Ensuring secure remote access to enterprise networks has alway been a priority. But the rise in remote work in the last couple of years has forced businesses to take cyber threats and this need for secure remote access more seriously.
According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, the average cost of a data breach reached an all-time high of USD 4.35 million, rising 2.6% from the previous year. Given that remote work is not likely to go away, it is high-time that businesses do everything in their power to secure their networks and adopt best practices for security.
Why Secure Remote Access Is More Important Than Ever
Today, we are seeing more businesses turn to cloud-based applications and services, for everything from accounting to payroll and HR processes, network management and even content delivery. The number of remote workers are also increasing, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To complicate things further, the number of cyber attacks have also been steadily increasing every year. In fact, the number of cyber attacks on remote desktop protocol (RDP) increased by 242% from January to June 2020, according to a report by Atlas VPN. Hackers have been targeting remote workers who are using insecure connections and devices, and exploiting vulnerabilities in remote access tools.
To protect organizations from these rising threats, it has become more important than ever to ensure that remote access to the network is secured.
What Is ZTNA?
ZTNA is a secure remote access solution that implements zero trust security principles, which means that users and devices are not trusted by default. When a remote worker, for instance, tries to access their company’s assets, ZTNA will make sure that they are given access to specific resources on a case-by-case basis. application-specific permissions. Access will be granted based on several criteria such as account role-based access controls and contextual authentication data, such as IP address, the user’s location, group or role in the organization, and also within certain time restrictions.
In effect, ZTNA allows organizations to selectively and securely provide access to their applications and resources without exposing their entire network.
What Is A VPN?
A virtual private network (VPN) is a technology that is used to create a secure and encrypted connection between two networks or devices over the internet. VPNs have been a traditional solution used by IT to provide secure remote access to distributed workforces.
When a user connects to a VPN, their internet traffic is encrypted and routed through a secure tunnel to the VPN server. The user’s IP address is replaced with the IP address of the VPN server, which helps to mask the user’s identity and location.
The experience of remote workers in using VPNs can be similar to a direct connection to the corporate network. The encryption involved protects against eavesdropping and allows for the inspection of all business traffic by perimeter-based security solutions regardless of its source.
But as remote work has become the norm, and with increasing reliance on cloud-based applications, it has become more difficult for traditional solutions like VPNs to keep up. A new security solution and architecture is required to meet the demands of the day.
The Advantages of ZTNA over a VPN
Both ZTNA and VPN are technologies used for secure access to a network. They both also allow for remote access but there are some key advantages that ZTNA possesses over VPN, especially when it comes to enabling trust and access control. Evaluate whether these advantages are important for you when selecting the right zero trust offering.
Trust And Access Control
ZTNA provides granular access control, allowing organizations to specify which applications or resources a user can access, regardless of where they are accessing it from. VPNs on the other hand, assume that any user and device connected to the local company network is trusted.
With ZTNA, the user and the device have to always authenticate each time they make a new request. This enhanced access control makes ZTNA more secure than VPN, in which a remote machine once authenticated could access the entire internal network.
Micro-Segmentation Visibility
ZTNA allows for better micro-segmentation visibility. This involves dividing a network into smaller segments or zones and applying security controls to each segment, reducing the risk of lateral movement and preventing attackers moving from one compromised system to another. VPNs typically provide access to the entire network, which makes it harder to implement micro-segmentation.
Security
Since ZTNA operates on a zero-trust model, users and devices are not trusted by default, and access is only granted on a need-to-know basis. This approach minimizes the risk of insider threats and external attacks. ZTNA also provides additional security measures such as multi-factor authentication, encryption, and policy-based access controls. VPNs, on the other hand, create a tunnel between the user and the network, which can be vulnerable to attacks if the tunnel is compromised.
Reduced Latency
When it comes to latency as well, ZTNA has an edge over VPN as it does not require all traffic to be routed through a centralized gateway or server. Instead, ZTNA uses distributed gateways that are closer to the user and the resources they are accessing. This reduces latency and improves performance.
User Experience & Productivity
ZTNA provides a more seamless and user-friendly experience than VPNs. Users do not have to install any software or configure any settings, and they can access the resources they need from anywhere and any device. ZTNA also provides better performance and reliability, which can improve user productivity.
Introducing Enterprise Secure Access from CDNetworks
To help organizations adopt zero trust network access, CDNetworks offers Enterprise Secure Access (ESA), a cloud service based on a Zero Trust implementation with a Software-Defined Perimeter(SDP) infrastructure.
ESA is integrated with identity authentication, application acceleration, and unified management, meaning that only authorized users can access specific private, public, SaaS applications. ESA also comes with a Zero-Trust gateway and control center, which adds flexibility and accurate access control over employee remote network access.
