Vectra Strengthens Zero Trust with Visibility and Analytics to Mitigate Threats Emerging from Distributed and
Hybrid-Remote Workforces
Vectra AI, a leader in threat detection and response, today announced that the Vectra Cognito platform delivers key Zero Trust capabilities for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure customers. Vectra is uniquely positioned as
an integral part of the model which assumes breaches by investigating the behavior of users, workloads, networks, and
devices as though they originate from an untrusted network by leveraging its analytics and understanding of users and accounts, tracking them between on-premise and cloud.
Since cloud applications and a mobile workforce have redefined the security perimeter, and corporate resources and
services now often bypass on-premise, perimeter-based security models that rely on network firewalls and VPNs have
become obsolete. To address this, Microsoft developed the Zero Trust Maturity Model to adapt to the complexities of modern environments effectively. With the integration of the Vectra Cognito platform,
customers will have access to AI-powered threat detection to monitor and verify the communications to their
business-critical applications.
“The Vectra Cognito platform was developed on the idea that standard, static security measures like firewalls, NAC, and
VPNs were not enough to protect the modern enterprise,” said Randy Schirman, Vectra VP of Partnerships. “With the hybrid
remote work model effectively rendering traditional security measures obsolete, we are completely aligned with the
Microsoft Zero Trust Model approach.”
The Vectra Cognito Platform uses AI to efficiently find and prioritise hidden attacks in real-time inside Microsoft Office 365, Azure Active
Directory (AD), cloud, data center, IoT, and enterprise networks before attackers cause irreparable harm to the
organisation.
“Over the past 12 months, our customers in ANZ have been accelerating their adoption of cloud and hybrid remote working
models. This is forcing them to completely alter their security approach to address the increased cyber threat within
these environments. We are pleased to be working with Microsoft to provide the key capabilities of a Zero Trust security
framework and provide our customers with the visibility they need in their hybrid and cloud environments as well as
meeting their organisation’s security objectives,” said Tony Bauman, Country Manager ANZ at Vectra AI.
The platform allows security teams to prevent attacks earlier in the kill chain, ensuring that applications essential to
business continuity are available and accessible for the entire extended workforce. Vectra will help deliver visibility
and analytics on the Zero Trust framework’s three guiding principles:Verify explicitly. Always authenticate and authorise based on all available data points, including user identity, location, device
health, service or workload, data classification, and anomalies.Use least privileged access. Limit user access with Just-in-Time and Just-Enough (JIT/JEA), risk-based adaptive polices, and data protection to
protect both data based adaptive polices, and data protection to protect both data and productivity.Assume breach. Minimise blast radius for breaches and prevent lateral movement by segmenting access by network, user, devices, and
application awareness. Verify all sessions are encrypted end to end. Use analytics to get visibility, drive threat
detection, and improve defenses.
“Threat detection and response that accurately detects network anomalies and account takeover by monitoring user and
machine behavior is a core capability for Zero Trust," said Desmond Forbes, Senior Director of Business Development at
Microsoft. "Vectra, provides customers with visibility into their hybrid cloud environments, the accounts used, and
integrates that information with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Azure Sentinel to meet our joint customers’ Zero Trust objectives.”
To learn more about this integration, please visit: https://www.vectra.ai/Microsoft or read our companion blog.About Vectra
Vectra, a Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) member, is a leader in threat detection and response – from
cloud and data center workloads to user and IoT devices. Its Cognito® platform accelerates threat detection and
investigation using AI to enrich metadata it collects and stores with the right context to detect, hunt and investigate
known and unknown threats in real time. Vectra Cognito Detect™ uses AI to reveal and prioritize hidden and unknown
attackers at speed, and Cognito Detect for Office365 and Azure AD™ finds and stops attacks in enterprise SaaS
applications and the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. For more information, visit vectra.ai.