13 essential enterprise security tools — and 10 nice-to-haves

As CISOs grapple with a plethora of changing threats daily, the quality of security tools in their kit takes on more importance.

The breadth of tools available for securing the enterprise today is staggering. Tool types, and their accompanying marketing nomenclatures, can overlap and be hard to pin down, adding to the confusion as to what exactly constitutes the essential enterprise security toolset.

To ensure your enterprise is more secure, we’ve sifted through the increasing array of security offerings to present the types of security tools every enterprise should have, along with product types that can help round out your enterprise security strategy but might not be essential for all organizations.

In addition to introducing each category, we tell why it’s important, provide examples of tools available in each class, and point to additional resources to help make your choices.

Note: Products listed under each category are representative and informational only. Their inclusion does not indicate market leadership, popularity, or an endorsement for that category.

13 essential enterprise security tools

1. Extended detection and response (XDR)

A challenging category to fully demarcate and define, AI-powered XDR is becoming a mainstay for next-generation security. The technology operates at the top of the funnel, identifying threats as they enter the network, endpoints, or cloud by automating and integrating the organization’s security tools. It optimizes threat detection, investigation, response, and hunting in real-time, according to Forrester Research. When such functions are outsourced, the service goes by the moniker managed detection and response (MDR).

Why XDR is essential

AI-based XDR is an effective tool for threat intelligence and vulnerability management, as well as defending against attacks on the corporate network. Such tools are commonly used in concert with firewalls to identify and prioritize threats as they enter the network. XDR’s aim is to block more than 99% of threats in real-time (or near real-time) without manual verification.

XDR product examples

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR uses AI-driven analytics to coordinate response to threats, while providing endpoint protections such as device control, firewall, and disk encryption. It also offers antivirus and malware protection, identity threat detection and response, and forensics, as well as deep endpoint telemetry to support advance threat-hunting operations.

SentinelOne Singularity is an AI-powered platform that combines any source, including endpoint, cloud, identity telemetry, and third-party data, into a data lake for analysis. In addition to providing anti-exploit and anti-malware protection, the SentinelOne agent actively and passively receives ongoing threat intelligence updates from SentinelOne servers.  

Additional XDR resources

• 11 top XDR tools and how to evaluate them
• Top 12 managed detection and response solutions
• 10 things you should know about XDR
• How attackers evade your EDR/XDR system — and what you can do about it

2. Multifactor authentication

Multifactor authentication has become ubiquitous for endpoint protection and a key security control for qualifying for cyber insurance coverage. MFA requires users to provide multiple methods of identification to access an account or application, such as use of an authenticator app, external security key, a code sent to a mobile phone, or biometric data. Adaptive MFA is an approach that engages only when a user interaction is considered risky based on behavioral data.

Why MFA is essential

MFA is considered a more effective method for protecting data and authenticating users than the traditional username/password login model. It is also fast becoming a baseline standard for security certifications and cyber insurance coverage.

MFA product examples

Auth0 by Okta offers adaptive MFA to identify unusual or dangerous user behavior based on considerations such as a new device, an untrusted IP address, or impossible geographic log-in attempts. If any such event occurs, additional authentication would be required.

Yubico Yubikey is a hardware USB device that authenticates the user. Some versions include another security layer by adding a fingerprint pad to the key. It supports one-time passwords, public-key cryptography, authentication, and the Universal 2nd Factor and FIDO2 protocols. 

Additional MFA resources

• MFA buyer’s guide: 8 top multifactor authentication products and how to choose an MFA solution
• How MFA gets hacked — and strategies to prevent it

3. Network access control (NAC)

NAC enables enterprises to enforce security policies on devices and users attempting to access their network. It helps identify who and from where someone is attempting to log in, and ensures the device used has the necessary security patches, antivirus software, and other controls before granting the user role-based access to enterprise assets.

Why NAC is essential

With the growing complexity of enterprise IT infrastructures and ever-changing regulations, you need a way to determine what is connecting to your network and that you are handling access rules and controls consistently. Most NAC vendors have adapted their products to address the increased use of mobile devices, including employee-owned smartphones and tablets, and the growing number of IoT devices connecting to a network.

