Assessing Your Readiness for SSE Implementation

Your workforce is remote or hybrid, logging in from their homes, coffee shops, or random public networks, using cloud-based applications. Your data is increasingly being stored in the cloud, accessed from anywhere, traveling to who-knows-where. And your security is lagging behind.

More than 90% of organizations have moved assets to the cloud, yet legacy security solutions are too complex and ultimately inadequate to secure the digital transformation. As your organization evolves to accommodate a remote workforce, cloud-native apps, and cloud data storage, so should your security solution. 

SSE is built in the cloud for the cloud and simplifies your security strategy to managing just one platform that secures your endpoints, app access, and data all in one unified console. But is your organization ready for SSE? We’ll help you assess your readiness for SSE implementation.   

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What is SSE?

Security service edge (SSE) is a cloud-based security platform that helps organizations protect sensitive data across apps, networks, and the cloud. It is one of two sides of secure access service edge (SASE), a framework that allows for unified control of networking and security services. SASE also has a networking side, which optimizes network usage and provides quality of service and direct access to the internet from branch office locations.

SSE is itself comprised of component services, each ensuring the protection of endpoints, apps, and data. 

• Secure web gateway (SWG): Protects your users and endpoints against internet-based threats.
• Zero trust network access (ZTNA): Protects access to private apps, wherever they live.
• Cloud access security broker (CASB): Protects data across different SaaS apps.

SSE is aimed at reducing the complexity of security solutions, increasing efficiency, and saving money. It protects against external threats while securing endpoints and access to private apps, and protects data as it flows back and forth from cloud-based services to end users.

The benefits of SSE include: 

• Centralized policy management: Enforcing consistent security policies and controls regardless of what app or cloud provider is being utilized, where data is stored, and what endpoints are accessing it.
• Integrated threat response: See where threats are coming from across apps, cloud providers, and endpoints.
• Data protection: Safeguard your data whether at rest or in motion.
• Web activity monitoring: Inspecting inbound and outbound internet traffic to enforce data loss prevention (DLP) policies.
• Content filtering: Restricting access to inappropriate websites.

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What are the infrastructure requirements of SSE?

Making the transition to cloud-native security is not as simple as throwing a switch. Although SSE will ultimately create efficiencies by allowing your IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives and team growth, eliminating myriad legacy security products, and migrating security away from server racks and firewalls and into the cloud, the initial implementation of SSE requires some forethought and planning.

As far as infrastructure goes, if you’re used to thinking of security in terms of locking down your physical network presence, get used to a new way of thinking. SSE “lives” in the cloud. This means it is more easily scalable and responsive than legacy security solutions. It also means you won’t have to dedicate IT resources to managing cumbersome network security architecture.

What you might need to consider, though, is the capacity of your network. Since SSE is continuously scanning, challenging, and monitoring, it will increase your network activity commensurate with the number of users you have and the apps they currently use. While you can’t control all of the networks used by remote and hybrid workers, you can beef up the capacity of your in-house networks or invest in higher-tier cloud services to compensate. 

Consider adding redundancies to existing networks to increase capacity and reliability. Your SSE solution should also be able to integrate with your existing systems to enable connections to data centers, cloud resources, local networks, websites, and apps. 

Another consideration is compliance. You will want to work with your provider to ensure your SSE solution meets all major compliance standards, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2.

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What is your organization’s security maturity?

The unfortunate truth is that no one tool alone can help an organization achieve a high level of security if that organization is not itself security mature. Security maturity refers to an organization’s security posture when compared to its level and tolerance of risk. It’s a measure of how efficiently the organization implements security controls and policies.

It’s undeniable that cyber attacks are on the rise. The question should not be “if” your organization will be attacked, but “when” and “how often?” Moving forward from the assumption that an attack is inevitable, a security mature organization should proceed to secure its operations as much as possible and implement controls and policies that will mitigate the impacts.

Before implementing SSE (or any other security protocol), your organization will benefit from performing a security audit. Ask yourself at what level are security concerns routinely discussed? Within IT? In the C-suite? At the board level? It is also important to look at how often your organization is improving its security posture. Cyber attackers are continually improving their tools. Are you?

The higher the level of security automation and the more consistent and comprehensive your security policies, the higher your security maturity level. Consider following these steps to ensure a high level of security maturity:

1. Continuously improve. Since attackers never rest, neither should you. Continuously improving your security posture will make it more difficult for attackers to gain a foothold.   
2. Automate security. Given the ever-expanding nature of systems and data in the modern workplace, it’s practically impossible to manually secure every network and app. Automated tools increase efficiency and reliability and help ensure that nothing gets missed.
3. Make cybersecurity everyone’s job. Since everyone accesses apps and data, everyone should be responsible for implementing basic security procedures. Standardize rules that everyone can follow to help ensure that, even in a remote or hybrid environment, you’re not allowing cyber attackers easy entry to your networks.
4. Elevate. The higher up in the organization cybersecurity is discussed, the better your security maturity will be. Every business is in the data business. This means securing that data should be a high priority all the way up to the board.  

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Implement SSE with Lookout

You don’t have to do it all alone. With Lookout, you can implement an SSE solution that will  take the complexity out of security while delivering zero-trust access and protecting data wherever it goes. Lookout’s SSE solution reduces the attack surface, prevents account compromise, and provides powerful data protection—all from a single, unified console. Check out our SSE Buyer’s Guide and learn more about the key benefits of SSE.