Lookout Named Visionary in 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for SSE

I am excited to share that Lookout has been named a Visionary in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge (SSE). We believe our strong position in the “Completeness of Vision” axis demonstrates the alignment of the Lookout Platform with the market direction. This achievement would not have been possible without the hard work and passion of the entire Lookout family who have embraced the opportunity to support our customers on their digital transformation journey.

As part of the Gartner analysis, Lookout also scored among the top three solutions in the 2022 Gartner Critical Capabilities for SSE. We believe our placement in these reports further validates the investment and commitment Lookout has made in the SSE market that began with the acquisition of CipherCloud in March 2021.

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Data security requires a new approach

Modern enterprises are built on data. However, sensitive corporate data no longer resides exclusively on dedicated storage systems tucked safely behind the physical confines of a data center protected by a perimeter firewall. Times have changed. The unstoppable force of cloud computing has shifted IT paradigms and opened new avenues of attack. 

Today, data is scattered all over the place, from public cloud services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), to personal cloud storage solutions such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Apple iCloud. Not to mention there are now countless endpoints, including personal smartphones and laptops where data can be stored locally.

This "data sprawl" has become one of the biggest challenges to organizations operating in a cloud environment. The more spread out the data is, the more difficult it is to keep tabs on and to keep safe.

Legacy security tools and practices that protect a traditional infrastructure or network architecture centered on the corporate data center may not adequately address the risks associated with these cloud environments. With applications, data and users now residing outside enterprise perimeters, organizations must shift their security mindset, systems and tools to protect their assets in the cloud effectively.

In short, the cloud has rendered legacy perimeter-based solutions ineffective. We believe this Gartner Magic Quadrant talks about this point and confirms that there's simply no other way to protect sensitive data in the cloud than with a comprehensive SSE solution.

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Lookout SSE: A unified solution

We believe the winners in the SSE market will be those who successfully combine Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) natively in a single platform. In this context, "native" means the components are designed and built to run together from the ground up. Since all traffic flows through a common intermediary "proxy" server on its way to its destination, a cohesive package of advanced data security controls, including Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Enterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM) and User and Entity Behavior Analytic (UEBA), with a common set of IT security policies can be applied. This "unified" model offers the best security and overall user experience. 

Consider the advantages of a unified cyber protection platform. With CASB, ZTNA, and SWG combined natively in a single platform, IT security policies for access and data classification can be written once and applied to all traffic passing through the single proxy. A cohesive and integrated set of security policies greatly improves the security of data and apps while making security audits (PCI, HIPPA, GDPR) simpler. The administrative experience is streamlined with alerts, updates, and recommendations aggregated in one place. 

Here is a breakdown of some of those key capabilities and use cases referenced in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities reports:

Identify and protect sensitive information 

Legacy point solutions don’t offer native DLP capabilities. External DLP appliances were often purchased separately and integrated. By applying our “cloud inspired” DLP capabilities to traffic passing through the common proxy, IT admins can now prevent sensitive information, such as intellectual property and confidential documents, from leaving the organization's perimeter due either to user error or data exfiltration to unsafe websites or to Shadow IT apps. This in-line security scanning provides full content inspection to prevent exfiltration of sensitive data.

Another layer of security (and ultimate protection mechanism) is automated encryption through the Lookout EDRM. With our EDRM solution, sensitive documents are encrypted with a unique per-file key placed in the file’s header along with other document metadata (e.g. permissions), all of which is further wrapped with a customer-specific master key. By attaching platform-independent access controls to sensitive files, only the apps and services intended to use the information can obtain it.

Since protected metadata is stored in the document, it travels with it as it passes to the endpoint and beyond. Each time a user attempts to open the document, a check is performed to make sure that the user has the necessary access rights. The document's metadata is first decrypted with the customer master key, revealing the wrapped per-file key. The per-file key is unwrapped and supplied to the encryption engine, which decrypts the file as it’s read from storage. This per-file key is protected at all times and is visible only to the device that is opening the document and the Key Management System (KMS) that hosts the master key.

Secure web and cloud usage

With CASB, ZTNA and SWG built natively in a single, cloud-delivered platform, IT managers can apply the same consistent policies to all content transferred to and from SaaS-based apps , private enterprise apps or user-initiated internet traffic. This drastically streamlines the workflow needed to create policies, increasing efficiency while reducing the risk of human error. 

Detect and mitigate threats 

Besides DLP and EDRM, there are other embedded components in our platform that work across all the core SSE services (CASB, ZTNA, SWG) to detect and mitigate threats. For example, Lookout’s UEBA analyzes online behavior patterns, looking for anomalies that could be indicative of a threat. Because it's integrated into our cloud-delivered platform, every service feeds our UEBA engine. Whether the user is accessing data from SaaS-based apps, private enterprise apps or the web, UEBA will monitor their activity and detect anomalies in behavior. 

In addition, Lookout’s Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware (AVAM) technology provides an additional layer of protection against known viruses and malware by scanning all cloud accounts along with network traffic as it passes through any of our core SSE services.

Connect and secure remote workers 

Lookout SWG is used by enterprises to protect their employees from accessing and being infected by malicious web traffic, websites with vulnerabilities, internet-borne viruses, malware and other cyber threats. It also ensures compliance with the organization's regulatory policy. It's installed as a cloud-based software component, acting as a proxy (or intermediary) that inspects all incoming and outgoing traffic between remote clients and the internet.

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Secure your data with SSE

The Covid 19 pandemic has turned the traditional enterprise inside out. As the new normal of hybrid work takes shape, the cloud has become the primary location for businesses to store data. These days, more and more enterprise data is moving outside the network perimeter, beyond the reach of traditional firewalls, on-premises web proxies and DLP appliances that aren’t equipped to read cloud traffic. Couple this with the growing number of remote endpoints connecting to enterprise networks and you have a recipe for unreliable oversight of company data.

With the traditional perimeter all but disappearing, the inspection point must move out of the centralized data center as close as possible to where the data is accessed, whether that's a cloud services (CASB), private application access (ZTNA), or the web (SWG). A unified SSE platform with a common intermediary "proxy" and a cohesive package of advanced data security controls provides all the security tools needed to secure the transition to the cloud. 

Download complimentary copies of the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for SSE and Critical Capabilities reports to learn: 

• How SSE can help you reduce complexity, costs and management overhead.
• Which SSE Gartner Critical Capabilities to focus on
• Which Use Case/s could be applied to your organization and what to look for in an SSE vendor.
• The analysis behind Lookout’s placement

_{Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved}

_{Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge, John Watts, Craig Lawson, Charlie Winckless, Aaron McQuaid, February 15, 2022} 

_{Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Security Service Edge, John Watts, Craig Lawson, Charlie Winckless, Aaron McQuaid, February 17, 2022} 

_{Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.}