NAC product examples

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is the policy decision point in a zero-trust network. It gathers intelligence from the stack to authenticate users and endpoints, automatically containing threats. It allows only trusted users and devices access to resources on the network.

FortiNet FortiNAC allows organizations to enforce network access policies and assure adherence to security protocols. It provides a comprehensive snapshot of devices and users on the network, facilitating granular access control based on roles, device types, network locations, and behavioral patterns of devices and users.

Additional NAC resources

• What is NAC and why is it important for network security?

4. Data loss protection (DLP)

DLP tools protect against sensitive data being accidentally or maliciously transmitted outside an organization. They monitor network traffic for data elements that match specific characteristics or patterns — such as those associated with credit card or Social Security numbers — and alert admins about sensitive data potentially egressing the network. Many DLP products are now designed to protect against data leaks in the cloud.

Why DLP is essential

DLP tools are a key weapon to detect hacker activity should one get past an organization’s defenses. They are also critical for identifying insider threats by red-flagging unusual employee behavior. Recent privacy regulations that levy significant fines for data loss only increase the value of having DLP in place.

DLP product examples

Symantec Data Loss Prevention, acquired by Broadcom, protects against data leaks via endpoints, cloud apps, email and web communications. It ships with policies that organizations can use to ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.

McAfee DLP, which became part of Trellix in 2021 following its acquisition and a subsequent merger with FireEye, is part of a broader suite of data protection and encryption technologies. It protects against data leaks on the network, at the endpoint, on storage systems, and in the cloud. It also enables enterprises to inventory assets, categorize unclassified data, and scan data for policy violations.

Additional DLP resources

• How to select a DLP solution: 9 unusual considerations
• Why you should consider outsourcing DLP

5. Firewall

Firewalls filter network traffic using rules set by admins, protecting against malware, unauthorized logins, and a variety of other security threats. Firewalls can block traffic based on originating IP or IP range, URLs, the ports to which traffic may be headed, and other criteria. They also perform threat prevention, application threat awareness, DHCP and DNS support, deep packet inspection, application-level traffic filtering, and intrusion detection and prevention.

Why a firewall is essential

Modern firewall products have evolved beyond pure perimeter defense to provide more client-side protections against some of the biggest risks, including URL and attachment filtering, patch discovery, and inline patching. Firewalls use machine learning (ML) and AI to identify patterns and anomalies in real-time and to automate responses to mitigate potential damage.

Firewall product examples

The Cisco Firepower 9300 Series of fully integrated firewall products offers threat prevention, threat detection, application firewalling, and advanced malware protection. The firewall uses AI to simplify policy management by streamlining workflows, finding misconfigurations, and auto-generating rules.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall offers protection for on-premises and multicloud deployments. It can be deployed across multiple physical locations, as well as in Azure, AWS, and GCP. It offers capabilities for ensuring real-time network protection against a broad range of network threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits, including SQL injections, cross-site scripting, DoS attacks, and more.

Additional firewall resources

• NGFW buyer’s guide: 7 leading next-generation firewall vendors
• Buyer’s guide: How to shop for firewalls
• Types of firewalls: What they do and what they’re used for
• 12 top web application firewalls compared

6. Intrusion prevention system (IPS)

An IPS is an inline technology usually deployed behind the enterprise firewall to inspect traffic flows, automatically drop malicious data packets, and take other proactive action to mitigate threats. It incorporates the functions of intrusion detection systems (IDSes), which scan networks and report on potential threats, and adds capabilities to automatically respond based on preset rules.

Why IPS is essential

An IPS complements a firewall or other network defense by performing deeper analysis on traffic to identify patterns that match known threats. Having an IPS in place can significantly cut down on response time and prevent additional damage by blocking traffic from the source address and resetting the connection.

IPS product examples

Snort is a free, open-source network IDS and IPS with rules to define malicious network activity. It uses those rules to find packets that match, generating alerts for admins, and can be deployed inline to stop these packets as well. 

