Securing the Distributed Enterprise: A Comprehensive Guide to SD-WAN Security

Published on: January 3, 2024

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12 min read

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For German Version

A crucial component of every organization's security plan is network security. The public cloud and remote workers have resulted in a significant increase in the WAN's attack surface in recent years. Teams in charge of networks and security are under continual pressure to protect their domains from cyberattacks and data breaches. Nonetheless, there are some security issues with the conventional WAN infrastructure.

For this reason, bigger organizations that need to connect their systems across many physical and logical locations have grown to rely on software-defined wide area networks, or SD-WANs, as the industry standard. Because SD-WAN technology has numerous important advantages over earlier WAN setup generations, security is among the most crucial.

A multi-tiered strategy is used by SD-WAN security to help counter all kinds of cybersecurity threats. An organization may efficiently manage its network security from a single, central place when it is set up and configured appropriately.

This article will explain what scalable, innovative SD-WAN security is and if the new technology is capable of completing the assigned responsibilities. Regarding this, the following headings are present:

• What is SD WAN security?
• Why is SD-WAN security important?
• How does SD-WAN security enhance overall network security?
• What are the challenges of securing SD-WAN?
• What are the essential SD-WAN security features?
• What are the best practices for designing SD-WAN security?
  • How does the Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) augment SD-WAN security?
  • How does Secure Web Gateway (SWG) contribute to SD-WAN security?
• What are the most common SD-WAN security risks and vulnerabilities?

What is SD-WAN Security?

The old network border is disappearing as cloud computing and remote work become more popular. Businesses are using software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) solutions to make sure cloud-hosted SaaS apps have the dependable, high-performance network connectivity they want as they support digital transformation initiatives. Branch sites can connect directly to the public Internet via SD-WAN, bypassing the corporate LAN, using traffic routing.

Security technologies for SD-WAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network) include those that guard the integrity and confidentiality of data traveling across SD-WAN over the Internet between endpoints dispersed among office sites and distant users.

Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs), VPN tunnels, IP security (IPsec), and application traffic microsegmentation are the main components of SD-WAN security.

Network administrators use software that provides fine-grained network visibility to centrally manage and coordinate various security components.

The network perimeter has grown as a result of WAN virtualization and the trend of putting apps in the cloud. This calls for security. Threat protection capability must be available at the main office, branch offices, and cloud of a company.

To keep up with changing security threats and manage the expense of maintaining and upgrading security parts, security network functions must be virtualized. Because virtual machines are used by SD-WAN security, software upgrades may be deployed on existing hardware instead of requiring the installation of new hardware for each update, saving time and money.

Why is SD-WAN Security Important?

Although SD-WAN offers notable advantages in terms of performance and efficiency, there are notable security issues. Since traffic now flows directly from branch sites to the public Internet, traditional, perimeter-focused security solutions installed in the corporate data center are no longer responsible for inspecting and securing it. Branch sites are therefore more susceptible to intrusions.

Securing SD-WAN infrastructure is crucial for businesses adopting this technology, as it shields the company and its systems from online attacks. Threat prevention, scalable management systems, and flexible deployment methods are essential components of effective SD-WAN protection.

The main intrinsic security advantage of the SD-WAN architecture is that it greatly streamlines the task of guaranteeing end-to-end traffic encryption for dispersed networks. Without requiring the deployment and management of statically configured virtual private networks (VPNs), SD-WAN enables IT departments to centrally manage dynamic and dispersed network connectivity as well as implement standard encryption.

Since shared cloud applications, sophisticated threats, and data security regulations have made it possible for people worldwide to connect and access resources via untrusted networks and linked devices, dynamic tunnel setup has become essential. SD-WAN systems keep the network segmented over these dispersed links to lessen the attack surface.

How does SD-WAN security enhance overall network security?

In the age of the hybrid workplace, smooth everyday operations require more than just tools and technology. Making things adaptable and scalable while maintaining complete data and information security truly gets challenging when services are cloud-based, locations are remote, and apps and platforms differ. This is where SD-WAN simplifies things and enters the picture. For all sorts of businesses that have embraced the hybrid workplace concept, SD-WAN provides a comprehensive solution.

