With 2015 coming to a close, it’s time for us to take a look at what we are expecting to see in 2016. This year we speak to Sanjay Ramnath, Senior Director of Product Management for Barracuda. Sanjay takes us through some specific observations and his thoughts on what the security industry will face over the next 12 months.
These security outlook posts are a regular event for us, and normally we start by reviewing the previous outlook and comparing it to what happened during the current year. Here’s a brief summary of how we did:
Prediction
Barracuda Response
Attack surfaces will change.
We expanded our public and private cloud offerings and designed product architectures for hybrid environments.
We will continue to see threats across all vectors, with an increase in attacks related to mobile access and web applications.
Several new developments reinforced mobility as a key component of our security solutions. We also continued to develop our web application security portfolio especially for public cloud platforms.
There will be a continued rise in web application attacks and DDoS incidents.
DDoS protection is integrated into our Firewall and Web Application security solutions. Our NextGen Firewall solutions ensure that this protection can also extend to branch & satellite offices. Our Web Application Firewalls provide in-depth security, access control and data leakage protection for web applications on on-premises or cloud platforms.
Any increases in IT security budgets will be insufficient for “business as usual.”
Barracuda Total Threat Protection provides best-in-breed security solutions that are affordable and easy-to-use.
For more details on the above, see our previous post, A look back on 2015.
As infrastructure and business models continue to evolve, so do the threats against them. This year we expect to see the following trends have a significant impact on IT.
Dispersion
The coming year will see increased network dispersion in all forms as organizations expand to more locations, leverage cloud based service and adopt mobility. Organizations will look to mitigate network complexity by managing dispersion.
Network dispersion will continue to increase over the next year. Because of the increased adoption of cloud-based business services, traffic flows across these dispersed networks will change.
Network dispersion will change the traditional role of the firewall. Network architectures change as the use of cloud applications like Office 365 grow. It reduces the need to backhaul traffic to a firewall in a central location in order to enforce policies and deliver Internet access. Remote locations with Internet connectivity can access cloud apps directly, and branch office firewalls can be configured with the appropriate policies to ensure security, reliability and quality of service. Also, as organizations enable intelligent network perimeters with firewalls at all locations, the need for centralized management will become more important.
Rather than one central firewall configured to enforce security policies, System Administrators will be managing multiple firewalls that have their own sets of policies. Without the ability to deploy, orchestrate policies and monitor multiple firewalls throughout the network, System Administrators will find it difficult to secure their sites, optimize connectivity, and leverage the benefits of dispersion. This means that the importance of the management plane will be elevated to that of the policy enforcement plane.
The growth of branch offices, microsites, and mobile technologies means that users will become more dispersed. Technology Managers will have to extend their security posture to include security for those users while ensuring secure access to network resources. Centralized policy management and reporting will be key to maintaining a uniform security policy for on and off-network users. The use of mobile applications will grow as part of this trend. Also, BYOD policies will continue to evolve challenging IT administrators to securely manage employee owned devices on corporate networks.
Data centers and application delivery systems will also become more dispersed. An increasing adoption of private and public cloud based hosting platforms will lead to hybrid data center environments. Application traffic flows will be more non-deterministic and non-transactional. New data center architectures will require connectivity across multiple deployment surfaces as well as application security that can migrate and scale with virtualized applications.
Barracuda provides several solutions to help System Administrators leverage dispersion. Barracuda NextGen Firewalls are purpose-built to optimize network traffic flows in dispersed network environments. They include application awareness, user awareness, WAN optimization, site-to-site connectivity, advanced threat detection and other features that secure traffic, regulate application usage, and enable secure access. The Barracuda NextGen Control Center provides a true centralized management system that is fully scalable across thousands of locations through a single pane of glass.
Barracuda solutions also enable administrators to extend their security posture to remote and mobile users. Barracuda VPN solutions provide secure remote access. The cloud based Barracuda Web Security Service combined with end-point agents can secure the users when they are outside the network perimeter while providing centralized policy management and aggregating reporting across on and off-network users. Also the cloud based Barracuda Mobile Device Manager ensures that employee owned mobile devices can be safely used on corporate networks.
For hybrid data centers, Barracuda Web Application Firewalls can be deployed as virtual appliances to provide scalable security for applications on private and public cloud platforms. Barracuda Load Balancer FDC solutions are designed to provide fast, high throughput traffic distribution across virtual application infrastructures.
Attacks
The landscape is littered with opportunistic attacks that should be taken seriously, but the increase in targeted attacks may present the greater risk. Targeted attacks are designed to harvest the unique data and resources of a specific organization. Once inside the organization’s system, the attackers may carry out any number of actions, such as command-and-control and data capture & exfiltration.
