Why security belongs in the network

Security threats travel across networks, from initial reconnaissance to data exfiltration. This makes the network a goldmine of security intelligence. However, visibility alone is insufficient. The network, which connects all users, devices, applications, and workloads, is also the ideal place to verify identity, enforce consistent policies, and isolate suspicious activity.

To make security an integral part of the network, organizations must embed security functions directly into the network fabric, transforming routers, switches, and access points into cybersecurity defenders. This approach simplifies and enhances protection in the enterprise. Today, enterprises face challenges due to the dissolution of network perimeters.

Assets have dispersed across the cloud, edge devices, and on-premises servers. Bolting additional security tools onto infrastructure to protect these assets is unsustainable, leading to increased license costs, overlapping tools, and gaps through which attackers can pass. Coordination among teams is also slow and difficult, hindering the security effort and driving up costs.

Integrating security into the network offers several benefits. Standardization allows for the encoding of a consistent approach that works everywhere across the organization. This simplifies policy management and eliminates fragmentation. Agility is crucial in the AI era, where attackers move quickly and at scale. Centralized policy implementation enables rapid adaptation to the evolving security landscape.

Simplification, through the implementation once, run everywhere capability, allows for the encoding of zero-trust principles into the network foundation. NIST's SP 800-207 standard supports protection at the asset level, moving away from the traditional VPN approach. Zero-trust security measures, such as micro-segmentation, close off parts of the network at a granular level to prevent lateral movement and limit the blast radius.

Network-based security also supports robust security for other complex disciplines like SASE and SD-WAN. Collaborative security is achieved by having a common fabric for networking and security, enabling closer collaboration between network and security teams and reducing the gap that attackers exploit. AI plays a dual role in integrated network security.

It is integrated into the network through machine learning, which helps spot patterns in network activity for predictive AIOps systems. AI also serves as a valuable security mechanism, enabling the anticipation and prevention of attacks. However, attackers are also using AI to augment their assaults. To begin integrating security into your network, assess your organization's greatest source of risk, whether it's expanding zero trust, supporting hybrid work, or defending against AI threats.

Options include unified SASE for secure access, hybrid mesh firewalls for consistent policies, universal zero-trust network architectures, and AIOps for improved visibility and automation.