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Zero Belief Community Entry (ZTNA) is a safe distant entry service that verifies distant customers and grants entry solely to particular assets at particular occasions primarily based on identification and context insurance policies. That is half 2 in our ZTNA weblog collection for operational environments. Learn the primary weblog right here.
Proper now, someplace on the planet a robotic arm wants a firmware improve, a wind turbine is stalled, and a freeway message signal is displaying gibberish. If your online business will depend on operational expertise (OT) or industrial management programs (ICS), you have to permit machine builders, upkeep contractors, or your individual consultants and technicians to remotely entry gear for configuration, troubleshooting, and updates.
Shrink the chance with ZTNA
In our final weblog we gave a ten,000-foot view of Cisco Safe Tools Entry (SEA) and the way it may also help to safe distant entry to your industrial community. Cisco SEA is a Zero Belief Community Entry (ZTNA) answer controlling who can join, which OT property they’ll entry, and when. It begins with a default deny posture and provides least-privilege entry solely as soon as it trusts the consumer identification.
Clientless and agent-based ZTNA
Along with limiting entry to particular property and schedules, Cisco SEA also can limit the entry methodology distant technicians can use to log into an OT asset. If they’re utilizing RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, or HTTP(S), they solely want an online browser—no shopper software program is required. Cisco SEA proxies all distant entry visitors, which means that customers by no means have direct IP entry to the asset or the community. Fully isolating important assets provides you unmatched safety.
In some conditions, you would possibly want a full IP communication path between the distant consumer and an OT asset. Examples are if technicians are utilizing a vendor-specific administration software program, modifying a PLC program utilizing a local desktop utility, or transferring recordsdata to and from an asset. To handle these superior use instances, Cisco SEA provides an agent-based ZTNA entry methodology referred to as SEA Plus.
SEA Plus installs a light-weight utility on the distant consumer’s pc to create a safe end-to-end IP reference to the OT asset, enabling any TCP, UDP, and ICMP communications. Nonetheless, in contrast to the community extension provided by a VPN answer, visitors at all times goes via the SEA belief dealer, which enforces safety insurance policies equivalent to which property will be accessed, when, and which protocols and ports can be utilized.
General, SEA Plus supplies native IP entry to operational expertise from distant computer systems, however with out the necessity to design, deploy, and keep a VPN infrastructure. It additionally strengthens and simplifies safety with extremely granular controls tightly limiting entry to OT property as required by the ZTNA least-privilege precept.
Take ZTNA to the following degree with automated security-posture checks
Management over the who, what, how, and when of distant entry is a big step towards sturdy safety of your industrial community and significant infrastructure. However when utilizing SEA Plus, you’re granting full IP entry to an asset. How will you be certain the consumer’s pc is not going to expose the asset to malware or malicious visitors? To realize full belief, you have to confirm the system the technician is utilizing to log in.
Excellent news: Cisco SEA and Cisco Duo work collectively to robotically examine system well being earlier than granting entry to an asset. When a distant consumer tries to determine a session utilizing the SEA Plus entry methodology, Duo verifies that the consumer’s pc complies along with your safety insurance policies—for instance, working system model and patch degree, firewall standing, use of antivirus software program, and extra. If a tool doesn’t meet your necessities, the technician can not achieve entry.
Stronger safety with much less effort
Summing up: As a hybrid-cloud answer, Cisco SEA avoids the prices and complexity to take care of safe distant entry capabilities at scale throughout your industrial community and significant infrastructure. As a ZTNA answer, it allows you to take management again by imposing least-privilege safety insurance policies primarily based on identification and context. And with the combination between SEA and Duo, you may also examine the safety posture of distant computer systems—one other key side of zero belief.
Test again quickly for our subsequent ZTNA weblog, to find out how Cisco Safe Tools Entry may also help you monitor distant entry classes for regulatory compliance, investigating incidents, or coaching functions.
Within the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our OT Safety publication, be taught extra about Cisco Safe Tools Entry (SEA), and take a look at our Cisco Validated Design Information for help on learn how to implement ZTNA in your operational atmosphere.
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