SD-WAN provides instantaneous network visibility and traffic control while integrating software-defined networking with fixed and mobile transport networks. It gives your business the ability to react swiftly to external threats, fits well within your budget, and provides a far better solution than traditional networking. The following six arguments support the use of SD-WAN security to enhance network security:

• Centralized and expandable security: The benefit of SD-WAN is that it allows you to better regulate processes and departments by enabling you to establish security policies for the whole network. The capacity to filter and stop harmful data without even interfering with other network processes is a benefit of centralized control. SD-WAN will immediately forward any suspicious behavior to the administrator, who can handle it with ease. With SD-WAN, your business's requirements may be fully customized. New security rules can be developed and implemented under the demands and growth of your organization.
• Never worry about a VPN again: With SD-WAN, packet transfer security is achieved without the need to create a VPN or DMVPN. Businesses no longer need to worry about installing VPN firewalls once SD-WAN is in place. By creating IPsec tunnels between every site as soon as it is plugged in, SD-WAN takes care of everything effortlessly and with the least amount of work. Therefore, when you assign an IP address to a device or activate DHCP, the controller automatically establishes a VPN rather than you having to. What SD-WAN can do is more than that. Additionally, it creates a complete mesh so that it can communicate with every site without returning to the data center. making smooth and safe site-to-site traffic.
• Cloud-based connection: Cloud security is easier to handle with SD-WAN. Cloud connectivity is essential to daily operations, particularly when staff members are working from remote locations. Your business will benefit from high levels of security and an optimized cloud experience thanks to SD-WAN's direct and seamless connectivity. Furthermore, it guards against unwanted threats and invasions and stops data loss through permitted access.
• Set priorities or cut down on traffic: It leverages local internet for less urgent traffic, routes audio and video across high-bandwidth, low-latency networks (like MPLS), and gives priority to traffic originating from your area. Your business employs a combination of networks, such as private circuits, mobile networks, or any other internet connection, depending on your demands. With SD-WAN, data transit over a network is guaranteed to be safe and suitable. Because all site-to-site traffic is encrypted, it significantly reduces the quantity of traffic that must pass through security parameters, making security easier to administer.
• Safe zero-touch provisioning: It gives you the ability to simply manage segmentation policies and automatically adjust to any changes in the network. Additionally, regulations may be set for which applications, such as cloud-based programs like Office 365, real-time traffic like phone over IP (VoIP), and CRM systems, a workspace is allowed to access. Zero-touch provisioning reduces human error by automatically applying a policy to every SD-WAN device. It is important to remember that zero-touch provisioning necessitates extensive security measures as well.
• Robust encryption of traffic: Nowadays, almost all businesses, regardless of size, have embraced the hybrid workplace model. It implies managing more sites with comparable levels of security and dependability. SD-WAN facilitates your life by encrypting all data traveling between sites and linking them with a robust, secure tunnel. It implies that you will be able to instantly deal with malware or other dangerous threats by deploying virtual firewalls. Simply switch them off when the dangers have been handled. You can use it to set up virtual firewalls that will limit visitors and workers who work remotely from accessing certain websites.

An extremely sophisticated technical technology called SD-WAN keeps your business and its staff connected while removing any security risks. It is essential in today's digitally native workplace, where several distant places collaborate to construct an organization. SD-WAN solution right now for your business.

What are the Challenges of Securing SD-WAN?

The networking capabilities of a company can be greatly enhanced by SD-WAN systems, but these advantages come with a number of security risks. Organizations frequently encounter the following difficulties when trying to protect their SD-WAN infrastructure:

