BeBroadband™ Trust Network Access (BTNA)  Next-Gen Zero Trust Network Access

BeBroadband™ Trust Network Access (BTNA) represents a security paradigm that considers every entity attempting to connect to a network as potentially hostile. Based on ZTNA technology, within the BTNA framework, a user’s role and permissions become irrelevant. To access internal applications or resources, users must authenticate and continually validate their identity. This is typically achieved through stringent access controls and through ongoing contextual and behavioral verification.

BTNA has emerged as a crucial response to the challenges posed by highly distributed networks and supply chains. In an era of expanding ecosystems, maintaining direct control over every device and endpoint becomes impractical. Granting unrestricted access to remote users under these circumstances exposes networks to various threats and threat actors.

Benefits of BTNA:

  • Enhanced Network Visibility and Security: BTNA offers improved network visibility, better vulnerability management, and rapid breach detection.
  • Malware Prevention: It helps prevent the propagation of malware.
  • Cost Savings: Businesses can reduce both capital and operational cybersecurity expenditures.
  • Compliance Simplification: BTNA reduces the scope and cost associated with compliance initiatives.
  • Facilitating Collaboration: It enhances interdepartmental collaboration during disruptive events.
  • Data Insight and Protection: BTNA provides insights into data flow across the network and safeguards against data exfiltration.
  • Digital Transformation: It serves as a foundation for digital business transformation.
  • Performance Enhancement: BTNA improves network speed, performance, and the end-user experience.
  • Scalability and Policy Management: It offers extensive scalability without the need for additional hardware and simplifies policy management.

By providing direct, segmented access to applications and services, BTNA inherently enhances security by significantly reducing the potential attack surface. This approach also paves the way for transitioning from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to Extended Detection and Response (XDR).

The most significant advantage of BTNA lies in its benefits for end users. Businesses integrating BTNA with robust Endpoint Security can ensure that only legitimate users and healthy devices gain access. This enables support for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and remote work initiatives without compromising sensitive assets.

BTNA Features

Businesses embracing BTNA will enjoy the following capabilities:

  • Continuous verification and validation of access privileges for all resources
  • Dynamic access policies adjustable based on user behavior
  • Real-time visibility across the entire business ecosystem
  • Centralized management of all security controls
  • Extended Detection and Response (XDR), ideally supported by cybersecurity AI
  • Identity and Access Management
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Security auditing and reporting

How BTNA Works

Traditional network access relies on two principles: “Trust but verify” and “All users and endpoints within the network are trusted by default.” However, these concepts no longer hold true in a landscape shaped by cloud computing and hybrid work. BTNA replaces the traditional firewall-based perimeter with a dynamic one based on identity and context. It creates a logical access boundary around applications, limiting access to specific named entities through a trusted broker. This approach conceals applications, reducing the attack surface and thwarting lateral movement.

BTNA is founded on five key principles:

  • Continuous monitoring
  • Ongoing validation
  • Least-privilege access
  • Micro-segmentation
  • Device and endpoint authorization

Use Cases for BTNA

BTNA can be applied to the following high-level use cases:

  • Access Control and Authentication: BTNA serves as an alternative to IP or account-based access controls found in legacy remote access solutions like VPNs. It allows granular access configuration by defining strict rules around access permissions, including preventing connections from unpatched devices, enforcing approved security software usage, differentiating permissions for personal vs. corporate devices, and adapting permissions based on user location.
  • Supply Chain Management: BTNA is ideal for controlling third-party access to corporate applications, assets, and services. It enables administrators to grant permissions and access to contractors, vendors, or supply chain partners strictly as needed and for the required duration.
  • Distributed Cybersecurity: Given the distributed nature of modern networks and workplaces, BTNA empowers businesses to reduce their attack surface while supporting both distributed and hybrid work models. Integrating BTNA into an endpoint-focused cybersecurity strategy provides holistic control and visibility across the digital ecosystem.
  • Work Form Anywhere: Advanced security service that prioritizes user verification and facilitates access to specific applications based on identity and context policies. By eliminating implicit trust, BTNA ensures robust control over network movement, reducing potential attack surfaces. Seamlessly integrated into the BeBroadband™ as a Service platform, BTNA offers comprehensive business protection and supports Work From Anywhere (WFA) initiatives, including from the home office. Experience heightened security and flexibility with BeBroadband™ Trust Network Access.

BTNA vs. VPN

BTNA is a modern alternative to VPN technology, which was developed for a different era when businesses had clear security boundaries and stable environments. VPN technology has many limitations that make it less suitable for today’s dynamic and complex ecosystems. Some of these limitations are:

  • Security: A VPN gives a remote user access to the whole business network instead of a specific and well-defined segment.
  • Performance: VPN connectivity is often slow, inefficient, and complicated due to high resource consumption, clunky interfaces, and long delays.
  • Ease of configuration: VPN software is rigid and inflexible, making it hard to adjust security policies and controls based on the situation.

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