How SD-WAN Minimizes the Risk of Data Breach?

Until recently, before the invention of SD-WAN network, the use of WANs and MPLS connections were at a risk of security breaches. Now, we have the opportunity to add an additional layer of security to prevent our data from security breaches. Most MPLS connected networks grant unrestricted user access to customers, which can be dangerous. In comparison, SD-WANs allow IT to utilize tunneling in order to segment traffic over the network. Also, in order to gain greater amount of protection, companies are fusing security into the SD-WANs.

The nature of work has changed gradually over the past decade. Workers and the data they worked with, have made a global impact and are now distributed globally. Now data is stored in various cloud platforms and workers can access this data from anywhere they are based at. Even though this has led to greater efficiency in the system, it has made data more vulnerable to attacks from outside.

Networks can now extend to anywhere and to any device within the available range. This implies that security attacks can come from anywhere, leading to far greater consequences for the users of the data. The risk of security breach will continue unless the network is segmented appropriately. Also, due to a lack of security on the access from within the network, one could face lateral movement of data from the point of entry to the point of scale.

How do SD-WANs help?

SD-WANs help to ensure greater security by limiting access to the key resources. One example of this can be found in the public wifi networks at shopping centers. While the customers are able to access the internet using the wifi, they are unable to access the internal files. Nowadays, most organizations rely on the implementation of the SD-WANs in order to protect their datacenters. The SD-WANs are able to provide separate access to different users by segmenting the WAN with layer three encrypted tunnels. The nodes of the SD-WAN map, the VLANs, and IP address ranges to the tunnels based on certain customer-defined policies.

SD-WAN segmentation is known to restrict the access based on the device that is used. When a device is unsecured, it means that the network access is also likely to be unsecured. In such cases, SD-WAN segmentation cannot do anything to prevent the attacker from crossing into the segments. This leads to greater risk of penetration from malware and viruses that can lead to security breaches of the network. In order to fix this issue, organizations need to implement advanced security options that can help to protect the data from security threats.

Some of the security devices that are used, include next-gen firewalls, malware protection and other means that can help to protect the segments of the network of a business organization. Decisions regarding the security are made based on the user information and not on the device information. In order to make it easy for the mobile users, cloud platforms and location services to implement the WAN segmentation, one needs to implement Firewall as a Service into the SD-WAN. This allows the enterprises to avoid the hardware implementation costs, maintenance costs and the lengthy process of provisioning when the traditional security stack is coupled with the SD-WAN.

As more and more organizations move towards integrated security and networking services in the cloud, SD-WAN will only make advanced segmentation the norm for all organizations that want to protect their data from outside attacks. One of the main issues that affect the securing and managing of the branch networks is the growing complexity in the procedure. SD-WAN has emerged as the best way to mitigate the risks associated with security threats by reducing the cost of operation and management of the sprawls. SD-WAN will help us to move further ahead and leave behind data breaches as a thing of the past.