HPE Aruba is enhancing its management software with AI features, adding network security controls to secure AI assets like large language models from unauthorised device access.
HPE plans to introduce new AI-driven security observability and monitoring capabilities into its core HPE Aruba Networking Central management platform. This strategy will aid customers in safeguarding both AI-based and conventional resources from IoT security threats. The initiative is aimed at improving network-connected device visibility and identification and offering continuous monitoring for unusual or suspicious activity, according for the vendor. Aside from that, HPE plans to include firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS) support in its Aruba security service edge (SSE) offering.
Using AI tools and security controls, customers can combat AI and other security threats and safeguard the AI-based assets that many businesses are collecting, says Jeff Olson, director of product and technical marketing for HPE Aruba.
“If customers have a number of data scientists working on AI models, and they approach the network with all of this data, and they need to transfer it or store it in the cloud, and they need to bring some devices with them to do that – they are concentrating on the issues they are resolving with AI, not necessarily the security of the data or the network,” Olson added.
“We offer AIOps tools that enable the security and networking teams to detect anomalies and [provide] security control around these AI resources,” commented Olson.
In addition, a large amount of AI training data emanates from uncontrolled IoT devices that are susceptible to web-based threats when they interact with cloud services for updates, telemetry, or other purposes, said Jon Green, HPE Aruba’s chief security officer, in a blog regarding the HPE tools. “Furthermore, BYOD and line-of-business devices often show up on the network beyond the watch of the IT department and can get compromised without any warning or signal, which can create entry points for attack and AI poisoning from corrupted or manipulated data,” Green added.
New AI support is integrated into HPE Aruba Networking Central, which employs machine learning models to scrutinize dynamic device attributes, like traffic patterns and behavioral traits such as connection state and network residency, to accurately classify and identify IoT and traditional devices, stated Green.
“HPE Aruba Networking Central AIOps boasts a vast history of constructing automated network activity baselines for troubleshooting and remediation, and currently, we are leveraging AI to amplify that skill to individual devices,” Green mentioned. “This not only enables more precise, automated fingerprinting to bolster Zero Trust Security, but it also empowers the utilization of behavior baselines to identify anomalies that can signify compromise and attack.”
HPE Aruba is incorporating other AI-enabled capabilities to strengthen security, such as utilizing AIOps and machine learning models within HPE Aruba Networking to automatically put APs in hibernation during low activity periods. This removes potential gateways for harmful activities, thereby reducing the attack surface, according to Green.
Regarding SSE, Aruba is assimilating technology from its Axis Security acquisition in 2023 into its SSE, SD-WAN, and SASE products. SSE merges several critical security functions, like a cloud-access security broker (CASB), secure web gateway, zero-trust network access (ZTNA), and a next-generation firewall, according to Gartner. This consolidation into a cloud-based service facilitates easier management.
Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), a new addition to HPE Aruba’s SSE bundle, complements existing elements like ZTNA, CASB, and other key SEE components. The FWaaS ties with various components within the HPE Networking SSE service, enabling security teams to protect and manage network resources from a unified interface and establish global policies centrally, as per Green’s statement.
Besides the FWaaS, Aruba incorporated dashboards into HPE Aruba Networking SSE to improve visibility into an organization’s security status. These dashboards display information about applications in use, user activity, security incidents, and ZTNA adoption. This data helps security staff identify shadow IT applications, thus mitigating the risk of unauthorized access.
New FWaaS capabilities within HPE Aruba Networking SSE extend protection to wherever data and devices are, without the complexity of an appliance. Joining on-premises security controls delivered by built-in firewalls in HPE Aruba Networking switches, wireless access points, gateways, and WAN appliances, FWaaS completes edge-to-cloud firewall protection by providing policy enforcement in the cloud. And since FWaaS capabilities are integrated with ZTNA, CASB, SWG, and DEM in the HPE Aruba Networking SSE service, security teams can manage all SSE services using a single UI and global policy.
