RedSeal Announces Distribution Agreement with TD SYNNEX, providing RedSeal to Resellers in North America

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RedSeal Inc., the award-winning cyber terrain analytics platform announces a strategic agreement with TD SYNNEX

The joint alliance offers MSSPs and security resellers a new and innovative way to identify and address cyber threats while combating the latest and most prevalent security business challenges. 

RedSeal’s platform shows organizations what is on their networks, how everything is connected, and the associated risk across physical—and cloud-based network environments. RedSeal verifies that network devices are securely configured, validates network segmentation policies, and continuously monitors compliance with policies and regulations. It also prioritizes mitigation based on each vulnerability’s associated risk.

The agreement marks the continued expansion of the TD SYNNEX security portfolio, which addresses the rapidly evolving threat landscape with leading solutions and the support of veteran network engineers available to consult on every point of the sales cycle.

“We here at RedSeal are extremely excited about working with TD SYNNEX moving forward. They will be a true force multiplier as we expand our portfolio and will allow us to reach additional markets. The potential here is significant, and we appreciate the opportunity to expand our reach together,” said Jay Miller, Vice President Worldwide Sales, RedSeal.

“We are pleased to work with RedSeal to bring a new, cloud-based security solution to our partners,” said Reyna Thompson, Senior Vice President, North America Advanced Solutions Security and Networking, TD SYNNEX. “RedSeal delivers an all-encompassing solution that we are confident will provide value for many of our reseller partners.”

For more information on RedSeal through TD SYNNEX, contact redseal@synnex.com.

About RedSeal

We boldly deliver on our promise to help organizations master cybersecurity fundamentals in a world of rapidly escalating cyber complexity and threats. We do this by providing a cloud security solution by which every global organization can be confident that it understands what’s on the network, how it’s connected and the associated risks. Founded in 2004, RedSeal is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About TD SYNNEX 

TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) is a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem. We’re an innovative partner helping more than 150,000 customers in 100+ countries to maximize the value of technology investments, demonstrate business outcomes and unlock growth opportunities. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, TD SYNNEX’ 22,000 co-workers are dedicated to uniting compelling IT products, services and solutions from 1,500+ best-in-class technology vendors. Our edge-to-cloud portfolio is anchored in some of the highest-growth technology segments including cloud, cybersecurity, big data/analytics, IoT, mobility and everything as a service. TD SYNNEX is committed to serving customers and communities, and we believe we can have a positive impact on our people and our planet, intentionally acting as a respected corporate citizen. We aspire to be a diverse and inclusive employer of choice for talent across the IT ecosystem. For more information, visit www.TDSYNNEX.com

© 2021 SYNNEX Corporation. TD SYNNEX, the TD SYNNEX Logo, and all other TD SYNNEX company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks of SYNNEX Corporation. Other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Where is the new “Security Stack” hiding?

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Security challenges resulting from migrating the security stack to the cloud

The days of the traditional security stack are numbered, brought on by the maturity of shared resource computing and the rapid migration to the public cloud due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog will explore a brief history of fortification, its impact on the early internet security architectures, and today’s challenges. I’ll conclude with a few suggestions that every security professional should consider.

From the beginning, cave dwellings were used to protect that of value. Humans have long considered, planned, and implemented various fortification methods. A city wall built around valuable, trusted assets is commonplace from our very early history. Fortification walls were used to protect individuals, tribes, and countries and could be made more secure by adding additional layers. The extra layers of defense increased the protection by the means known as “defense in depth” whereby a compromise in one other layer would sufficiently hinder further advancement or retreat by the attacker.

Fast forward to the late 20th century, many Request for Comments (RFC) drafted, outlined the internet foundation by focusing on moving datagrams from point A to point B. The primary concern was redundancy, resiliency, and reliable delivery of information. However, in the last few years of the 20th century, three essential security concepts were explored: confidentiality, integrity, and availability, known as the “CIA Triad.” Think of CIA as security that attempts to ensure information from the sender can:

  1. only be read by the receiver
  2. while in transit, the data has not been changed or tampered with
  3. the information reaches the intended audience

The 21st century brought a flurry of security and technologies based on ancient, fortified city walls. These defense in depth architectures often made the incorrect assumption that data inherited implicit trust based on location. For instance, data inside a corporate network was not scrutinized equally to data outside the corporate network. These initial security tools – the “Security Stack” – were often placed at the ingress/egress points of the network to inspect, analyze, prioritize, route, and scan for nefarious activities or threats from outside the network perimeter.