We expect to see a continued increase in targeted attacks. These attacks will become more sophisticated, and therefore more successful at penetrating traditional security. Hackers will leverage techniques like spear phishing and social engineering to launch sophisticated multi-vectors attacks that steal user credentials and exploit multiple unsecured threat vectors. Organizations must proactively secure all their internet threat vectors with comprehensive security against targeted attacks. Advanced Threat Detection and sandboxing must be included in securing every threat vector. This will drive the need for cost effective and accessible solutions that perform these functions.
Barracuda can help resource-constrained organizations secure all of their threat vectors with Barracuda Total Threat Protection. This is a framework that integrates simple, affordable, best-of-breed security components to provide protection against advanced threats across all internet threat vectors. Barracuda Email Security solutions provide protection against targeted email attacks like phishing, Barracuda Web Security Solutions can protect users from social media threats and Barracuda Web Application Firewalls secure web applications from hacks and data leaks. Technologies like cloud based sandboxing, real time threat protection, advanced malware analysis are available across all these vectors.
Public Cloud
A recent cloud computing survey found that most enterprises have a hybrid strategy, with over 80% putting together a plan for either public and private, or multiple public clouds. This same survey revealed that while private cloud adoption stalled in the past year, public cloud adoption continued to grow by double-digits.
We expect public cloud adoption to continue to grow. This will force companies to rethink the way they secure their resources, and will encourage service providers to develop new security and networking tools that are native to cloud platforms. These new tools will be easier and faster to deploy, and might be handled by a MSP. This approach means that business moves faster, resources are right-sized, and time-to-value is reduced.
Cloud adoption presents different types of challenges based on the migration scenario. Many companies are only planning to migrate some of their assets to the cloud. They want to leverage the benefits of the cloud where they can, while keeping some resources on-site as needed. In this type of hybrid scenario, Technology Managers will be looking to deploy the same security in the cloud as is on-premises, and to be able to securely connect the on-premises and cloud components. These companies may also need networking and segregation capabilities in the public cloud.
A company that has no existing on-premises servers or applications may choose to deploy only to the cloud. In this scenario, Technology Managers may struggle with security questions. How secure is the application? Who is responsible for server security? Is the deployment in compliance with regulations?
To solve these problems, Barracuda offers solutions like the Barracuda NextGen Firewall, Barracuda Web Application Firewall, Barracuda Message Archiver and Barracuda Spam Firewall. These solutions ensure continuity and compliance, prevent data loss, and provide comprehensive protection for applications and data. These two solutions are available as physical and virtual appliances, and they are offered in the AWS and Microsoft Azure marketplaces. They are designed to meet the challenges of the public cloud and hybrid deployments.
Office 365
There are several benefits in moving to Office 365: accessibility anywhere at any time, easy email access both inside and outside of the organization, and a reduction in IT overhead and other costs. We expect to see a rapid adoption of Office 365 by companies of all sizes. These companies will encounter a handful of networking, security and compliance challenges that will require specialized solutions. Companies will need to understand that security and compliance requirements do not change in the cloud ecosystem, and third party providers still have a role.
As part of a migration to Office 365, organizations will have to prepare their networks to handle the traffic and availability requirements as well as improve reliability. They will also have to prepare their data by consolidating legacy email archives. Barracuda NextGen Firewalls can prioritize Office 365 traffic as well as provide reliable cloud connectivity. Barracuda PST Enterprise and Barracuda Message Archiver solutions can help organizations consolidate on-premises email archives before migrating to Office 365.
After the migration, organizations need to operate with the same level of security, compliance and data protection they had around their on-premises email infrastructure. Barracuda Email Security Service, Barracuda Message Archiver, and Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup can provide this.
Barracuda solutions can help organizations can make a smooth and safe transition to the cloud.
Managed Services
We expect to see tremendous growth in managed services, as customers begin to realize that the *-as-a-Service model offers both simplicity and affordability. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have unprecedented opportunity due to Infrastructure-as-a-Service, virtualization, public cloud ecosystems, machine and app templates, and more. MSPs will be able to offer rapid deployment of resources, including security and compliance applications.
Barracuda has created new opportunities for channel partners in the MSP space, and has enhanced the Barracuda Partner Program for partners at all levels. These enhancements expand services, reward partner loyalty, and make it easier to participate in the program. The program is designed to accelerate profitability and attract new partners.
Barracuda security solutions can help Technology Managers secure network threat vectors, leverage the benefits of the public cloud, and intelligently manage site to site or internet traffic. For more information on these solutions or to request a risk-free 30-day trial, visit our corporate site at www.barracuda.com. For more information on the Barracuda Partner Program, visit the Barracuda Partner Portal here.