-By Mohan Bhat, Co-Founder, Accops Systems
The emerging trends in technological advancement and digitization have prompted Indian Power, Petroleum and Process Industry to undergo modernization, taking advantage of rapid advancements in Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT).
Growing concerns over data theft and cybersecurity have spurred tremendous interest in improved security features to keep hackers at bay. And the concerns are not unfounded. Malware does not discriminate against an individual from others or industry from another. Be it government agencies, BFSI, or Power, Oil and Gas sector, everyone is equally vulnerable to the faceless cyber-attackers, who are lurking in the dark to prey upon weak links and seize upon business-critical data.
Why are hackers always ahead?
Today, businesses deploy various endpoint and network security solutions, but the hackers appear to be always a step ahead, looking for loopholes to mount attacks. Even a highly policy controlled, scanned, Internet traffic is not really safe. Endpoint security solutions, for example, antiviruses, attempt to detect a threat based on a preconceived signature of the threat. This known method of detection and then protection, however, is no more effective, as cyber-attackers are capable of establishing their presence well before they are detected by the antiviruses. In fact, the classic signature-based anti-malware solutions are not capable of tackling threats from polymorphic malware, which rewrites itself every time it launches an attack.
Internet isolation key to cybersecurity
Thus, having a multi-layer approach to cybersecurity is the need of the hour to protect the organizations from increasingly sophisticated attacks. Isolation of the Internet from the corporate network, using Remote Browser Isolation technology, is one of the best protection tactics to fend off ransomware, zero-day attacks and even polymorphic malware.
In this case, the Internet is made available to the user by using a Remote Virtual Browser (RVB) that runs on a remote computer in an isolated network. As a result, even if a malicious code is executed on the remote server, it cannot reach the end-user machine and, thus, the corporate network. Hence, any critical or confidential data, saved on an end-user machine, is safe from malware and ransomware.
Benefits of Internet isolation
The Internet isolation helps make the internal network cleaner, as Internet-based attack routes are eliminated. Further, all data upload and download to and from the user device is policy controlled and can be audited. The major benefits of isolating Internet are as follow:
If malicious software arrives through the Internet route, it can infect only the remote virtual browser and not the end-users computer.
It can ward off zero-day attacks by preventing threats originating on the Internet from reaching the internal corporate network.
It stops user profiling by malicious websites as the remote browser does not store any user history or cookies
Even if a computer gets infected by malware due to an infected USB or executable, the malware cannot reach its control and command centre on the Internet because the user device does not have access to Internet.
With role-based access to critical applications and data, the remote virtual browser is a comparatively much better mechanism to deal with Internet-borne threats. Nevertheless, it is always recommended to have multi-layer security and thus, a classical web filtering solutions should be used to protect the RVB infrastructure as well.
How Accops can help?
Accops has the expertise to effectively tackle modern cyber-attackers and safeguard business interests. Using Accops virtual browser solution, enterprises can physically separate an Internet user’s browsing activity from their local machine, network, and infrastructure. It enables organizations to host, run and manage a remote browser. Only display data (bitmap) of the virtual browser reaches the end-user PC. No malware or Internet data can travel to the end-user PC.
Moreover, Accops enables secure and instant access to business applications to any device from any network, guaranteeing mobility for business users while keeping governance with the organization. Accops’ workspace virtualization, access gateway, and identity management solution suite help organizations to be more agile, cutting down on the IT operational costs. Accops is the single stop shop to build an integrated workspace for business users, providing seamless access to modern web applications, SaaS applications, client-server applications, legacy applications, virtual applications, and virtual desktops.
(The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the publication)