Video

Miguel Angel Amigo of Reference Laboratory talks about Zero Networks

Miguel Angel Amigo, CISO at Reference Laboratory, struggled with a lack of visibility into VLAN traffic prior to deploying Zero Networks. While other solutions Reference Laboratory considered provided visibility, they also created more manual work and added complexity.

With Zero, Reference Laboratory implemented microsegmentation without users noticing at all. Zero's automated solution effortlessly secured service accounts, dynamically protected privileged ports with just-in-time MFA, and cut down on solution sprawl with a unified platform for identity, microsegmentation, and visibility.

Summary

Before Zero Networks, Reference Laboratory couldn’t see traffic between machines inside the same VLAN. Its CISO says it left them almost blind. Miguel Angel Amigo explains how two people deployed Zero Networks almost immediately without users noticing, how it locked service accounts to their machines and put MFA in front of privileged ports like RDP, and why one tool replaced three: identity, microsegmentation, and visibility.

Key takeaways

Visibility alone wasn’t enough. Other tools showed traffic but left the team to implement policies by hand, with no way to know if they’d be applied correctly. Zero Networks implements them directly.
Deployment was almost immediate. Two people handled it, a Zero Networks technician and the CISO, and users never noticed.
Service accounts are locked to their machines. In learning mode, Zero Networks discovered every service account and created policies so each one can only run on the machine it belongs to.
Privileged ports require MFA. Connecting to a machine over RDP now triggers MFA first, verifying the right person is connecting.
One tool replaced three. Identity, microsegmentation, and visibility now live in one platform. His advice: run the 30-day POC, see the results, and put it into production.

Speaker: Miguel Angel Amigo, CISO, Reference Laboratory

[Translated from Spanish]

What problem did Reference Laboratory have before Zero Networks?

Miguel Angel Amigo: I’m Miguel Ángel Amigo, I’m CISO at [Reference Laboratory], where I’ve developed over the 25 years of experience I have in it.

The problem we had is that we could never see the traffic inside the same VLAN between the machines, and it was — it almost left us blind to the visibility there is.

Zero Networks has helped us quite a bit, because before, what we did was connect to several panels we have from several tools we have in the system — firewall, monitoring, and all that — to see the machines, the traffic they produced between them, or any problem we had on the network, to be able to identify it.

Why didn’t other microsegmentation tools work?

Miguel Angel Amigo: Before Zero Networks, I was looking at other applications on the market, but they didn’t convince us, because the only thing they gave us was visibility. They gave us visibility of the traffic being produced, but they didn’t give us the option to implement it directly. That is, we would have to do it ourselves. Of course, it was a very manual task, and we didn’t know if that process we were going to do manually was going to be applied correctly.

How long did Zero Networks take to deploy?

Miguel Angel Amigo: The implementation of Zero Networks in our network was almost immediate. The users didn’t notice that we were implementing a microsegmentation solution, and the people who were responsible for the installation were two people. That is, a technician from Zero Networks and me as CISO. Uh, it was a perfect solution for me. When we had some problem or any circumstance, we couldn’t manage that problem, and Zero Networks gave us the visibility there is between the machines within the same VLAN or between VLANs. Before, we had a Layer 7 firewall, but now we have an internal microsegmentation firewall between machines.

How does Zero Networks secure service accounts?

Miguel Angel Amigo: The first thing we did was discover the service accounts on the network. Zero Networks discovered them perfectly and was put in study mode [learning mode]. It created policies for us where those service accounts ran on a specific machine, and it created the policies so that account would only run on that machine and could not run on a machine different from the one where that service account was created. That has helped us quite a bit.

How does Zero Networks add MFA to privileged ports?

Miguel Angel Amigo: What left us surprised about the solution is that for any privileged port we use within the network, it asked us for an MFA. That is, we were surprised. That is, I want to connect to a machine with RDP, and before connecting to the machine, an MFA to verify that I was the person who wanted to connect to that machine. That surprised us quite a bit.

Why replace three tools with one?

Miguel Angel Amigo: Before, we had, uh, tools for identities, tools for microsegmentation, and tools for visibility. Now, with the same tool, we have all three things. It’s a solution that you put in a POC and you keep it. It’s a solution that I would tell them they have to try, wait for the result of the 30 days, and when you see the results of the 30 days, you put it into production.