SolarWinds Security Event Manager comes with hundreds of pre-built connectors to gather logs from various sources, parse their data, and put it into a common readable format, creating a central location for investigating potential threats. It includes features to quickly narrow in on the logs you need, including visualizations, filters, and responsive text-based search.

Additional IPS resources

• Top 6 IDS/IPS tools — plus 4 open-source alternatives

7. Identity and access management (IAM)

IAM helps organizations control user access to systems and data. Such products ensure authorized individuals can gain access to the right enterprise resources at the right time. Many IAM products facilitate role-based access to enterprise assets.

Why IAM is essential

As companies migrate more applications and data to the cloud, traditional boundaries dissolve and perimeter protection becomes less meaningful. Identity becomes the new perimeter. That makes the ability to accurately authenticate and authorize people and devices connecting to your network essential. IAM is also a key security control often required for cyber insurance coverage.

IAM product examples

SailPoint Technologies IdentityIQ is an AI-based, on-premises identity governance platform designed to give organizations visibility overs users and the applications, systems, and data they access. It integrates features to ensure access to enterprise systems and data is always in compliance with corporate policies.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Identity and Access Management lets IT managers control who can access cloud resources by setting access rules to specific resources based on user groups.

Additional IAM resources

 

• IAM buyer’s guide: 9 top identity and access management tools
• 6 signs your IAM strategy is failing, and how to fix it
• 10 identity management metrics that matter

8. Cloud access security broker (CASB)

CASBs allow organizations to enforce security policies on users accessing cloud services. They can be deployed on premises or in the cloud, placed between the cloud service provider and user. They can enforce a slew of security policies, including authentication, authorization, SSO, and malware detection and prevention. Next-gen CASBs, launched in 2021, employ ML, natural language processing, and other technologies to help organizations secure SaaS apps and data.

Why CASB is essential

CASBs help organizations secure their cloud data and applications, and ensure compliance with regulations. They also help manage identity and authentication across multiple cloud applications and can stop known and unknown threats, including zero-days. They also bring CASB and secure access service edge (SASE) together under a single console.

CASB product examples

Palo Alto Networks CASB-X provides all the security components of CASB across both Prisma Access and the next-generation firewalls (NGFWs). The CASB-X license applies to Cloud-Managed Prisma Access, Panorama-Managed Prisma Access, and Panorama-Managed NGFWs in a single tenant environment.

Netskope CASB specializes in monitoring SaaS usage, managing shadow IT, and provides DLP functionality. It can monitor traffic, protect end-user traffic, and provide visibility into cloud usage and associated risks.

Additional CASB resources

• CASB buyer’s guide: What to know about cloud access security brokers before you buy
• How to evaluate a CASB
• Buyer’s guide: Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Secure Service Edge (SSE)

9. Antimalware

Antimalware tools are often confused with antivirus software, though their capabilities are somewhat different. Antimalware products protect organizations not just against viruses and worms but also spyware, ransomware, Trojans, and other threats. Enterprise-class antimalware tools have largely replaced standalone antivirus offerings.

Why antimalware is essential

Classic computer viruses are no longer the top threat, although they can be irritating. Ransomware and cryptomining now account for the majority of attacks initiated at the client level through malware. Organizations need antivirus and antimalware capabilities to defend against these modern threats.

Antimalware product examples

KnowBe4 Phish Alert Button is a free tool that allows users to forward an email threat to the security team with a single click, deleting the email from the user’s inbox to prevent future exposure. The tool allows the incident response team to get immediate access to suspected emails that could contain a malware package.

CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection Enterprise unifies the technologies required to stop breaches, including next-gen antivirus and EDR, managed threat hunting, and threat intelligence automation, delivered via a single lightweight agent.

10. Mobile threat defense

Mobile threat defense assists protects mobile devices from viruses, worms, ransomware, phishing, spyware, and data loss. Gartner described products in this class as needing to protect mobile devices at the application level, the network level, and the device level.