The problem with relying on perimeter-based security alone is people. People have always been migratory, traveling beyond the city walls. Speaking for myself, I have worked remotely, assisting companies with network security for 20+ years. As a “road warrior”, my network connections are from hotels, public hotspots, and client networks that have traversed untrusted networks. To prevent unauthorized access, my company had had to apply additional security controls to allow me to be connected successfully behind the “security stack.”

Between 2006 and 2010, the concept of shared computing resources took hold, and the promise of more computing power for less cost fueled a steady adoption rate over the next decade. Cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and others saw a steady, predictable increase in the use of shared resources located within a CSPs network, A.K.A “Public Cloud Network.” However, with the advent of cloud computing, the lines between trusted and untrusted networks were further obscured, and the need for visibility into and across disparate networks became more evident.

2020 brought with it a pandemic that forced hundreds of millions of employees to connect from untrusted sources and work remotely, in many cases bypassing the traditional security stacks intended to provide defense in depth. Corporations faced an unforeseen lack of visibility and conventional tools failed.  This rapid migration of corporate workloads (applications) to cloud computing combined with a disintegration of the traditional security stack has resulted in an environment of ever-increasing attacks and ransomware.

Post pandemic, the traditional security stack has dispersed. Some components still reside in on-premises networks, some in the public/private clouds, some at the network perimeter edge, and some on the endpoint device. The critical lesson is that the “edge” is no longer the boundary of location. The new “edge” is now the boundary of information. Data is the new edge.

To achieve security in modern networks, visibility is now more critical than ever. Complex architectures based on, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and On-Premises resources combined with new wide-area transport systems like SD-WAN, and a myriad of security filters in the form of cloud regions, accounts, VPC/VNETs, Network ACLs, Security Groups, and tools like SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), and Transit Gateways are indeed the new modern “Security Stack.” To secure this modern-day infrastructure, the corporation needs unparalleled visibility, awareness of where vulnerabilities exist, and connectivity across all network clouds and on-premise.

Finally, here is a message for the CISO or security professional searching for solutions. Ask yourself the following questions and seek answers for any you are unsure of.

  1. How well do your security teams understand cloud inventory?
  2. How do you check to see if resources are unintentionally exposed to the internet?
  3. How do you validate cloud segmentation policies and remediate them?
  4. How do you prioritize vulnerabilities in a public cloud environment?

For tips on how to “Safeguard Your Cloud Journey with a Comprehensive Security Solution” download our data sheet.

The Impact of the ONC Cures Act on API Security

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In March 2020, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued the 21st Century Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Final Rule, also known as the ONC Cures Act Final Rule. This Final Rule supports secured, limitless access, exchange, and use of Electronic Health Information (EHI).

ONC Cures Act Final Rule, apart from providing patients and their healthcare providers secure yet seamless access to health information, aims to increase innovation and trigger competition. With more competition comes innovation, as new entrants offer much wider healthcare choices and solutions for patients.

Summary of the ONC Cures Act Regulations

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Department of Health and Human Services provided an extension for compliance to the ONC Cures Act Final Rule. This extension ended on April 5, 2021.

According to the National Law Review, organizations subject to the Cures Act should have the following in place:

  • An efficient configuration of digital patient portals to provide electronic health information (EHI) to patients without needless delay
  • An up-to-date release of information policies
  • A thorough assessment of contracts and arrangements involving EHI with any third parties should be conducted to achieve compliance with information blocking prohibitions
  • Preparation of real-world testing plans, EHI data export, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) with latest HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) capabilities, and various other capabilities targeted for 2021 and 2022

ONC Cures Act Final Rule calls on the healthcare industry to adopt standardized APIs that allow individuals or patients to access and better use of EHI using smartphone applications securely and quickly.