• Inadequate security services: An enterprise using SD-WAN cannot depend on traffic passing via the corporate data center's firewalls and corporate LAN. Enterprise-grade security is necessary for all branch sites in order to securely connect to the public Internet.
• Visibility: Using the best available path, which might not go via an organization's current network monitoring tools, SD-WAN directs traffic. Visibility is necessary for security, and SD-WAN makes dispersed network visibility and monitoring crucial.
• Service Delivery: Distinct branch locations can have differing internal security solution hosting capacities as well as distinct security requirements. Because of a software-defined WAN, each branch's security must be customized to meet its own needs.
• Inconsistent Policies: Effective security depends on enterprise-wide policy enforcement and consistency in security measures. Because various sites have varied demands and capabilities, implementing SD-WAN increases complexity.
• Scalable Management: As an organization's demands change, security must adapt as well. Effective scalability of distributed security and administration across several sites is challenging.
• Division of Responsibilities: Organizations frequently maintain distinct security operations centers (SOCs) and network operations centers (NOCs). The combined network and security capabilities of a software-defined WAN might be challenging to reconcile with the varying responsibilities and goals of the network and security teams.

What are the essential SD-WAN security features?

It is crucial to choose an SD-WAN security solution that offers all corporate and branch sites the protection they need when putting it into practice. The following characteristics of an optimal SD-WAN security solution are present:

• Transparent Data Encryption: There is a significant growth in the attack surface of transmitted data due to the proliferation of devices and users connected to workplace networks. Numerous software-defined networking (SDN) systems come with an IPsec-based VPN and 128- and 256-bit AES encryption preinstalled. These secure information-in-transit tunnels guarantee continuous compliance and stop unwanted access to the network.

• Traffic Segmentation: Administrators divide traffic based on network policies and application characteristics thanks to SD-WAN segmentation features. By dividing up virtual networks under the SD-WAN overlay, traffic coming from less secure areas is prohibited, preventing malware from infecting other segments that contain sensitive data or access. With this extra freedom compared to traditional networks, administrators may create a micro-segmentation plan and use zero-trust principles.

• Recognizing and Addressing Threats: Access to threat intelligence services, which can automatically detect and neutralize common security threats, is provided by many SD-WAN providers. Thus, threat protection should be the primary goal of an SD-WAN solution rather than post-event detection and reaction. This involves having access to the most recent threat intelligence and using artificial intelligence (AI) security engines to analyze questionable content in a sandbox. Numerous services make use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI and ML) to spot suspicious patterns in network traffic, which helps them anticipate potential security breaches.

• Flexibility: Because of their functionality and flexibility, SD-WANs give organizations the contemporary approach we need while still delivering the connection they require. It offered a crucial safety net that businesses and employees relied on to be both secure and productive at the same time because of its adaptability and simplicity of setup.

  Any kind of connection may be used with an SD-WAN. To link sites to the main office or wherever else you require, it may employ wireless, mobile, private circuits, regular broadband connections, and more. Because software controls SD-WAN, it may be enlarged, contracted, altered, and adjusted as needed. This offers the flexibility and scalability that businesses have needed and will continue to require over the next few years.

• Adaptable: Having a network that can evolve with your organization is crucial since firms need to adapt and change more quickly than in the past. Although they are static, leased lines are fantastic for what they offer. You may scale SD-WANs up or down based on your needs. An increase in remote workers? Not an issue. Re-entering the office with all of them? There is no issue there. Including branches? The network just has to be configured with the necessary information to be operational.

What are the best practices for designing SD-WAN security?

Businesses must plan to reduce security risks by defining the conditions under which they must reduce the risks they have identified and then putting the best security products and solutions into practice.

The corporate WAN might be significantly enhanced with SD-WAN. However, SD-WAN only offers optimal performance when implemented and configured effectively, according to the following best practices:

1. Restrict Your Use of Open Internet Resources: Compared to broadband Internet, SD-WAN offers better performance as it makes the best use of the existing network lines. This covers mobile data, public and private networks, and other connectivity.

   Although SD-WAN selects the best link available for all traffic, the capabilities of that link determine how well it performs. Although using the public Internet to route traffic may be more economical, performance problems arise from the lack of control over routing. Establish SD-WAN rules to route traffic across private networks with service level agreement (SLA) assurances wherever possible.

2. Inform Stakeholders of SD-WAN's Function: With SD-WAN technology, a company may set up a corporate WAN that is both safe and efficient. This offers the best possible traffic routing across cloud-based and on-premises SD-WAN endpoints for an enterprise.