Why mobile threat defense is essential

Nearly all organizations struggle with managing the mobile devices that connect to their networks — both those they own and those their employees own. An enterprise mobility management (EMM) or mobile device management (MDM) offering will not have the security detection and prevention capabilities as a mobile threat defense tool. Without those capabilities, mobile devices can be a vector for hackers to gain access to a network.

Mobile threat defense product examples

Wandera continuously scans apps installed on a mobile device for signs of malware or other malicious activity. It compares data from scans with that collected from billions of end points to identify threats. Wandera also protects against attempted malware downloads, phishing attempts, and other threats at the network level.

Zimperium zIPS Mobile Intrusion Prevention System is an IPS designed to protect Android and iOS devices against mobile attacks at the device, network, and application layer. zIPS monitors mobile devices for malicious activity and uses ML to analyze deviations from typical behavior for the device.

11. Backup and disaster recovery

Backup and disaster recovery is an essential security control for any organization. Options abound, ranging from local backups to air-gapped server-based backups to the cloud. Backups and disaster recovery plans are essential for recovering from ransomware, although it is vital to ensure the image or files to be restored are free from malware or ransomware before the restore takes place.

Why backup and disaster recovery are essential

While backup and disaster recovery are known components of every enterprise’s standard operation, bare-metal restores (BMRs) from the cloud might still be novel for SMBs. Speed is a prime consideration for recovery and cloud-based BMR speeds have improved significantly in the past several years. Secured, encrypted backups are yet another key security control often required to qualify for cyber insurance.

Backup and disaster recovery product examples

Faronics Deep Freeze Enterprise is an on-premises disk imaging offering that touts recovery on restart using a restore button. The application supports Windows and Mac servers and workstations, as well as enterprise networked endpoints. Deep Freeze Cloud, the off-prem version, is a SaaS option.

Axcient x360Recover allows users to perform a BMR from a direct-to-cloud (D2C) backup snapshot in the Axcient cloud. A BMR uses a disk image and restores it to on-premises servers or workstations. The program, popular with MSPs, allows users to protect data in Windows, Linux, MacOS, VMware, the public cloud, and IaaS models.

Additional backup and recovery resources

• Is it time to change your backup system?
• 5 metrics you need to know about your backup and recovery system
• Ransomware recovery: 8 steps to successfully restore from backup

12. Incident response management

Incident response management systems are critical for identifying data breaches and ensuring response teams follow a predefined set of actions to protect your data, ensure evidence of the breach is not compromised, and keep all key stakeholders appropriately involved in the incident response.

Why an incident response management is essential

Depending on your organization’s industry, you might be required to have an incident response management system to comply with industry or governmental compliance regulations and cyber insurance policy requirements. Such systems are designed to ensure appropriate actions are taken in the right order and all reporting for compliance is conducted in a timely basis.

Incident response management product examples

EHSInsight Incident Management Module streamlines reporting and tracking workplace incidents, ensuring your team can handle all types of incidents, including near misses. It centralizes all relevant records, making it easier to manage and analyze incident data. After all, not all incidentsare data breaches.

Conopy’s incident response software can determine if an incident is legally considered a “breach,” if personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) was compromised, and if the enterprise could be bound by strict, non-negotiable notification deadlines enforced by GDPR, HIPAA, FERPA, and other data privacy regulations.

Additional incident response management resources

• What is incident response? And 6 steps for building a robust IR plan

13. AI infrastructure security

AI is on the rise in the enterprise, with organizations increasingly launching proofs of concepts to explore the business value of putting large language models (LLMs) and other emerging AI tools to work in service of optimizing and automating business workflows. But in a rush to adopt AI, many companies are skipping out on security hardening practices, opening their enterprises and data to new vulnerabilities and threats. As a result, new categories of security tools are arising to help improve the security and governance of enterprises’ emerging AI infrastructures and strategies.

Why AI infrastructure security is essential

AI is becoming table stakes for enterprise survival, and the technology’s appetite for data puts organizations at greater risk of leakage and exposure. Moreover, the automated nature of AI applications and the near obscurity of how models derive their insights and actions exposes enterprises to model manipulations and thus outputs they may not otherwise know to be problematic. AI infrastructure security tools can also ensure that vital business data does not get injected into LLMs and that business users are following prescribed governance guidelines when interacting with AIs.

