Essential Network Security Guide for Network-as-a-Service (NaaS)

Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) has fundamentally changed enterprise networks are designed, deployed, and managed, bringing a dynamic and scalable approach to connectivity and network operations. But with surging usage of cloud services and connected devices, especially with bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, among increasingly distributed workforces, maintaining a secure network has become increasingly critical. While NaaS offers greater flexibility, scalability, and efficiency, combining a fully managed robust security is key to unlocking its full potential.

This guide will cover key aspects of network security specific to NaaS.

Security should be a priority for any enterprise network and the same is true with using a NaaS offering. Imagine the financial fallout from a network breach in a traditional perimeter defense network security model—an attacker enters the network and with unfettered access to applications, email, servers, and cloud services, a wave of cyberattacks wreak havoc. The loss of sensitive information, such as customer data and intellectual property, can erode trust and tarnish your brand's reputation, and failure to adhere to compliance and regulatory requirements can result in hefty fines and legal consequences. In addition, malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated by the day.

Best practices for network security are essential for maintaining the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of your data. Without them, your enterprise risks disruptions that could hamper operational continuity and overall business performance. Some key network security measures include:

• Network Segmentation: Divides your network into smaller, isolated segments to contain potential breaches and limit the lateral movement of threats. By segmenting the network, you can control and monitor traffic between different parts of your network, reducing the risk of widespread compromise. Additionally, segmentation can help in prioritizing security measures for more critical segments, ensuring sensitive data and assets receive the highest level of protection. This practice not only enhances overall security but also simplifies compliance with regulatory standards.
• Network Access Control: Implements strong authentication and authorization mechanisms to ensure only authorized users can access network resources. This includes using multi-factor authentication (MFA), which adds an extra layer of security by requiring two or more verification methods. Role-based access controls (RBAC) should be employed to assign permissions based on the user's role within the organization, limiting access to sensitive information. Also, conducting regular audits to verify access permissions and confirming that only the necessary personnel have the requisite access rights. Regularly updating and reviewing these controls helps network administrators adapt to new security challenges.
• Endpoint Security: Protects devices connected to the network with comprehensive security solutions such as antivirus, anti-malware, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools. These solutions help to identify and neutralize threats at the device level, preventing them from spreading across the network. By continuously monitoring and analyzing endpoint activity, EDR tools can detect advanced threats that traditional antivirus might miss, providing an additional layer of defense. A more proactive approach such as this ensures that vulnerabilities are addressed promptly, reducing the risk of data breaches and maintaining the integrity of the network.
• Next-Gen Firewall Protection: Firewalls restrict unauthorized access and filter out malicious traffic. Firewalls act as a barrier between your network and the internet, preventing unwanted intrusion attempts. These barriers protect your internal network from external threats by monitoring and controlling incoming and outgoing network traffic. By examining data packets based on pre-established rules, firewalls can identify and block potentially dangerous connections. They not only prevent unauthorized access and harmful attacks but also allow for the creation of secure protocols for legitimate communication. Advanced firewall features may include features like intrusion prevention systems (IPS), deep packet inspection (DPI), and virtual private network (VPN) support, further enhancing the security of your network. Regular updates and configurations are essential to ensure that firewalls remain effective against evolving cyber threats.
• Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS): IDS/IPS systems can detect and prevent suspicious activity in real-time, providing an added layer of protection against cyber threats. These systems continuously monitor network traffic for any abnormalities or known attack patterns and block them before they can do harm. By analyzing data packets as they traverse the network, IDS/IPS systems can identify potential security breaches, unauthorized access, or malicious activities, thereby safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining the integrity of the network infrastructure. They can also help by generating alerts and logs for further analysis and response.
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs): VPNs create secure connections between remote users/devices and the corporate network, encrypting data in transit. This feature is especially crucial for enterprises with a distributed workforce or those using public networks to access company resources, ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential and maintains data integrity, even when accessed over public networks.
• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): At their core, SIEM tools aggregate and analyze security data from across an organization's IT infrastructure, collecting logs from devices, applications, and user activity in a central repository. This consolidation enables real-time monitoring and correlation of various data points, allowing for the identification of suspicious activities and potential security threats that might otherwise go unnoticed. Some SIEM tools also incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) features. AI can assist in the automation of incident response processes, allowing for quicker and more accurate identification of security breaches, while continuously learning from previous incidents to improve predictive capabilities and reduce false positives.
• Regular Updates and Patch Management: Ensures all software and hardware components are regularly updated and patched to fix any vulnerabilities. Cyber threats often exploit outdated systems, making them easy targets for attackers. By keeping all network technology up-to-date, you not only protect against known vulnerabilities but also enhance the overall performance and stability of your network and eliminate a major source of compliance and legal risks.
• Application Security: Implements measures and practices to protect software applications from vulnerabilities, threats, and attacks throughout their lifecycle. Key practices in application security include secure coding practices, regular security assessments, threat modeling, and the implementation of robust authentication and authorization mechanisms. By addressing security issues early in the application lifecycle, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of breaches, safeguard sensitive data, and enhance overall trust in their software solutions.
• Security Awareness Training: Educates employees on the importance of network security and best practices for maintaining it. Because a significant portion of cyberattacks originate from compromised account credentials and phishing scams, regular training sessions can help staff recognize phishing attempts, social engineering tactics, and other common threats, making them a critical line of defense.

