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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 sources at particular occasions primarily based on id and context insurance policies. That is half 2 in our ZTNA weblog sequence for operational environments. Learn the primary weblog right here.
Proper now, someplace on this planet a robotic arm wants a firmware improve, a wind turbine is stalled, and a freeway message signal is displaying gibberish. If your enterprise is dependent upon operational expertise (OT) or industrial management methods (ICS), you must enable machine builders, upkeep contractors, or your personal 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 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’ll entry, and when. It begins with a default deny posture and provides least-privilege entry solely as soon as it trusts the consumer id.
Clientless and agent-based ZTNA
Along with limiting entry to particular belongings and schedules, Cisco SEA may also prohibit the entry technique 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 site visitors, which means that customers by no means have direct IP entry to the asset or the community. Fully isolating essential sources provides you unmatched safety.
In some conditions, you may 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 software, or transferring recordsdata to and from an asset. To handle these superior use instances, Cisco SEA provides an agent-based ZTNA entry technique known as SEA Plus.
SEA Plus installs a light-weight software on the distant consumer’s laptop 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 supplied by a VPN answer, site visitors at all times goes via the SEA belief dealer, which enforces safety insurance policies akin to which belongings could 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 belongings as required by the ZTNA least-privilege precept.
Take ZTNA to the following stage 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 might be granting full IP entry to an asset. How are you going to make certain the consumer’s laptop is not going to expose the asset to malware or malicious site visitors? To achieve full belief, you must confirm the gadget the technician is utilizing to log in.
Excellent news: Cisco SEA and Cisco Duo work collectively to routinely examine gadget well being earlier than granting entry to an asset. When a distant consumer tries to ascertain a session utilizing the SEA Plus entry technique, Duo verifies that the consumer’s laptop complies together with your safety insurance policies—for instance, working system model and patch stage, 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 demanding infrastructure. As a ZTNA answer, it permits you to take management again by implementing least-privilege safety insurance policies primarily based on id and context. And with the combination between SEA and Duo, you too can examine the safety posture of distant computer systems—one other key side 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 periods for regulatory compliance, investigating incidents, or coaching functions.
Within the meantime, ensure you subscribe to our OT Safety publication, be taught extra about Cisco Safe Gear Entry (SEA), and take a look at our Cisco Validated Design Information for help on the way to implement ZTNA in your operational surroundings.
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