Zero Belief Community Entry (ZTNA) is a safe distant entry service that verifies distant customers and grants entry solely to particular sources 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 corporation depends upon operational know-how (OT) or industrial management techniques (ICS), you’ll want to permit machine builders, upkeep contractors, or your personal specialists 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 Gear Entry (SEA) and the way it will 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 belongings they will entry, and when. It begins with a default deny posture and presents least-privilege entry solely as soon as it trusts the person identification.
Clientless and agent-based ZTNA
Along with limiting entry to particular belongings and schedules, Cisco SEA may 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, that means that customers by no means have direct IP entry to the asset or the community. Utterly isolating crucial sources provides you unmatched safety.
In some conditions, you would possibly want a full IP communication path between the distant person and an OT asset. Examples are if technicians are utilizing a vendor-specific administration software program, modifying a PLC program utilizing a local desktop software, or transferring recordsdata to and from an asset. To handle these superior use circumstances, Cisco SEA presents an agent-based ZTNA entry methodology referred to as SEA Plus.
SEA Plus installs a light-weight software on the distant person’s laptop to create a safe end-to-end IP reference to the OT asset, enabling any TCP, UDP, and ICMP communications. Nonetheless, not like the community extension supplied by a VPN answer, visitors all the time goes by the SEA belief dealer, which enforces safety insurance policies reminiscent of which belongings may be accessed, when, and which protocols and ports can be utilized.
General, SEA Plus gives native IP entry to operational know-how from distant computer systems, however with out the necessity to design, deploy, and preserve a VPN infrastructure. It additionally strengthens and simplifies safety with extremely granular controls tightly limiting entry to OT belongings 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 strong safety of your industrial community and demanding infrastructure. However when utilizing SEA Plus, you’re granting full IP entry to an asset. How will you ensure the person’s laptop won’t expose the asset to malware or malicious visitors? To achieve full belief, you’ll want to confirm the system the technician is utilizing to log in.
Excellent news: Cisco SEA and Cisco Duo work collectively to routinely examine system well being earlier than granting entry to an asset. When a distant person tries to determine a session utilizing the SEA Plus entry methodology, Duo verifies that the person’s laptop 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’t achieve entry.
Stronger safety with much less effort
Summing up: As a hybrid-cloud answer, Cisco SEA avoids the prices and complexity to keep up safe distant entry capabilities at scale throughout your industrial community and demanding infrastructure. As a ZTNA answer, it permits you to take management again by imposing least-privilege safety insurance policies primarily based on identification and context. And with the mixing between SEA and Duo, you too can examine the safety posture of distant computer systems—one other key facet of zero belief.
Examine again quickly for our subsequent ZTNA weblog, to find out how Cisco Safe Gear Entry will 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, study extra about Cisco Safe Gear Entry (SEA), and take a look at our Cisco Validated Design Information for help on the right way to implement ZTNA in your operational setting.
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