By integrating these measures into your network security strategy, you can create a resilient defense system that protects your enterprise from the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

Micro-segmentation is a highly effective security technique that involves partitioning a network into smaller, isolated segments or zones. Each segment is equipped with strict access controls, including firewalls and security policies, ensuring that only authorized users and devices can interact with each zone. This containment strategy is particularly useful in preventing attackers from moving laterally across the network, thereby reducing the impact of a potential breach. By isolating sensitive data and critical applications within their own segments, organizations can significantly enhance their overall security posture, making it much harder for cyber threats to spread and cause widespread damage.

Another approach focuses on segmenting specific services within the network. By ensuring that each service operates within its own secure environment, organizations can better protect sensitive data and critical applications from potential threats. This isolation prevents unauthorized access and mitigates risks associated with vulnerabilities in individual services. Additionally, individual devices can be isolated within the network, effectively creating smaller, controlled segments. By segmenting devices in this manner, even if one device is compromised, it is unable to affect the entire network, thereby limiting the scope of potential damage. This type of containment can maintain the integrity and security of the overall network in environments with a diverse array of connected devices, such as IoT ecosystems, where the risk of vulnerabilities can be higher. Overall, micro-segmentation allows for more granular monitoring and management of network traffic, making it easier to identify and respond to suspicious activities promptly.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a security model based on the concept of "never trust, always verify." Unlike traditional perimeter-based security models that assume every user or device within the network is trustworthy, ZTNA operates on the premise that threats can exist both inside and outside of the network. Therefore, every access attempt—whether from an internal user or an external one—is verified before granting access to resources. This approach emphasizes continuous authentication and strict access controls, ensuring that users are only allowed the minimum necessary access to perform their tasks.

How Does ZTNA Enhance Network Security?

• Granular Access Control: ZTNA provides finely tuned access management, allowing organizations to enforce policies that limit user access to specific applications or services based on various factors such as identity, device type, and location. This reduces the attack surface and mitigates the risk of unauthorized access.
• Continuous Authentication: Unlike traditional models that authenticate users once at the point of entry, ZTNA requires ongoing validation of user identities and device security postures. This means users may be challenged for reauthentication or additional verification based on behavioral anomalies or changes in their environment, helping to identify potential threats in real time.
• Comprehensive Monitoring: Involves continuously monitoring network traffic for anomalies and potential threats. This increased visibility allows for better detection of suspicious behavior, facilitating rapid response to potential security incidents.
• Isolation of Resources: By isolating applications and services, ZTNA prevents lateral movement within the network. Even if a threat actor gains access to one resource, they cannot easily traverse the network to compromise other systems, thus containing potential breaches and reducing the overall impact.
• Adaptability: The ZTNA model is inherently adaptive, allowing organizations to quickly adjust their security policies and access controls in response to emerging threats or changes in user behavior. This agility is vital in today's rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) combines network security functions, such as firewall and secure web gateways, with wide area networking (WAN) capabilities to deliver secure, efficient, and optimized access to applications and data. Its scalable and flexible cloud-based architecture supports a variety of deployment options, making it an ideal NaaS integration for dynamic and growing organizations.