   SD-WAN is not a substitute for a company's current network infrastructure but rather an addition to it. It offers visibility and control over MPLS and other network lines, including unmanaged broadband Internet, that are utilized to transport business network traffic between locations. It is crucial to share this information with stakeholders in order to manage expectations and win their support. Instead of replacing current network investments, SD-WAN enhances them.

3. Conduct Frequent Testing of SD-WAN: The corporate WAN's dependability and performance are enhanced with the use of SD-WAN. But in order for it to function at its peak, an organization's demands must be taken into account while configuring and optimizing it.

   Regular testing of SD-WAN deployments is necessary to guarantee that they fulfill service level agreements (SLAs) and offer the network performance and dependability that the company requires. Testing should be done not just before, during, and after the deployment process but also regularly to make sure the SD-WAN implementation can handle the demands of growing IT infrastructure and changing business requirements.

4. Implement a Secure SD-WAN System: SD-WAN is only a networking solution on its own. Traffic between SD-WAN endpoints is routed across a variety of transport media in an optimal manner. Except for encrypting the traffic moving between endpoints, it does not provide any integrated security or access control features, much like virtual private networks (VPNs).

By installing a complete security stack behind every SD-WAN endpoint, the security constraints of SD-WAN may be addressed. But in some situations, this might be costly, difficult to maintain, and challenging to complete. To sum up, optimal approaches for SD-WAN security encompass:

• Putting in place the strongest encryption feasible that is end-to-end supported in order to safeguard private and client information.
• To analyze and filter network traffic, implement secure web gateways, and integrate them with next-generation firewalls.
• Centralized management is used to detect and address suspicious activities using network threat intrusion detection and real-time monitoring.
• Test your security procedures for efficacy by conducting penetration testing and vulnerability assessments on a regular basis.
• To stay informed about new technologies and potential dangers, conduct architectural reviews and compare the results to reference architectures.

How does the Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) augment SD-WAN security?

One essential component of SD-WAN security is a next-generation firewall (NGFW). An NGFW is an enhanced and virtualized version of conventional hardware-based firewalls that is used at both headquarters and branches. A few of the virtual network functions (VNFs) that an NGFW handles include application awareness, intrusion detection and prevention, URL and web content filtering, malware detection, and antivirus protection. In addition to being situated on-premises, NGFWs and the VNFs they operate can also be located in the cloud.

IT teams use next-generation firewalls (NGFWs), which get over the drawbacks of outdated firewall technology and shield businesses and their staff from a variety of threats, to safeguard SD-WAN infrastructure. NGFW characteristics are as follows:

• Deep packet inspection: Application, transport, IP/network, and hardware/datalink are the four TCP/IP communication levels at which NGFWs examine data. Because of this, next-generation firewalls function with application awareness, which is the ability to recognize the programs that are sending and receiving data as well as the kinds of user and application behavior that might be anticipated in certain traffic patterns.
• Both orchestration and automation: NGFWs ease the administrative load on IT teams by enabling automated deployment and quick upgrades.
• Detection and avoidance of intrusions: By examining traffic at higher TCP/IP levels and keeping an eye out for possible attacks based on unusual activity or particular attack signatures, next-generation firewalls identify and stop assaults.
• Control over the application: When it comes to identifying and blocking high-risk apps, NGFWs offer real-time insight into users and data interacting with applications.
• DDoS defense: NGFWs are stateful technologies that examine each connection's properties in order to identify the many fraudulent request kinds that might be a part of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault.
• Unified Threats Management (UTM): All-inclusive security services, such as antivirus, content filtering, malware infection, and mitigation, are provided by NGFW solutions.

How does Secure Web Gateway (SWG) contribute to SD-WAN security?

Much of the labor force relocated home during the COVID-19 epidemic. Due to changing demographics and their increased reliance on computers and networks, businesses have to increase the security and dependability of their networks.

It is projected that 36.2 million Americans, or around 22% of the workforce, will work remotely by 2025, an astounding "87% increase from pre-pandemic levels".