Identity and Security Requirements of the Regulations

ONC Cures Act Final Rule, as explained in the Federal Register, lays out conditions for the compliance certification of healthcare providers. Those conditions include support for standards and published APIs that allow health information “to be accessed, exchanged, and used without special effort” and “access to all data elements of a patient’s electronic health record to the extent permissible under applicable privacy laws.” The aim of the Final Rule is nationwide transparent data portability with standardized yet agile data exchange processes.

Along with that, ONC Cures Act Final Rule can avoid many security risks associated with healthcare APIs, such as inadequate SSL certification validation, the vulnerability of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and accountability issues, to name a few.

The following are the specific identity and healthcare security requirements of the ONC Cures Act Final Rule:

ONC Cures Act Final Rule that allows agility of EHI also puts limits on information blocking and anti-competitive practices of the healthcare providers. The Code of Federal Regulations, with a few exceptions, allows patients to decide upon the healthcare applications that can access their EHI.

Vulnerabilities of the APIs

ONC Cures Act Final Rule ushers in an era of the widespread adoption of standardized APIs by the healthcare industry all over the globe. On the one hand, it helps individuals or patients securely access and easily makes use of EHI using smartphone applications. On the other hand, since APIs deal with sensitive data that can be easily accessible over the internet, they are vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks. Without question, healthcare organizations need enhanced digital healthcare security and vigilant monitoring to protect sensitive and private patient information.

More than anything else, implementing and maintaining enhanced API security is an exhaustive process. It also incurs extra expenditure on updating features or fixing bugs. This scenario demands a significant part of the API development lifecycle to maintain security.

Another concern is the consistent testing of API security. This complicated process requires hiring the right talent to identify and expose API security issues before the launch of the application.

Leveraging Cloud Solutions

According to IBM, The widespread global cloud migration can amplify the cost of cybercrime damage by nearly $300,000. As more enterprises migrate to the cloud, sensitive corporate data becomes vulnerable to cyberattacks, technical glitches, and data storage issues.

However, the increased technical difficulties, expenses, and larger talent pools associated with the integration, management, and dissemination of EHI can be overcome by cloud solutions. Today, many healthcare providers have embraced the power of healthcare cloud computing to meet the ONC Cures Act Final Rule requirements and to future-proof their Information Technology (IT) environment.

Cloud solutions eliminate the additional time and cost associated with traditional storage systems. An integrated data ecosystem that can feed multiple data centers can be easily deployed within a short period with lesser complications using cloud solutions.

Additionally, cloud solutions can empower healthcare providers to scale up and scale down their data processing resources as demands fluctuate. As an added benefit, the pay-per-use business model implemented by most cloud solutions providers worldwide makes the expensive resource procurement associated with traditional storage systems a thing of the past.

Another advantage of cloud computing infrastructure is that it provides access to data through open-source tools. That means no more data locked in silos and unwanted license expirations common with other proprietary storage solutions.

Cloud Is the Future of Healthcare

The future is healthcare cloud computing. ONC Cures Act Final Rule is the call from the future. EHI should flow smoothly and safely. Healthcare IT should provide more portable, interoperable, and patient-centric healthcare solutions. And cloud solutions are the only way forward.

RedSeal, a hybrid cloud security solution provider, helps you identify all your resources and how they are connected in your complex network environment. It allows easier validation of your security policies and prioritizes the security issues that can breach your most valuable network assets. RedSeal constantly monitors your network to find out glitches in your networking setup and ensure whether it meets the compliance standards and organizational policy.

RedSeal Cloud is a Software as a Service (SaaS)-based Cloud Security Posture Management solution that provides your cloud solutions security team with increased visibility and understanding of the provider’s infrastructure. RedSeal Cloud can help you manage the increased digital healthcare security risks with an up-to-date visualization of cloud solutions infrastructure and detailed identification of digital resources exposed to the internet. Your security team will also be bestowed with updated knowledge of Kubernetes accounts and policies.