How Does SASE Work with NaaS?

SASE integrates seamlessly with NaaS by providing a cloud-native platform that combines security and networking. This advanced integration ensures secure and efficient connectivity across all locations, offering a unified approach to managing network and security policies. This holistic approach ensures that organizations can protect their sensitive information while maintaining high performance and connectivity across distributed environments.

What are the Key Components of SASE?

• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Ensures secure, granular access to applications based on user identity and device posture, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.
• Secure Web Gateway (SWG): Protects against web-based threats by inspecting and filtering internet traffic, blocking malicious sites, and preventing data loss.
• Cloud and Mobile Security: Extends security to cloud applications and mobile users, providing secure, optimized access to SaaS applications and cloud services.
• Advanced Threat Protection: Real-time threat prevention and detection using machine learning and advanced analytics to protects against malware, ransomware, and other cyber threats.
• WAN Optimization: Enhances application performance by reducing latency, improving throughput, and optimizing bandwidth usage, ensuring a more efficient and reliable network experience.
• Next-Gen Firewall: Provides cloud-based firewall protection, offering scalability and flexibility to defend against cyber threats while reducing the need for physical hardware.
• Simplified Management: Single-pane-of-glass management for both security and network operations which provides centralized visibility and control over the entire network.
• Scalability and Flexibility: Scalable to meet the needs of growing or dynamic organizations with flexible deployment options to support on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
• Comprehensive Analytics and Reporting: Real-time monitoring and analytics for proactive threat detection and network performance insights, including detailed reporting to support compliance and security posture management.

Secure SD-WAN combines a software-defined approach to WAN management with robust security measures to provide secure and optimized connectivity.

A secure SD-WAN should encrypt all data transmitted over the network using advanced encryption standards, preventing unauthorized access and eavesdropping. This encryption secures data both in transit and at rest, adding an extra layer of protection.

In addition, secure SD-WAN can use intelligent traffic steering to direct traffic based on predefined application policies, ensuring that critical applications receive the necessary bandwidth and low-latency paths. This intelligent routing not only optimizes performance but also enhances security by avoiding potentially compromised routes.

Because SD-WAN is essentially a virtualized WAN, its abstracted from hardware, bringing higher available and flexibility to handle network traffic and security. Secure SD-WAN centralizes the management of security policies and network configurations, making it easier for network administrators to deploy, monitor, and update security measures. This centralized approach helps maintain consistent security standards across the entire network, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities.

How Does SD-WAN Improve Network Security?

• Improved Performance: Ensures better end-to-end cloud application performance for users by optimizing traffic flow from user endpoint devices through Wi-Fi, LAN, WAN to cloud, and data centers. Intelligent traffic steering maintains application performance and remediates performance degradation.
• Increased Security: Protects against external threats like distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and malware and prevents unauthorized access by allowing only approved devices onto the network.
• Cost Efficiency: Optimizes bandwidth use, reducing the need for expensive WAN connections. WAN connections can be scaled based on actual demand, eliminating unused capacity and lowering operational costs.
• Operational Simplicity: Centralized management of devices and routing is based on application policies. Zero-touch provisioning automates deployment and reduces operational expenses.
• Carrier-Independent WAN Connectivity: Organizations can use multiple ISPs to ensure network resilience and cost-effectiveness, choosing the best ISP for each location to avoid connectivity loss and other issues.

While both SD-WAN and SASE aim to optimize network performance and security, they differ significantly in their approach and capabilities.

SD-WAN focuses on optimizing WAN performance by intelligently directing traffic across multiple connections, such as MPLS, broadband, and LTE, to ensure the best possible performance and reliability. It also provides secure connectivity between branch offices to a central headquarters or connect multiple buildings in a campus, improving overall network efficiency and reducing costs.

