Municipal governments have a range of networked services and infrastructure which they need to manage, often on limited budgets and with legacy equipment. They are among the most visible and frequently attacked security targets and network security has to be a primary concern. When considering zero trust solutions, initial projects frequently include the government-owned critical infrastructure such as the water treatment facilities and other public utilities.

Wireless connections that connect city services and applications to remote sites, sensors and monitoring equipment are particularly vulnerable to attacks. We have seen that attacks against critical infrastructure can immediately cause real-world damage and can be life threatening, as breaches against water distribution facilities can adjust chemical levels and water content, as in one highly publicized instance.

Particularly when dealing with legacy equipment, access to remote sites, and access from remote workers and maintenance staff, with an over-burdened network staff, addressing security concerns can be challenging or left unaddressed until too late. Traditional VPN solutions have proven to be expensive and hard to manage and are now among the most vulnerable security layers hackers are looking to breach.

The Tempered Solution

The Tempered Airwall zero trust architecture is an ideal fit for these types of environments. Unlike most solutions, we have the ability to protect and segment any endpoint, even IoT devices and aging infrastructure equipment. Our family of hardware appliances act as a gateway to remote or unmanaged systems while providing the zero trust remote access or network segmentation that the scenario requires.

In addition, our centrally-managed policies makes it very easy to update and confirm security policies as requirements change. Installation, set-up and administration can be done in a fraction of the time, with far fewer errors, than traditional security approaches.