At the moment, technology (10%), healthcare (15%), and financial services (9%), which are all susceptible to catastrophic data breaches, are the industries with the highest percentage of remote workers.

In order to safeguard your company against online risks, it is more important than ever to secure and control every user and device access as data and apps migrate to the cloud. But when security professionals add Secure Web Gateway (SWG) to an already-existing Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) system, they frequently discover that it is challenging to keep access and visibility constant throughout the network, including branches, headquarters, DC sites, and remote users.

Users access computer files using a remote access virtual private network (VPN), which is connected by internal cables and other hardware, in a closed system, such as a medical billing office. However, data is more susceptible to attack if workers are using the software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) provided by their employer to access corporate resources from home. Installing a cloud-based Secure Web Gateway (SWG) as part of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) helps reduce this danger.

The Gartner Report states that by 2025, 40% of businesses would use cloud-delivered secure web gateways (SWG) and software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) from the same vendor, up from less than 5% in August 2021. In addition, Gartner notes in the research that "network security must be better "baked in" (i.e., integrated) into network architectures versus being a separate silo or "bolt-on" in order to support the dynamic needs of the digital enterprise." This is one of the key reasons we believe businesses will significantly boost their SASE spending over the next three years.

While choosing or updating SD-WAN and SWG solutions, include the networking and security teams. Don't make isolated strategic SD-WAN or SWG choices.

Try to combine managed service providers (MSPs), suppliers who have developed extensive turnkey integration, or a single vendor delivering SD-WAN and SWG services (which implies integrated automation, shared policy, and shared visibility amongst management platforms).

Each of these thoughts Secure Web Gateways (SWGs) help SD-WAN security because of their advantages. These are some advantages of SWGs:

• lowers the external attack surface by reducing the number of possible attack routes that hostile actors might use.

• It helps companies with labor, cloud, and digital transitions

• Gives remote employees safe access to SaaS apps, the internet, and other online services

• Protects the internet connection that is essential for IT activities, such as headless devices and servers.

• Strengthens cybersecurity infrastructure by safeguarding vital information and online activities

What are the most common SD-WAN security risks and vulnerabilities?

When dynamically dispersed traffic doesn't always take the same path over an inspection or filtering point, such as a proxy, the main worry with SD-WAN is the possible loss of visibility and filtering capabilities.

Network visibility and filtering defenses shouldn't be disregarded during the decision-making process because modern inspection and filtering capabilities offered by integrated security features like secure web gateways can allay this worry and frequently surpass the functionality offered by traditional inspection solutions.

Local area networks (LANs) at your office locations and in cloud settings need to be protected, even while an SD-WAN solution provides security for data transit between offices, the cloud, and distant users. It frequently happens that internal security measures are insufficient to safeguard the organization from internal cyber threats and do not align with those put in place for external communications.

Endpoint security is an additional security problem with SD-WAN architecture, particularly when it allows distant users and their devices to access corporate assets from untrusted places or through untrusted services, such as public Wi-Fi.

Since network devices are outward-facing and SD-WAN traffic is transported beyond the firewall, each new WAN deployment entails a considerable risk of exposing the network. When deploying a new WAN, unintentional security problems may occur, and there's also a chance that vulnerabilities may exist in both the overlay and underlay layers.

Nonetheless, security procedures may be standardized and centralized with the aid of SD-WAN. Instead of focusing on maintaining security features at each endpoint, the centralized SD-WAN controller enhances network-wide security element maintenance.

IT decision-makers should think about how appropriate it is to install, manage, and audit secure configurations across all of their endpoints. If not, they ought to limit their consideration of SD-WAN options to those that come with suitable endpoint security and configuration features. Either way, there's a considerable probability that creating and maintaining a baseline endpoint security configuration will include internal efforts or the use of outside services.

The human factor is the last, and maybe greatest, hazard that companies confront with their systems. According to research, human error is the leading source of cybersecurity breaches to some degree and accounts for 80-95 percent of data breaches, either directly or indirectly. To prevent jeopardizing security, users at all levels with network access should be informed of potential dangers, secure practices, and acceptable behaviors.