SDP VS VPN: WHAT IS SDP AND WHY IS IT A BETTER SECURE ACCESS SOLUTION?

SDP vs VPN: the shortcomings of VPN technology

VPNs were not designed to be used to secure a hybrid IT infrastructure or a hybrid workforce, and are well past their prime. In fact, several US government agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA), have issued warnings about VPN shortcomings. Then there's " the headaches " of government because VPNs can only scale with more hardware (physical or virtual), which means a major investment in capital and time.

Additional VPN shortcomings include:

  • Exposed ports VPNs: threat actors can use common hacking tools to easily find and query VPNs to discover manufacturer and version.
  • Over-privileged access: VPNs depend on rules that are too complex to prevent lateral movement
  • Inability to scale dynamically: VPNs must be architected to accommodate a certain volume of remote users, and cannot scale dynamically to handle user fluctuations.
  • Limited throughput Typical VPNs reach a maximum of less than 1 Gbit/s, which adds additional costs and complexity.
  • Centralized architecture: users accessing VPNs are routed to backend destinations over a wide area network (WAN) ... which adds latency and performance issues, frustrates users and creates complicated routing dependencies.

 

Software-defined perimeter (SDP) is a term used interchangeably with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). Not only does SDP simplify and strengthen remote access security, it can also be applied to all enterprise secure access use cases, including all user-to-resource and resource-to-resource connections.

SDP vs VPN: Introduction

Companies use a VPN (virtual private network) to connect employees working remotely to the company's internal private network via an encrypted "tunnel" between the employees' devices and the network. With a VPN, remote users can access resources as if they were in the office. However VPN is built on an obsolete security model from connect first, authenticate later". This requires open ports listening for incoming connections that can be easily found during an attacker's reconnaissance phase. VPNs rely on poor authentication measures such as passwords that are often weak, reused and easily exploitable by social engineering, brute force or available for purchase. In addition, segmentation using a VPN is excessively complex and often leads to open, over-privileged access, conducive to unauthorized lateral movements. Finally, VPN technology is hardware-bound and static, making it a siloed headache in fast-moving, dynamic IT environments.

SDP decentralizes security controls and moves them from the network layer to the application layer, dynamically creating individual connections between users and the resources they access. Software-defined perimeter and ZTNA (Zeto Trust Network Access). It is built on a proven Zero Trust model and more secure " authenticate first, connect later " which creates individualized perimeters for each user, enabling more precise access control. The software-defined architecture and API-driven approach opens up major potential for automation and scalability in today's dynamic IT environments.

SDP vs VPN: How does SDP work?

First, let's familiarize ourselves with the basic components of Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) architecture. It's important to note that the best SDP solutions can be deployed via a cloud-based delivery model or self-hosted, depending on business preference.

  • Controllers : The controller is the brain of the system. It defines security policies by verifying trust using identity, context and risk data, which then grants the appropriate rights.
  • Gateways: This is where controller policies are applied and where resources need to be protected.
  • Clients: Clients are what end users interact with to first establish trust via the controller, then connect to their trusted resources with the appropriate rights.

It's important to note that the controller and gateway are completely hidden from prying eyes using a technology called single-packet authorization (SPA). This means that no ports are visible until a user has been authenticated, approved and granted a right. Using SPA, the controller authenticates a user or device with an identity provider to validate rights, and further verifies the context surrounding the request, using risk scoring as a criterion for establishing, limiting or revoking access. Once trust has been established, and with the help of SPA, the controller provides a live right to the customer, then the gateway to access the right resources. This is called a real right, because if the context or risk changes, rights can be adjusted in real time. The gateway then validates that the allocated token has not been tampered with and generates a segment of one, meaning that the user/device has access to the specific resources to which approved access has been granted. Everything else remains invisible.

SDP vs VPN: Zero Trust security and its relationship with SDP

In recent years, Zero Trust security has become a popular approach to security for good reason. Traditional security solutions such as VPNs assume that all devices on a network are reliable. However, this can no longer be the case in today's connected world. Zero Trust security based on the principle of least privilege access takes a "default, refuse" stance, and assumes that all devices are untrusted until proven otherwise. Zero Trust network access and SDP architecture architecture are specially designed to apply Zero Trust principles, offering companies the following security benefits:

  1. All resources are invisible to unauthenticated and unauthorized persons
  2. Identity, context, device risk posture and risk telemetry from integrated systemssuch as threat intelligence platforms and Endpoint Protection solutions ensure that the right users and devices enter your network.
  3. Just-in-time secure access is provided when trust is verified and is limited to segmented resources based on specific rights.

HTBS helps you to secure your organization with the Zero Trust approach, which enables you to protect and secure all the elements that make up your infrastructure, as well as gaining global visibility of your attack surface.

Source Source : Appgate 

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