With the recent evolution of data and work environments, it’s never been more essential for companies to put a workload security plan in place. Zero trust segmentation is a go-to solution, boosting security by isolating attacks before they can disrupt your entire network.
Microsegmentation offers extra protection, and it is quickly taking over as the new frontier of network segmentation. However, it’s not without its challenges. So, how can you implement a microsegmentation strategy as effectively as possible?
According to John Duronio, the Director of Strategy at TrueFort, microsegmentation is essential for protecting networks from evasive attacks. These days, attackers are able to infiltrate a network and move laterally quicker than ever before. By segmenting your network into small workloads, you can efficiently isolate and even prevent those harmful attacks. And, if an attack does happen, you can take action before it gets out of control.
However, microsegmentation isn’t just best practice for businesses — it’s now becoming a requirement. As John says, many new compliance regulations are actually insisting that companies have a microsegmentation strategy in place. The same goes for insurance providers, who will be looking for these additional security measures.
John’s advice? Start implementing a microsegmentation strategy sooner rather than later, because this is just the beginning.
Despite its benefits, microsegmenting your network also has its downsides — namely, the challenge of knowing where to start. Every company has a different network of systems, and it can be difficult to understand what to segment versus what to keep together. Larger organizations may have multiple domains, and many companies may struggle to split their complex network into multiple parts.
To solve this problem, John suggests taking a step back and identifying what matters most in your network.
So, ask yourself: what is it that is most critical to protect? It’s important to monitor and assess your network before implementing a microsegmentation strategy, as not all workloads are created equal.
Then, after you’ve taken the first action, the next step is patience. As John says, microsegmentation is a “crawl, walk, run” type of project, and many businesses fail because they give up too soon. Expect a timeline of several months to a year or more. After all, there are many moving parts to sort through, from various applications, to critical interdependencies, to outdated databases. Patience is key.
Once you’ve deployed your microsegmentation strategy, the work isn’t over yet. Now you must face the challenge of managing and maintaining it in order to keep your network secure for the long term. All solutions require some care and feeding to stay strong.
To simplify the day-to-day management of your microsegmentation project, it’s best practice to build a baseline.
You can build this baseline by monitoring the activity from the past few weeks to understand what is “normal” in your network. This way, you can more easily identify an attack or disruption and quickly take action.
