake up to the careful security deliberation that IoT requires. Ransomware, for instance, used to be hardly considered a credible threat to networks.

Ransomware attacks on IoT devices were long thought of as low-value for hackers and therefore not a pertinent worry for IT, given that these devices had little to no information on them (mostly in the cloud). There are also so many types of IoT devices that the economics of hacking them doesn’t work in the hacker’s favor – it’s too expensive and not worthwhile. Besides, even those hacked would likely never pay the ransom, because IoT devices aren’t known for having screens that relay information (like a ransom note).

Increasing IoT Popularity Opens Paths for Attack

However low-value IoT devices used to be, they’re now ubiquitous and hold a lot of importance for critical business functions. Security implications have changed as well, as hackers have changed their strategy, and no longer seek to crack the devices for their data but to interrupt these functions and create urgency and the risk of lasting damage.

Take for example the IoT controller that adjusts how much of certain ingredients are added to drugs, an IoT-connected pacemaker, or a hacked power grid controller that determines electricity consumption for a small town. The ability to power these down or alter with their settings is dangerous enough to justify a ransom.

Traditionally weak entry points on IoT devices need to be shored up if we want IoT benefits to continue to outweigh its risks. However, most of the time patching is on the manufacturer, and low prevalence of hacks thus far has prevented manufacturers from acting with urgency, so companies using IoT devices are often unprotected from within and without.

The internal awareness isn’t there yet, with many IoT connections unencrypted when connecting to the network, offering hackers a way inside when the device relays to or receives info from the internet. 

In the split second it takes for the device to grab data, hackers can slide in undetected and set up shop in an undefended company’s network. Hijacked or rogue IoT devices were present in over 46% of companies this year, according to a report on “shadow IoT” devices found on their corporate networks, demonstrating just how prevalent this dangerous exploit is. 

IoT Security Solutions Must Provide Visibility

Fortunately, most of the issues stemming from IoT come from how invisible they are on the network, and how unrestricted their permissions tend to be. IoT devices are easily discoverable by hackers, even using public resources like Shodan, so they must be at least this visible to internal IT teams as well.

The key to allowing IoT freedom to participate in the network but also to respect its boundaries resides in some of the components of a single solution – Secure Access Service Edge – which was introduced just last year and seems nearly purpose built for IoT.

SASE is a cloud-based networking and security product, unified in its functionality and present on the edge of an organization’s network. A foundation of SASE is software-defined networking ideas, which are more inclusive to a variety of devices connecting to the network because there is no hardware setup required, and cloud nativity to easily match the infrastructure of any ecosystem.

When an IoT device connects to the network, it will be easily visible in the cloud admin panel, but more importantly this identification also empowers IT to set identity-based access policies, which limit the extent to which specific parts of the network are exposed to these endpoints.

Enforcement is also about security and not just about how much attack surface is laid bare to IoT devices. Pushing all networking through a centralized, software-defined system also enables IT to demand all network connections happen through encrypted tunnels exclusively, so any IoT device (or company laptop, or mobile phone) that isn’t encrypted cannot connect to the network in the first place.

It also helps IT layer even more security on top of IoT devices, even solutions like SSO, so that password management across thousands of devices will finally be feasible (and safe).

Why SASE Brings IoT Home

The combination of visibility, network access restriction, and security enforcement for IoT devices gives SASE a winning use case, and it’s already making headway. Internets, whether world wide webs or “of Things”, are deep and murky. Companies pushing for maximum interoperability can be free to brave the IoT waters confidently with SASE to help them stay on course, and avoid the icebergs lurking out there for us all.

In the end-of-2020 cybersecurity word cloud – a swarm in which floats the most frequently seen, heard, and spoken words in the industry – one four letter acronym will appear bigger and bolder than all the rest: SASE. When discussing Secure Access Service Edge, most of the excitement surrounds its unifying characteristics and how IT finally has a consolidated tool for both networking and security from the cloud.

SASE will improve security and make it easier to achieve, but along with this simple idea comes other benefits. Anticipated less frequently (given that these solutions aren’t being widely consumed yet) is how SASE also delivers better performance across the organization in terms of throughput and productivity. Performance is a complement to the security delivered to companies, thanks to multiple factors including SASE’s presence on the edge, its low-touch quality in terms of IT effort, and the clarity it brings to networks.

A Measurable Network Boost

A central tenet of SASE is that the network is no longer organized around resources that are held in the headquarters, so security needs to match this arrangement. SASE therefore exists in the cloud where its network security functions can be easily integrated into both local and cloud architecture, and managed from a single panel. 

Key to the networking chops of SASE is that providers with a global backbone of data centers are able to put resource access portals closer to where employees and branch offices reside. Instead of every employee connecting to the same resource through a single point, they can do so with their individual devices through gateways nearby. This offers employees around the globe lower-latency access to the tools they need for work.

Speed is increased further due to the lower amount of network congestion that occurs due to SASE’s user-focused access policies. Because it’s built on SD-WAN, organizations using SASE for distributed, secure remote access are able to also create custom rules for certain sources of traffic. This reduces the bandwidth allowed to low-priority users or guests on the network, for example, and it all happens with rules that trigger based on granular qualifiers such as location, device, role and more. With the visibility that SASE provides over network endpoints and resources, it’s easy to “direct traffic” autonomously and efficiently.

Finally, since SASE is a unified solution, customers of a single SASE provider such as Perimeter 81 have multiple choices even within individual security tools. For example, if a company’s network is seen to enjoy faster connection times and lower latency while using the WireGuard encryption protocol, instead of the IPSec or SSL protocols available with other vendors, then they can freely switch to it or even create rules that determine under which traffic conditions these various protocols are applied.

For IT and Employees, SASE Aids Productivity

With traffic controls, segmentation, better visibility and local gateways pushing resources to the edge, it’s no wonder that networks on SASE run seamlessly and smoothly. However, that’s only half the equation. SASE also reduces costs and simplifies the processes that IT engages in, which improves departmental performance significantly.

IT employees no longer have to navigate several different misaligned security solutions each with various ways to control access – they need only to login to their centralized SASE panel, on which all functions related to networking (access policies, segmentation, creation of users and groups, traffic rules, gateway building etc.) and security (enforcement of tools like 2FA, DNS filtering, encryption etc.) reside. 

The sheer amount of time saved maintaining, patching, configuring, and returning to the same tools every time the organization adds a new resource or user is astounding. Not only does this cut costs in terms of the raw number of solutions managed by any organization, it also cuts the burden of time invested from IT’s side, and gives IT managers more leeway to assign proactive, performative, and potentially profit-seeking IT activities to their staff.

With SASE as a multitool – almost a Swiss Army knife of network and security functionality – organizations can clean house and quickly consolidate the various security vendors and subscriptions they used to consume. Suddenly having the same total utilities but concentrated into one tool is a self-explanatory advantage, but the residual benefits – mostly performance related – will be more visible as SASE gains market share.