AI infrastructure security product examples

CalypsoAI released an enterprise-grade AI security engine designed to protect AI usage across all use cases, ensuring regulatory compliance. It can detect and protect personally identifiable information and intellectual property while using role-based access controls and permissions. It can secure protected information from being entered into external large language models with filtering and audit tools.

Lakera Guard secures gen AI applications with highly accurate, low-latency controls. It defends LLMs against prompt injection attacks, sidestepping attacks, and direct attacks.

Additional AI infrastructure security resources

• AI-SPM buyer’s guide: 9 security posture management tools to protect your AI infrastructure
• 10 most critical LLM vulnerabilities

Nice-to-have enterprise security tools

1. Third-party risk management (TPRM)

TPRM covers a broad range of threats, going deeper than direct business partners, as secondary, tertiary, and beyond partners can be sources of network threats. For example, a direct business partner that uses a translation firm in Asia (secondary partner), which outsources some work to a smaller firm in a country that might have US sanctions against it (tertiary partner), could be the source of malware that works its way up the partner chain. Organizations with aggressive TPRM programs could require their partners to provide audit statements that declare their supply chain is free from potential threats.

Why you might need TPRM

According to Forrester Research, around two-thirds of all data breaches have a TPRM component. Sometimes attackers go after a business partner to reach a larger target; often the issues can be an accidental breach caused by a partner inappropriately accessing data on a portal not intended for its use. For these reasons, cyber insurance vendors see TPRM as a serious issue.

TPRM product examples

ProcessUnity’s CyberGRX Exchange uses data analytics, real-world attack scenarios, and real-time threat intelligence to provide a portfolio analysis of an organization’s third-party ecosystem, helping prioritize risks to make smarter decisions. Vendor onboarding is automated, establishing a single, standardized process for introducing a provider into the database.

Mastercard RiskRecon’s third-party risk analysis methodology considers 11 security domains and 41 security criteria to produce contextualized insights into third-party security performance. This attack surface coverage supports enterprise risk management (ERM) beyond TPRM. The software rates TPRM on two scales, managing risks across attack surfaces such as email security, application security, and network filtering.

Additional TPRM resources

• Third party risk management: A getting started guide
• 6 best practices for third-party risk management
• 5 biggest risks of using third-party service providers
• 6 steps for third-party cyber risk management

2. Post-quantum cryptography (PQC)

While commercial quantum computers are years away from being ubiquitous, they will necessitate a major change in companies’ cryptography strategies. Asymmetric cryptography, such as RSA and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), likely will become obsolete when quantum systems ship, so enterprises need to plan on migrating to quantum-resilient cryptography now. Hardware acceleration is generally considered superior to software-based encryption and decryption because of the exceptionally high speeds at which quantum computers will process data, although you still will see some software-based encryption.

Why you might need PQC

Because of how quantum computing handles mathematical processes, traditional asymmetric cryptography methods such as integer factorization will be easily compromised. To combat this, enterprises should develop plans to migrate to symmetric approaches, such as hashing, hardware-based symmetric encryption, or another quantum-resilient approach.

Post-quantum cryptography product examples

IBM z16 is a quantum-safe security processor for IBM Z mainframes that uses cryptographic methods that protect against attacks from both traditional and quantum computers. The IBM z16 platform has an on-chip acceleration Telum processor designed for real-time AI inferencing to help identify fraud.

MagiQ QPN’s security approach exchanges encryption keys with absolute security: Quantum Key Distribution. By sending key bits encoded at the single photon level on a photon-by-photon basis, quantum mechanics guarantees an eavesdropper observing a photon irretrievably changes the information encoded on that photon. The eavesdropper can neither copy nor clone, nor read the information encoded on the photon without modifying it, making this key exchange uncompromisingly secure.

Additional PQC resources

• The CISO’s guide to establishing quantum resilience
• Notable post-quantum cryptography initiatives paving the way toward Q-Day

3. Privileged access management (PAM)

Privileged access management is another of security control cyber insurance carriers and brokers desire. It is used to protect admin and service accounts that bypass other security controls from unauthorized access. PAM uses audit logs that record account activities, which can be used for compliance and incident investigations.

