Faced With Rising Cybercrime Rates, IT Professionals Agree On Approach To Network Security; Yet Only 1 In 4 Do What It Takes

New Research Finds End-to-End Network Segmentation Essential for Security, Yet Few Deploy

As point-of-sale breaches, ransomware attacks and various other customer data breaches continue to make local and national headlines, IT professionals agree that network segmentation-- the ability to create secure, network-wide “swim lanes” for applications or services-- is an essential measure to mitigate security risks. However, new research from VeraQuest Research, commissioned by Avaya, indicates that few companies actually employ an end-to-end segmentation strategy with only one in four respondents believing they do.

Ongoing security breach headlines serve as perpetual wakeup calls for businesses to implement effective strategies to reduce their exposure. One strategy in particular—end-to-end network segmentation—was cited by 400 IT professionals in the U.S. as an essential security measure. Yet, only 23% of respondents said they believe they currently deploy such a strategy, and nearly as many (22%) didn’t even know it was possible. The top reasons cited for not having a network segmenting strategy were: too complex (35%), too resource intensive (29%), and too risky to deploy (22%).

The dilemma that most companies face is that while a majority of security spending is directed towards a rigid network perimeter, this traditional perimeter has morphed into an “everywhere perimeter” due to cloud computing, outsourcing, and BYOD technology. Without proper controls, a breach of one device could provide a hacker with the virtual keys to the castle. As such, all entry points are of some concern to the IT professionals surveyed in the study, but three areas are perceived to be the greatest entry-point threats into their organization: employee email (50%), wireless connections (50%), and employee devices (46%).

A proper end-to-end network segmentation deployment is a foundational measure to address the fluid characteristics of an everywhere perimeter. Unlike traditional technologies that may not extend network wide and are onerous to deploy, end-to-end segmentation natively extends from the data center to the desktop while reducing complexity and operational burden. Network-wide segments are seamless and are created with simplified configuration commands on an edge device, which enables organizations to add new services or make changes to existing services in minutes rather than days, weeks, or months.

Avaya Networking takes a foundational approach to network security addresses the growing number of breaches by offering an end-to-end segmentation solution that comprises three synergistic capabilities:

• Hyper-Segmentation: The ability to create stealth segments that span the entire network.
• Native Stealth: The characteristic of a hyper-segment that is invisible to hackers.
• Automated Elasticity: The capability to create and remove hyper-segments automatically

Combined, these capabilities allow organizations to automatically manage hyper-segments seamlessly and invisibly, making the protection and management of the everywhere perimeter a reality.

Quotes:

“End-to-end network segmentation has been possible for some time; however, the likely reason that most organizations have not implemented is that its arduous nature made it impractical. Avaya is putting forward a technology that should allow organizations to actually be able to implement and maintain the technology and work within their current staffing envelope.”

Mike Fratto, Research Director, Business Technology and Software, Current Analysis

“As the number of network security breaches reach staggering proportions - an increase of 38% in just the past year alone - hackers seem to be just one step ahead of the latest security technologies. Avaya’s approach to network security begins at the core and extends wherever the business needs it to be. Our hyper-segmentation, native, stealth and automated elasticity capabilities create safety zones that hackers can’t see, and therefore won’t be able to access.”

Marc Randall, Senior Vice President and GM, Avaya Networking

“At any hotel in Las Vegas, instant access to both real-time and historical surveillance data is crucial. With our secure Avaya solution, all applications are isolated yet run over the same physical infrastructure. There is no breach in connectivity among the separated systems. They all run independent of one another. The Avaya network has never let us down. We’ve never had a failure of the live video feed or been unable to retrieve past footage on the property.”

Charles Robinson, Director of IT, Downtown Grand

“The City of Taylor, with a long and successful history with Avaya for the past 15 years, has constantly relied on Avaya to provide its network infrastructure and network virtualization technology to seamlessly interconnect 14 municipal locations. The stealth networking capability that Fabric Connect provides helps to protect sensitive applications and confidential data, and it aids PCI compliance for the City’s point of sale system. Our relationship with Avaya is a strong, proven one. In every initiative that we achieve, Avaya is always on the forefront, solving our complex problems and coming up with the solution that works best for us.”

Snehal Patel, Information Technology Director, City of Taylor

Resources: Securing the Everywhere Perimeter

View the Infographic (http://www.avaya.com/en/documents/Securing_The_Everywhere_Perimeter_infographic.pdf)

Read the Whitepaper (http://www.avaya.com/en/documents/Securing_The_Everywhere_Perimeter_DN7907.pdf)

Additional Resources

Executive Summary: End-To-End Network Segmentation Research (http://www.avaya.com/en/documents/VQ_Avaya_NetworkSegmentation_Report.pdf)

Whitepaper: The New World of Network Security (http://www.avaya.com/en/documents/the_new_world_of_network_security_dn7843.pdf)

About Avaya
Avaya is a leading provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices for better customer experience, increased productivity and enhanced financial performance. Its world-class contact center and unified communications technologies and services are available in a wide variety of flexible on-premises and cloud deployment options that seamlessly integrate with non-Avaya applications. Avaya Breeze enables third parties to create and customize business applications for competitive advantage. The Avaya fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment of business critical applications and services. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.