Today, cyber security is becoming more complicated as organizations’ networks are increasingly dynamic and often extend beyond the perimeter. In addition, a company’s security profile has transformed to encompass all aspects of the work environment – applications, documents, electronic data, public and private clouds, virtualized environments, users, and endpoints and mobile devices. All business units must be protected, managed and monitored.
As a result, security administrators are implementing multiple point products and multiple management consoles (often from disparate vendors) resulting in complicated policies, lack of policy controls and poor visibility of security events. This is not the way.
If left poorly managed, fragmented security eventually creates massive holes in the security posture, which leaves the business incredibly vulnerable. Whether it is a simple and easily remedied vulnerability, or a highly sophisticated threat, security breaches can be stopped by using robust security enforcement combined with a management platform designed to enable it.
Why Consolidation Is the Key to Better Security
When security management is integrated via one console, the organization has the power to simplify orchestration of all business security operations. This allows the company’s administrators to create a single, unified security policy for the safe use of the Internet, corporate applications and data.
A solution that supports large-scale deployments yet remains simple and easy to use in day-to-day security tasks is ideal. Security management platforms should enhance collaboration with granular administrator delegation and role separation capabilities. This delivers automation, orchestration and the ability for administrators to work within the same (or multiple) policies simultaneously.
The Importance of Unified Policy
Cyber security is not just about stopping threats, but also about creating and managing a secure business process. When policies are misconfigured, the organization is not able to protect and gain visibility into the increasing number of business segments. This puts the entire organization at risk. The key to a strong security architecture that can overcome the most difficult cyber security challenges can only be delivered by using a security management solution that delivers unparalleled operational efficiency. Therefore, a proper security solution should be measured by its management capabilities.
A powerful security management solution provides a set of advanced policy configurations, productivity tools and policy applications. This allows security optimization and the enhancement of the solution’s operational efficiency, which substantially increase productivity while reducing configuration errors.
The Bottom Line
The key is to optimize security. Many vendors provide web-based management consoles that expose a purported security solution to severe vulnerabilities. As stated earlier, there are many factors to consider.
Our recommendation is to have a consolidated security management platform that provides a single view into all security configurations, and delivers comprehensive visibility into all network traffic, applications, events and threats. It’s also important to be able to customize the security management for your specific needs. This can be achieved with a secure, trusted API architecture, allowing for web and command-line management. These features create a truly consolidated security management solution with high operational efficiency, risk visibility and delegated security.
For those interested in learning more about a comprehensive, consolidated security solution, please visit our website.
Jessica Cooper focuses on solution markets at Check Point Software Technologies, including retail, healthcare and financial services. Before joining Check Point, she spent several years in product and solutions roles in big data and machine intelligence companies. Today, Jessica’s passion lies in cyber security, the Internet of Things and emerging technologies. Find her on Twitter @thoughtcosm.