Why you might need PAM

PAM offerings are a branch of IAM that focuses on controlling and monitoring privileged accounts. It allows just-in-time access for users with higher-level access, which is a prime target of cyber attackers.

PAM product examples

Delinea Secret Server concentrates on offering authorization for varying identities, ensuring controlled access to critical hybrid cloud infrastructure as well as sensitive data. Aiming to bring down risk, guarantee compliance, and streamline security within an organization, it prioritizes privileged access as a pivotal part of cybersecurity strategies. 

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager automatically discovers and onboards privileged credentials and secrets used by human and non-human identities. Centralized policy management allows admins to set policies for password complexity, frequency of password rotations, which users may access which safes, and more.

Additional PAM resources

• 7 top privileged access management tools

4. Security information and event management (SIEM)

SIEM helps organizations aggregate, correlate, and analyze logs and security event data from security systems, computer and network devices, applications, databases, and other sources across the enterprise network. It can enable early threat detection and help organizations investigate and respond to incidents and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements for log retention and management.

Why you might need SIEM

SIEM is used mostly in larger organizations or public companies where its centralized management and reporting capabilities help with regulatory compliance. The price point for SIEM products tends to be high and experienced technicians who manage these systems are expensive, so many smaller companies can’t afford it.

SIEM product examples

Splunk Enterprise Security is an analytics-driven SIEM product that enables real-time visibility into the security status of your network. It supports “correlation searches” that admins can configure to be alerted on events that meet specific static and dynamic thresholds.

LogRhythm NextGen SIEM collects and correlates a broader set of forensic data than SIEM products that focus on collecting exception-based data. It uses behavioral- and scenario-based analytics to help reduce the mean time to detect security incidents and respond to them. Admins can use the platform to track their mean time to detect and mean time to respond to incidents so they can monitor their own performance.

Additional SIEM resources

• 12 top SIEM tools rated and compared
• What is SIEM? How to choose the right one for your business
• 8 ways to get more life out of an old SIEM

5. Web content filtering

Content filtering appliances and software enable organizations to enforce policies restricting access to websites and content deemed inappropriate, offensive or illegal. The tools can also be used to control access to bandwidth hogging sites and services as well.

Why you might need a web content filtering tool

Many organizations use such tools to block access to content and sites that might be considered as impacting productivity such as social media sites or sports sites. Organizations often deploy web content filtering to comply with industry or regulatory requirements.

Web content filtering products

Forcepoint URL Filtering allows organizations to block or control access to web content using over 120 security and content categories. The technology supports the creation of custom filters for permitting or denying access to users on a timed or a permanent basis.

Barracuda Web Security Gateway can be used to restrict access to sites and content, based on organizational policies. The content filtering function is part of a broader suite of web security and management capabilities that include anti-spyware, malware and virus protection.

6. Endpoint encryption

Endpoint encryption tools encrypt sensitive data on desktops, laptops, and other endpoint devices. Some products support encryption on removable media such as USB drives and SD cards. Endpoint encryption typically supports both full disk encryption and file-level encryption capabilities.

Why you might need endpoint encryption

If you have valuable data or intellectual property stored on endpoint devices, then you need to do more than trust your network or cloud security measures to keep bad actors from taking them. Encrypting important files at the device level means they are useless to hackers if they gain access.

Endpoint encryption product examples

Check Point Full Disk Encryption Software Blade encrypts user data, OS files, temporary files, and even erased files on a disk. The encryption is certified to FIPS, meaning it’s approved for use within the US federal government.

Sophos SafeGuard Encryption offers full-disk encryption using Microsoft BitLocker and Mac FileVault. It also can be used to encrypt files individually. It encrypts data as it is created and supports always-on Synchronized Encryption to continuously validates the user, application, and device integrity before enabling access to encrypted data.

