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Cloud-managed network traffic

How does security relate to networks today?

I have been a fan of cloud-managed network devices for a long time. From a management perspective, the cloud is nowadays the best and most secure friend of network devices. But how does cloud management relate to network traffic in other ways?

When offering network devices to my clients, I am often asked how internet traffic should be technically filtered at the network edge, how to best identify malicious traffic among it, and how to secure end-users technically?

I often respond to such questions by asking a counter-question: how much of the internet traffic they use do they believe is transmitted as SSL-encrypted, for example, through HTTPS pages? The fact is that in the majority of SMB sector companies’ firewalls, SSL decryption is not even performed, meaning that the traffic is not decrypted in between to identify all the content of the traffic genuinely. It would consume an enormous amount of device resources to start examining all end-users’ traffic for malicious content. And this is simply because almost all traffic is SSL-encrypted nowadays. Decrypting all of it would be costly in terms of resources.

The cloud changes the architecture of network traffic protection

How should this be approached in today’s network implementations? The answer, in my opinion, is simple: By moving the analysis and protection of network traffic to where SSL decryption is typically already done natively, that is, to the endpoints. I would aim to identify malicious targets possibly even before traffic occurs, block traffic to them, and otherwise protect the endpoint from all harmful things, perhaps using Microsoft Defender technologies.
I recently explored Cisco Umbrella technology, which at its simplest allows DNS-based network traffic filtering. DNS queries are directed from name servers to Cisco’s security service, where DNS queries pointing to malicious sites are redirected to Umbrella’s own block page. However, Umbrella as a technology has grown and improved in recent years. In the latest Cisco Secure Client application, an Umbrella module can be installed on the workstation, which directs all DNS queries from the workstation first to Cisco’s Umbrella service, thus filtering your endpoint’s network traffic with the parameters you desire, regardless of which network the end-user is in and under any DNS provider. This way, Umbrella’s protection can be extended from your own office directly to all company endpoints. Harmful and unnecessary content you define is identified and filtered out everywhere.

Cisco Secure Client+

I have previously used Cisco’s Secure Client application mainly for enabling AnyConnect VPN remote access, but in my opinion, routing all network traffic through a centralized point is a rather outdated concept. The use of cloud services practically demands a “split-tunnel” architecture, where only essential traffic is routed to the office. However, this complicates the network traffic filtering that previously occurred in firewalls, which some IT professionals still long for.

By integrating Umbrella technologies already at the endpoint, network security features can be ensured cloud-managed, wherever the user may be. Traffic does not need to be routed through VPN tunnels unless there is a need to access the office network. Cisco’s cloud solutions thus enable you to provide your end-users with seamless security for internet traffic, keeping secure internet traffic fast in response. In addition, all other holistic security measures are in place, and I believe we are on very safe ground.

Interested?

In my mind, there are two guiding stars. Microsoft is undeniably one of the stars of the cloud world, just as Cisco has been a pioneer in network technology throughout my career.

What if we holistically combine the best elements of Microsoft’s cloud security and Cisco’s network traffic protection to create a highly secure user experience for SMB end-users purely through the cloud world?

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