BackBox, a leading provider of network cyber resilience solutions, has officially announced the launch of BackBox 8.0, which is an innovation geared towards addressing the complex challenge of securing modern networks that include traditional on-premise hardware, along with burgeoning cloud-managed and SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) environments.
According to certain reports, the stated development brings forth a unified, enhanced view and unprecedented control to fundamentally strengthen your cyber resilience posture across increasingly hybridized infrastructures.
More on the same would reveal how BackBox 8.0 arrives bearing an ability to address, in particular, two major trends being observed across today’s enterprise networks. These challenges include inherent complexity of consistently enforcing cyber resilience across both on-premise and cloud-managed systems without a centralized orchestrator, as well as the resulting lack of comprehensive visibility into diverse network configurations due to proliferation of siloed management tools.
As for how it does that, the answer resides in the solution’s pledge to offer a dedicated platform for comprehensive security, compliance, and automated lifecycle management.
Digging a little further will inform us on a new platform home page, which offers a holistic view of network cyber resilience across three key pillars: Automated Lifecycle Management, Configuration Compliance and Policy Management, and Network Infrastructure Integrity. The idea behind this whole assortment is to generate instant insights around network adherence to best practices and security policies.
“We have always been focused on ensuring that the businesses we serve remain resilient,” said Scott Nursten, CEO, ITHQ. “BackBox delivers greater visibility into on-prem and cloud-managed/SASE devices, which in turn delivers confidence that all devices are up-to-date and secure. Its reliable, automated backups, patches, and compliance checks take care of many tasks that were once manual.”
Talk about the whole value proposition on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the promise of Device Lifecycle Governance. This translates to how BackBox 8.0 allows network teams to manage the entire lifecycle of any network device, from initial onboarding to maintenance and End-of-Life. New lifecycle states (Staging, Active, Maintenance, Ignored, and Orphaned) also come in handy to facilitate automation, compliance checks, and license allocation.
Next up, there is a Meraki Device Management facility, which is designed to address the growing trend of cloud-managed networks (33% of enterprises are deploying or will deploy SASE within 24 months, despite existing hardware investments averaging four to seven years).
The stated facility further enables scheduled device imports into a staging environment for compliance validation before production deployment, identification of orphaned devices for inventory accuracy, and validation of Meraki configurations against industry or custom policies.
Another detail worth a mention revolves around a component focused on Network Infrastructure Integrity. Scaling up vulnerability intelligence with CVE Workaround Insights, BackBox 8.0 basically helps users identify CVEs on the back of available workarounds or device configuration changes. This it does to mitigate risk without requiring full device patching or upgrades.
To understand the significance of such a feature, we must take into account those record-breaking 40,009 CVEs published in 2024, reflecting a 38% increase from 2023, and a 34% increase in attackers exploiting vulnerabilities for initial access.
Then, there is an aspect committed to Compliance & Policy Management. BackBox essentially offers you device inventory and configuration comparison reports. You see, against regulations like DORA that guide cyber resilience, BackBox 8.0 enables users to generate and compare device configuration and inventory reports between any two dates.
Apart from that, users can also come expecting to access Device Compliance Status. At present, almost 67% enterprise networking activities are still performed manually, resulting in poor incident and change performance.
In response, BackBox 8.0 offers immediate visibility into the compliance status. for each network device. Such a capability really goes the distance to achieve quick verification of compliance requirements and proactive management of non-compliant devices.
“Network cyber resilience is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It is a complex issue, and each organization begins from a different starting point, with its unique vendors, tools, and progress made,” said Rekha Shenoy, CEO of BackBox. “BackBox 8.0 is designed to accommodate this reality by providing a unified view of your modern network infrastructure, seamlessly integrating on-prem and cloud-managed elements.”
