Secure Access for Hybrid Work

The future of the office is hybrid

Security is playing catch-up with new access requirements

One of the lasting effects of COVID-19 has been an unprecedented shift in how companies operate. As cities and nations went into lockdown, almost all workers left the office and needed remote access. Businesses scrambled to support the transition to remote working overnight by expanding the use of VPNs. Connecting all remote workers' computers to the corporate network not only changed the definition of corporate network infrastructure, but also dramatically expanded the corporate attack surface. Theft of VPN credentials is at an all-time high, and companies are more exposed than ever.

As some employees begin to come back to the office, others may push to retain the flexibility to work remotely indefinitely. This means that corporate security has to adapt to secure company resources and data in a new paradigm, where employees may be anywhere inside or outside the corporate perimeter.

Consistent, location-independent security methods are needed

Traditional access control methods fall short for hybrid work

The workhorse of remote access, the user VPN, is now several decades old. It connects a user device to the corporate network; once "on" the corporate network, the user can access all corporate resources, just as though he/she were in the office. However, since the access originates from outside the company, most companies couple the VPN access with a firewall to filter attacks.

There are many problems with this approach in the new era of hybrid work:

Corporate resources aren't protected from on-site user accesses. Once users are connected to the corporate network, they are considered trusted to access corporate resources.
Firewalls can't positively link a packet to a specific user identity and role. Additionally, firewall rules are typically set up to block known-bad traffic, not to validate known-good traffic.
Users who have inconsistent, location-specific ways to access work resources need more support and handholding, making it difficult to implement least-privilege access policies.
Users may end up with multiple VPNs for different resources (different sites or clouds) – that may have inconsistent policies, or can't all be used simultaneously.

Companies need a new set of tools to handle the hybrid work challenge.

On-site or remote, access is secured

ZTNA provides consistent security policy enforcement for hybrid work

With Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) provided by CoIP^® Platform, you can grant access to specific resources and applications without giving away full network access. You can even specify the access method, enabling only approved clients to be used for access.

CoIP Platform deploys a security boundary at the application edge for least-privilege access, requiring users to authenticate to the ZTNA for access, for a consistent use flow whether the user is on-site or remote.

Users authenticate to your corporate identity provider and are presented with a menu of resources through a user portal. This provides a seamless user experience making it easy for even the least technical employees to be productive from anywhere.

Secure Access for the Hybrid Workplace

Whether employees are in the office or working remotely, secure their access with ZTNA

The future of the office is hybrid

Security is playing catch-up with new access requirements

Consistent, location-independent security methods are needed

Traditional access control methods fall short for hybrid work

On-site or remote, access is secured

ZTNA provides consistent security policy enforcement for hybrid work

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