AlgoSec - Experts & Thought Leaders

Global cybersecurity pioneer AlgoSec has launched its newest Security Management platform version, featuring advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology that provides an application-centric security approach and a clearer picture of risks and their impact. With this new release, the AlgoSec platform enables users to accurately identify the business applications running in their complex hybrid network and leverage intelligent change automation to streamline security change processes, thus improving security and agility. Security teams “Security professionals are overwhelmed with a barrage of alerts that provide no context between critical threats and minor issues,” said Eran Shiff, VP Product of AlgoSec. “By mapping applications, security teams can understand their criticality, automate changes and prioritise alerts that truly matter, saving countless hours through automation.” AI-powered application AI-powered applications enrich a security team’s ability to detect and respond to threats in real-time Gartner predicts that by 2027, 50 percent of critical enterprise applications will reside outside of centralised public cloud locations, underscoring the complexity that network infrastructures face. Networks are 100 times more complex than they were 10 years ago, and the pace of deployment and development at which security teams are expected to work is 100 times faster.  AI-powered application discovery enhances a security team’s ability to detect and respond to threats in real time. An application-centric approach automates change management processes, identifies security risks and mitigates risks before they impact the network infrastructure. AlgoSec’s AI-powered platform “In today’s evolving cyber landscape, it’s essential that we rapidly identify and prioritise threats as they occur,” said Robert Eldridge​​​​, Security Solutions Director of Natilik. “AlgoSec’s AI-powered platform helps us deliver proactive network visibility and risk mitigation to our clients, keeping them ahead of potential threats.” Four pillars of AlgoSec’s update Securing hybrid infrastructures relies on four pillars that are essential to AlgoSec’s platform update: AI-driven application discovery – Advanced AI feature designed to automatically discover and identify the business applications that are running by correlating them to security changes that have been made. Intelligent and automated application connectivity change – New enhancements allow security professionals to directly adjust existing Microsoft Azure firewall rules for new application connections. Additionally, there’s added support for application awareness in Check Point R80+ firewalls. Reduce risk exposure and minimise attack surface – New features focus on tightening security posture and minimising potential vulnerabilities. It streamlines Microsoft Azure Firewall rule management by identifying and recommending the removal of unused rules. It reduces risk exposure by automatically generating change management tickets to eliminate overly permissive rules. Additionally, it ensures compliance with the latest ASD-ISM regulations. Better visibility across complex hybrid networks – AlgoSec has enriched its capabilities to support visibility of network security devices including: NSX-T Gateway Firewall, Azure Load Balancer and Google Cloud map and traffic path (in early availability).

Global cybersecurity pioneer AlgoSec has released its annual ‘The State of Network Security Report’ providing a broad view of network security in hybrid cloud environments, identifying the most popular strategies adopted by security professionals. The report sheds light on key market trends and highlights the solutions and technologies that are in demand and why, helping organisations to navigate the complexities of modern network security.       Based on two comparative surveys conducted in H2 of 2022 and 2023, AlgoSec’s research evaluated market leaders including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Check Point, Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and more, identifying significant shifts in cloud platform adoption, deployment of firewalls and Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), as well as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) implementation. Key findings Key findings from the report include: Security, continuity, and compliance driving cloud platform selection – When selecting a cloud platform, organisations prioritise seamless integration, compliance, and robust security features. While the overall adoption of cloud platforms has grown, the ranking of different vendors has remained relatively stable. Azure continues to be the most widely used platform, closely followed by AWS, which has shown the fastest pace of growth. The growing adoption of SD-WAN – The move towards remote working and cloud computing has been the catalyst for the increased deployment of SD-WAN, ensuring secure and reliable connections across multiple locations. That is reflected in the report, with a steep decline in the number of organisations that had no SD-WAN solution from 55.2% in 2022 to 34% in 2023. The rise in SASE adoption – With network infrastructures becoming more complex, SASE has become a popular solution for organisations, consolidating multiple security functions into a single, unified, cloud service. The report found the rate of SASE adoption has increased year-on-year, with notable growth of Zscaler implementation from 21.9% in 2022 to 37% in 2023, and Prisma access implementation from 16.2% in 2022 to 22.8% in 2023. The increasing importance of firewalls in cloud estates – With more businesses looking to secure corporate resources across complex cloud networks, firewall implementation has increased as a result, providing organisations with the means to safeguard against external threats. The rate of adoption has risen significantly, with only 7.1% of respondents saying they had no firewalls deployed in 2023 - a sharp drop from the 28.4% recorded in 2022. The persistence of hybrid networks – Despite the general shift towards cloud adoption, on-premise data centres and device rollouts remain a significant feature of the network landscape. Cloud-based network security solutions “According to our research there has been greater adoption of cloud-based network security solutions across the board,” said Eran Shiff, VP Product of AlgoSec. “However, there is still progress to be made in the SD-WAN and SASE space. By identifying the key trends and the most popular solutions on the market, we can provide some much-needed clarity into the complex world of network security.”

AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity pioneer, has announced it has been named an Established Vendor in the 2024 Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer for Network Automation Platforms.   The Voice of the Customer report synthesises Gartner Peer Insights' reviews into insights for IT decision-makers. The report details that 89% of AlgoSec end-users are willing to recommend its solutions. AlgoSec received a composite rating of 4.3 based on objective reviews by validated users and customers on: Product Capabilities (4.6/5), Sales Experience (4.45), Deployment Experience (4.6/5) and Support Experience (4.5/5). New levels of complexity “The expansion of networks from the data centre to cloud and SASE architectures adds new levels of complexity that demand next-generation network security to ensure critical business applications don’t expose organisations to added risk. At the same time, orchestration and automation are vital to keep pace in a constantly evolving landscape,” said Avishai Wool, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at AlgoSec. “Gartner’s Established Partner designation underscores AlgoSec’s commitment to guiding organisations on their network automation journey. Our certified framework brings together solid security policies, ongoing training, smart technology investments and collaboration between internal and external stakeholders.” Integrated change management  Achieving IT security and compliance goals, at scale, is only possible through extensive integration options, total visibility and intelligent automation. The AlgoSec platform is purposely built to simplify and automate security policy management on-premise and in the cloud. Integrated change management automation monitors if security processes remain effective as an organisation’s requirements evolve, often resulting in real-time implementation of policy changes vs. days. This level of automation frees up team members and resources to focus on what matters most: ensuring the network is secure. 

Hybrid cloud computing enables organisations to segregate their resources and workloads on-premise, in a private cloud, or a public cloud. But despite its many benefits, the hybrid environment also creates security concerns. AlgoSec’s co-founder and CTO, Prof. Avishai Wool shares his expert insights on some of these concerns and offers best practices to boost hybrid cloud security. Hybrid cloud computing Hybrid cloud computing combines on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and one or more public clouds. Going hybrid provides businesses with enhanced flexibility, agility, cost savings, and scalability to innovate, grow, and gain a competitive advantage. So, how can you simplify and strengthen security operations in the hybrid cloud? It all starts with visibility – you can’t protect what you can’t see Hybrid environments are highly complex, which can create security blind spots Security teams need to know what these assets are and where they reside to protect their entire hybrid infrastructure, applications, workloads, and data. They also need to see the entire hybrid estate and not just the individual elements. However, complete visibility is a serious hybrid cloud security challenge. Hybrid environments are highly complex, which can create security blind spots, which then prevent teams from identifying, evaluating, and most importantly, mitigating risk. No fragmented security approaches Another hybrid cloud security concern is that you cannot implement a fragmented security approach to control the entire network. With thousands of integrated and interdependent resources and data flowing between them, vulnerabilities crop up, increasing the risk of cyberattacks or breaches. For complete hybrid cloud security, you need a holistic approach that can help you control the entire network. Is DevSecOps the panacea? Not quite In many organisations, DevSecOps teams manage cloud security because they have visibility into what’s happening inside the cloud. However, in the hybrid cloud, many applications have servers or clients outside the cloud, which DevSecOps may not have visibility. Also, the protection of data flowing into and out of the cloud is not always under their remit. Other teams are required to manage security operations and minimise hybrid cloud risks to compensate for these gaps. These additional processes and team members must be coordinated to ensure continuous security across the entire hybrid network environment. But this is easier said than done. IaC-based security IaC-based security defines security best practices in template files, which minimise risks and enhance security posture Using IaC to balance automation with oversight is key, but you shouldn’t solely rely on it Infrastructure as code (IaC) will help you automatically deploy security controls in the hybrid cloud to prevent misconfiguration errors, non-compliance, and violations while in the production stage and pre-application testing. With IaC-based security, you can define security best practices in template files, which will minimise risks and enhance your security posture. But there’s an inherent risk in putting all your eggs in the automation and IaC basket. Hybrid cloud issues Since all the controls are on the operational side, it can create serious hybrid cloud security issues. And without human attention and action, vulnerabilities may remain unaddressed and open the door to cyberattacks. Since security professionals who are not on the operational side must oversee the cloud environment, it could easily open the door to miscommunication and human errors, a very costly proposition for organisations. For this very reason, you should also implement a process to regularly deploy automatic updates without requiring time-consuming approvals that slow down workflows and weaken security. Strive for 95% automated changes and only involve a person for the remaining 5% that requires human input. Hybrid cloud security best practices – start early, start strong    When migrating from on-prem to the cloud, you can choose a greenfield migration or a lift-and-shift migration. Greenfield means rolling out a brand-new application. In this case, ensure that security considerations are “baked in” from the beginning and across all processes. This “shift left” approach helps build an environment that’s secure from the get-go. This ensures that all team members adhere to a unified set of security policy rules to minimise vulnerabilities and reduce security risks within the hybrid cloud environment. Migration planning measurements You can also leverage hybrid cloud security solutions to detect and mitigate security problems in real-time If you lift and shift on-prem applications to the cloud, note any security assumptions made when they were designed. This is important because they were not built for the cloud and may incorporate protocols that increase security risks. Next, implement appropriate measures during migration planning. For example, implement an Application Load Balancer if applications leverage plaintext protocols, and use sidecars to encrypt applications without having to modify the original codebase. You can also leverage hybrid cloud security solutions to detect and mitigate security problems in real time. Matching cloud security with application structure is no longer optional Before moving to a hybrid cloud, map the business logic, application structure, and application ownership into the hybrid cloud estate’s networking structure. To simplify this process, here are some tried and proven ways to consider. Break up your environment into a virtual private cloud (VPC) or virtual network. With the VPC, you can monitor connections, screen traffic, create multiple subnets, and restrict instance access to improve security posture. Use networking constructs to segregate applications into different functional and networking areas in the cloud. This way, you can deploy network controls to segment your cloud estate and ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data and resources. Tag all resources based on their operating system, business unit, and geographical area. Tags with descriptive metadata can help to identify resources. They also establish ownership and accountability, provide visibility into cloud consumption, and help with the deployment of security policies. Conclusion In today’s fast-paced business environment, hybrid cloud computing can benefit your organisation in many ways. But to capture these benefits, you should make an effort to boost hybrid cloud security. Incorporate the best practices discussed here to improve security and take full advantage of your hybrid environment.