SASE technically includes SD-WAN, expanding its capabilities by integrating a comprehensive suite of security functions, including zero-trust network access (ZTNA), secure web gateways (SWG), advanced threat protection, and next-gen firewalls, into a single, unified, cloud-native solution. This approach delivers not only enhanced network performance but also robust security, enabling organizations to securely connect users to applications and services from anywhere, on any device.

While SD-WAN focuses on connecting branches to a central network, cloud, or data center, and SASE focuses on connecting individual endpoints from branches to devices, combining SASE and SD-WAN into a cohesive framework can provide a more holistic approach to managing and securing modern, distributed networks.

A comprehensive NaaS solution should seamlessly integrate with leading enterprise cybersecurity solutions to enhance overall security measures for network infrastructure and data assets. By harnessing functionalities from top-tier cybersecurity platforms, organizations can significantly improve their ability to detect, prevent, and respond to potential threats. These integrations allow for real-time data sharing and threat intelligence, enabling faster incident response and better-informed decision-making.

For instance, leveraging advanced analytics from cybersecurity solutions can help identify unusual traffic patterns indicative of a breach, while automation tools can streamline incident response processes, reducing the time it takes to mitigate risks. Integrating a NaaS solution with existing security frameworks ensures a layered defense strategy, strengthening the overall cybersecurity posture of the organization and fostering a proactive approach to managing threats in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

 

A Network Operations Center (NOC) is a centralized location where IT professionals monitor, manage, and maintain customer networks and services. NOCs play an important role in ensuring the availability and performance of critical network infrastructure by continuously overseeing network health, managing incidents, and implementing or automating changes.

Companies who subscribe to a NaaS solution typically benefit from having a NOC. The NOC acts as the backbone of service delivery, bringing sophisticated observability and monitoring tools to optimize network performance in real-time, swiftly address any issues, and maintain optimal service levels for their customers. This capability is vital for meeting the high availability and reliability expectations that businesses typically demand when outsourcing their network management.

What are the Benefits of Having a NOC?

The NOC leverages data from across the network to enhance operational efficiency, maintain peak performance, and reduce downtime. With a dedicated team focused on incident detection and resolution, companies can ensure minimal service interruptions, leading to a better user experience. Additionally, NOCs can provide comprehensive reporting and analysis, helping organizations understand usage patterns and optimize their network performance. By having a NOC in place, businesses can free their internal IT resources to focus on strategic initiatives rather than day-to-day network management.

The future of network security lies in the continued integration of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These technologies enable proactive threat detection and response, ensuring that networks remain secure in an evolving threat landscape. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, leveraging advanced technologies becomes increasingly critical to stay ahead of cyber threats and build a more resilient security posture.

• AI and ML: These technologies enhance threat detection and response capabilities by analyzing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns indicative of malicious activity. Unlike traditional security measures that rely on predefined rules, AI and ML can adapt to new threats in real-time, providing a dynamic defense mechanism against cyberattacks.
• Automation: Automating routine security tasks, such as patch management and system monitoring, frees up internal IT resources to focus on more strategic initiatives. This not only increases operational efficiency but also reduces the likelihood of human error, which can be a significant vulnerability in any security framework.
• Quantum Security: With the potential to break traditional encryption methods, quantum computing represents a significant risk to current security infrastructures. Quantum security involves developing new encryption techniques that can withstand quantum attacks, ensuring the long-term integrity of sensitive data.

Where is Your Network Security Headed?

While there are many capabilities and approaches deploying and managing network security for NaaS, it is crucial for enterprises to have well-defined strategies and controls in place to safeguard their digital infrastructure. Implementing a combination of technical measures, such as encryption, multi-factor authentication, and regular security patches, alongside comprehensive policies and proactive monitoring, can create a solid defense against cyberattacks. By leveraging advanced technologies and best practices to ensure that every layer of the network is protected, organizations can mitigate the risk of breaches and maintain the integrity and confidentiality of their data.

Ready to take your network security to the next level? Talk to a Join NaaS expert today and explore how our NaaS solutions keep your network secure.