7. Patch management

Patch management is the process of updating software, drivers, and firmware to fix vulnerabilities, improve performance, and ensure compliance. It’s another key control required by many cyber insurance carriers. Patch management is also useful in ensuring organizations comply with industry regulations and laws, such as PCI DSS and GDPR.

Why you might need patch management

Patch management can be used in identifying, acquiring, testing, and installing patches; deciding which patches are needed for specific devices and software; making sure patches are installed correctly; and documenting the process.

Patch management product examples

Altera patch management is an AI-powered patch management tool that generates scripts in seconds and automates patch scheduling. You can design, plan, and implement patches at scale, ensuring seamless operations and predictable user experiences across your network.

ConnectWise Automate can manage patches across multiple machines, automate approvals, and set policies for Microsoft and third-party software. It offers out-of-the-box scripts, around-the-clock monitoring, and other  automation capabilities.

Additional patch management resources

• 8 ways your patch management policy is broken (and how to fix it)
• Evaluating patch management software: 6 key considerations
• 6 steps for a solid patch management process

8. Virtualization security

Virtualization security products can help organizations monitor and secure virtualized environments and software-defined infrastructure against malware and other threats. The products can help organizations get better visibility into and control over virtual and software-defined environments.

Why you might need virtualization security

If you run virtualized environments, you need security to match. Traditional approaches and tools will not adequately protect you. Virtualization security tools provide controls and processes at each virtual machine. They also allow for setting consistent security policies across the virtual environment.

Virtualization security product examples

Bitdefender GravityZone is engineered for deployment in virtualized environments. Companies can use it to manage security on on-premises and cloud-based virtual machines via a single console and without the need for multiple agents on the VMs.

Hytrust Cloud Control is an access control, forensic logging, and policy enforcement product for VMware environments. It ensures only hypervisor admins are allowed to take approved actions and block actions that are not approved. The technology also enforces policies where secondary approval might be needed for certain particularly impactful actions.

9. Enterprise password managers

Password managers help ensure users have strong, unique passwords, typically storing the passwords securely in encrypted fashion and helping enforce policies for strong passwords, shared accounts, and provisioning and de-provisioning users. Many enterprise password managers integrate with Active Directory and other user directories and offer centralized administration capabilities.

Why you might need an enterprise password manager

Many companies look to SSO to help their employees and admins escape password hell. But SSO leaves gaps. For example, not all cloud applications can easily be brought into an SSO solution. An enterprise password manager can help employees maintain good password practices while reducing the stress level of admins tasked with enforcing those practices.

Enterprise password management product examples

BeyondTrust Password Safe controls scripts, files, code, and embedded keys. It eliminates hard-coded credentials and can define and automate controlled access using REST APIs. It also can secure and control access to privileged credentials, and automate password rotation.

LastPass Enterprise integrates with Active Directory and other directories such as Okta and Microsoft Azure ID to assist in account creation, group management, and user account termination. Admins can use it to centralize password management functions, control shared access, and implement MFA.

Additional enterprise password manager resources

• Buyer’s guide: The 6 best password managers for business
• 10 passwordless authentication solutions

10. Cloud workload protection platform (CWPP)

CWPP products broadly focus on protecting workloads not just on containers but any cloud instance. These tools help organizations detect vulnerabilities, protect against malware and intrusion attempts, and ensure cloud workloads are protected in compliance with required standards.

Why you might need CWPP

If a significant amount of your IT infrastructure is run in the cloud, you should consider a cloud workload security solution even if it’s hosted by a leading provider. The more varied the workloads you run, the more you need a workload tool to manage and secure your cloud instance.

CWPP product examples

Fidelis CloudPassage Halo permits organizations to use the workload protection service to assess the attack surface of their cloud workload, identify vulnerabilities, and manage local access controls on the servers hosting their data. The service helps detect policy violations, configuration changes, and other issues that might weaken workload security.

Dome9 Compliance Engine is designed to help organizations continuously monitor cloud workloads running on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and multicloud settings. The hosted service helps organizations assess compliance status, identify issues that may putt that status at risk, and fix those issues in place.

Additional CWPP resources

• CNAPP buyers guide: Top tools compared