Some of the most critical networks in the world are disconnected from the internet or "air-gapped": banking systems, government networks, and critical infrastructure systems, to name a few. While this disconnect offers a great deal of protection from internet-based threats, that doesn’t mean these networks are immune from security concerns. They still require good cybersecurity tooling to ensure protection. Oftentimes, teams who run air-gapped networks are left behind as most of the cool and shiny new tech isn’t available to them.
Preserving security integrity in isolated environments #
Since these networks and systems are isolated from the internet, they are cut off from leveraging cybersecurity tools that are cloud native or lack full on-premises deployment options.
This limitation creates critical gaps in an organization’s security posture if a tool that can provide essential security needs cannot support their air-gapped environment. While there are ways to make cloud-native tools more accessible, the software manufacturer must support a fully self-hosted version of their solution, which is often not available. Furthermore, most versions of a self-hosted instance do not offer full feature parity with their SaaS offering, providing reduced functionality and protection.
How runZero protects air-gapped networks #
runZero believes that no matter the connectivity or complexity of your network, your system deserves the best protection available.
A critical foundation for securing all networks is asset visibility: you can’t protect what you can’t see. Traditional agent and API solutions struggle to account for rogue, unknown, or unmanageable assets, especially considering how the convergence of IT & OT has brought expanding challenges to asset visibility, enumeration, and risk mitigation. Air-gapped networks are no different: often highly segmented, complex, and geographically dispersed. These systems demand high fidelity, comprehensive asset visibility, to ensure mission continuity.
To fix the various needs of even the most complex organizations, runZero can be deployed in three distinct ways while retaining rich feature parity between all methods of deployment:
SaaS (Multiple AWS regions)
Self-hosted with internet connectivity
Self-hosted in fully offline, air-gapped environments
Customers across all industries and verticals are already runZero’s self-hosted offering, including:
National labs
Energy utility providers
Financial institutions
Telecommunications
Domestic and International Defense Entities
Universities and more
runZero’s most common deployment model is with our AWS hosted instances. However, for customers that need independent control over their data governance (perhaps based upon regulations) or have systems that are isolated from the internet, runZero’s self-hosting allows them to maintain all of their data within a centralized sphere of control.
Customers can choose to self-host locally within their own datacenter, deploy in their preferred IaaS provider (even FedRamp instances), or mobile form factors. Within a self-hosted deployment, customers can choose to have a connected instance to assist with system updates, or run entirely in offline mode, with no internet connectivity needed or required for functionality.
runZero also supports the use of a standalone CLI Scanner, which allows for scanning to be done safely and efficiently on even the most sensitive or segmented of networks. The CLI Scanner can be run on a device that can plug and play on disconnected, unmanaged, or forward networks. Saving scan data locally on the host where the CLI scanner lives, users can then fetch the scan data to upload to the console for a full analysis of what was discovered. This allows for speed, stealth, and efficiency for threat hunting, assessments, or reconnaissance of a network.
Air-gapped, fully secured #
Having a network that isn’t connected to the internet shouldn't hinder your operational security. If you are interested in understanding more about setting up runZero within an air-gapped network or would like to evaluate runZero within an air-gapped environment, please reach out to us. If you want to test runZero for yourself, sign up today for a trial.