Register for a demo to see RedSeal Cloud in action.

Understanding What’s In My Cloud

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Today’s business applications run in an environment that would be unrecognizable to IT professionals 10 years ago. The rise of virtualization and the cloud has finally cut the ties to specific hardware, and all but the most exotic workloads can now be run anywhere — on virtual machines in your physical buildings, or on a cloud vendor of your choice. The underlying cloud technologies are powerful, but with that power comes great responsibility. Security teams struggle to keep up, because the new technologies focus on agility, rapid rate of change, and dynamic response — all of these are positive buzzwords to most people in a business, but all of them are bad news to security. Ask any military commander — defense is far easier when your resources are home in a well-built fort, and far harder when your troops are constantly moving, shifting location into unfamiliar terrain.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however. Cloud innovation takes away certain legacy risks — after all, you can’t leave an open password on a key router in the middle of your network infrastructure if you don’t control the routers any more! The trouble is that the change to new ways of building and managing modern apps (often referred to as DevOps) closes out some old challenges, but opens just as many new ones. Cloud gives you new kinds of rope, and it’s different from the old rope, but you can still get just as tangled up in the complexities.

Some security fundamentals remain, though. No matter what kind of infrastructure you own or rent, you still need to pursue the basics:

1.    Find all your stuff

2.    Categorize it so you know what’s most important

3.    Harden the individual elements to avoid easy compromise

4.    Map out and run your defenses as a system, so you can be a hard target

The most basic discipline of all is inventory — cyber security experts and industry guidance all agree that you must start there. Inventory in cloud is not like inventory in conventional networks, though, so the same old principle has to be thought about differently in a cloud world.

The good news with the cloud is that each virtual network has a “God of the Cloud” — a central controller, run by the cloud provider that you can talk to via a proprietary API. I call it a “God”, because no endpoints can exist in that small virtual network that the controller did not create. This means you can always find a completely reliable resource for each virtual network — someone who knows the inventory. Problem solved, right? Well, not so fast — it’s certainly very different from legacy on-premises networks, but that’s hardly all there is to it. There are three major problems when talking to each cloud controller — finding the controllers, speaking their language, and keeping up with the changes.

The good news is a cloud account comes with an API you can talk to and get a complete inventory of the assets it knows about. The bad news is your company has many, many accounts. And even once you locate them all, they will speak a proprietary and changing language — the Amazon language for the AWS API is different from Microsoft’s for Azure, or Google’s, or Oracle’s. You need a network linguist to make sense of it all, and pull together a single view of your clouds — in all flavors. And since security is central by its nature (because it needs to look at the complete picture), that means security has the unenviable task of needing to speak all the languages — fluently — at once. This is hard, but it’s a great job for automated software.

Equally, the rate of change in the cloud is something automated software can tackle far more effectively than humans can. Cloud assets have ugly names — often just a long stream of gibberish assigned by a robot, to make it easy for other robots. You’ll need your own robot interpreter to even identify one asset, let alone track it as it moves and changes. The nature of the cloud is highly dynamic — instances are spun up and killed on demand, and they move far faster than, say, a classic vulnerability scanner can keep up with. If you want to see your final as-built infrastructure (and you need to, since this is what your adversary is looking at too), you need software to keep up with all the changes, track the assets, and untangle the myriad ways that cloud assets are marked. There are tags, there are labels, there are unique ID’s, and there are security groups. Every vendor has subtly different rules, and just to add to the confusion cloud vendors don’t even agree on what a cloud network should be called, but they all offer the same idea.

At the end of the day, security is about adapting and keeping up, as the pace of change keeps speeding up. Cloud is just the latest evolution, where names change, details shift, but the core principles remain — first and strongest of all is inventory. This is why we at RedSeal build software to automate all the communication and mapping, so that you can visually scan your cloud footprint, understand your security posture, and make optimal moves to increase your security and reduce your risk.

For more information, check out our overview of RedSeal Stratus Maps and Inventory capabilities to learn more about how you can Map Your AWS Infrastructure Including Connectivity Paths.