What is Enterprise Traffic Protector (ETP)?

A positive and productive workplace benefits both the business and its customers. When a workforce has the right tools and applications – plus a fast, efficient, and highly secure network – teams can focus in a productive manner and the business can succeed.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of workers who now access cloud-based tools and applications via the internet while in or away from the office. This has put new demands on how business owners create and support productivity while helping to secure the business. Now, in addition to businesses maintaining secure internet access from physical workspaces, they must also spend time making sure their workforce is supported with secure internet access wherever they work. This includes addressing concerns that could interrupt workflow and leave a company vulnerable to attacks in addition to corresponding cybersecurity solutions.

Cyber criminals are exploiting businesses, guests, and devices accessing the internet from the office or from remote locations. The result has been a sharp increase in cyberattacks that can cripple a business, especially a small to midsized company.

Ransomware, malware, domain name system (DNS) data exfiltration, and phishing can drastically slow or stop operations all together. In 2020 alone, there were more than 304 million ransomware attacks¹ at an average cost of up to $1.45 million to remediate each attack. And in 2021, every eleven seconds there is another ransomware attack². Putting that into perspective, there are approximately 2,779 ransomware attacks during the average U.S. workday alone.

While managing these threats is a challenge for businesses of all sizes, small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) struggle the most with how to address the issue of security for their network. Even getting a clear answer to how cybersecurity issues impact business resources, including finances, people, and time seems overwhelming and can be a hindrance to implementing a solution at all. But when a business becomes the victim of an attack, every moment of downtime can be a further threat to the business. And by then, it can unfortunately be “too late.”

The best solution is to proactively protect the users and devices connecting to the internet at corporate and non-corporate sites—before an attack occurs.

There are a number of products available on the market for support specific use-cases. Some do not work on certain devices, may require regular updates, or software downloads. Businesses require a service that is easy to manage. It must also provide wide security coverage against most internet threats, protect all devices, have the flexibility to support content filtering, and not require managing hardware or software updates. There is a solution that addresses these challenges and makes enhancing your internet security easier.

Enterprise Traffic Protector (ETP)

Enterprise Traffic Protector is a cloud-based service that enables companies to provide safe access to the internet for their users and devices. This solution proactively identifies, blocks and mitigates targeted threats such as malware, ransomware, phishing and DNS data exfiltration. ETP provides internet protection in the office over AT&T Dedicated Internet circuits through Enterprise Traffic Protector Multitenant in one easy-to-install solution. And Enterprise Traffic Protector Mobile extends protection when employees are accessing the internet outside the office. ETP helps to simplify the process of protecting access to the internet, making it easy to put protection in place that will give you the peace of mind you need in today’s new business landscape.

This easy-to-deploy cloud solution enables employees, guests, and devices to connect more securely to the internet when working in the office (ETP Multitenant) or when employees are working at a remote location (ETP Mobile). It offers valuable protection to your business. Enterprise Traffic Protector requires no hardware and can be implemented quickly and can scale to meet the needs of your business. And because ETP is compatible with other security and reporting tools, you can continue to use any existing network-based firewalls, Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) protection, and Security Information and Event Management (SIEMs) tools that may already be in place. You can also maintain your external threat intelligence feeds and most premise- and network-based applications.

In addition, Enterprise Traffic Protector includes the ability to manage Acceptable Use Policies (AUP), identifying which websites and applications users are permitted to access. Different AUP policies can be based on employee job roles and profiles; thus, you are able to fully manage which websites and applications your different departments can access helping to safeguard productivity.

ETP provides protection when accessing the internet and can also enhance performance providing a richer user experience.

How does Enterprise Traffic Protector work?

Enterprise Traffic Protector simplifies the process of implementing and protecting outgoing internet traffic to strengthen cybersecurity for businesses. This solution identifies and mitigates access to internet sites promoting malware, ransomware, phishing and data exfiltration activities. ETP delivers multiple layers of protection. Using real-time cloud security intelligence and multiple static and dynamic malware detection engines, ETP proactively identifies and blocks targeted threats. Frequent rule updates support near-real-time protection against newly identified threats. This helps to proactively identify, and block cyberattacks from your network. And, the near-real-time AT&T Control Center Portal dashboard enables you to view DNS traffic, threat events, and AUP activities.

Enterprise Traffic Protector serves as your internet on-ramp with multiple layers of protection. Domain name and URL analysis deliver optimal security with no impact to network performance. When employees access the internet either on-site or remotely, ETP evaluates if access to the domain is safe and permitted, or should access be allowed but flagged with caution, or should access be identified as malicious and denied. It then determines if there are any AUP violations – if the website or cloud-based application the user is requesting access to is authorized or unauthorized.

This solution can issue email alerts to your security team for critical policy events – those that create a higher risk to your network. You are better able to identify, resolve, and remediate potential threats quickly. This approach helps to provide multi-layered protection for your network and improve security defenses against cyberattacks.

Enterprise Traffic Protector can be managed from virtually any location at any time via the AT&T Control Center Portal. Configure, manage policies, and implement changes in minutes to validate that location and policies are updated with the latest threat protection. You have the power and flexibility to make changes as the needs of your business change.

How can your business benefit from Enterprise Traffic Protector?

• It’s easy to configure. Takes only a couple hours to deploy, provision, and scale.
• No hardware needed. Protect with a cloud solution – no complexity or hardware to install.
• Get accurate results. Low number of false-positives.
• Off-network security. Protect off-network devices.
• DNS enhancement. Increase reliability and DNS resiliency .
• Better network performance. Reduce latency by only proxying risky traffic.
• Minimize security management time and complexity. Quickly administer policies and updates.
• Consistent compliance. Uniformly enforce use policies – block access to inappropriate domains and content.
• Flexible service options:
  • Enterprise Traffic Protector Multitenant (ETP Multitenant) – in office protection over an AT&T Dedicated Internet circuit
  • Enterprise Traffic Protector Mobile (ETP Mobile) – protection for employees when they are in the office or remote (client-installed software on Windows or Mac)
  • Enterprise Traffic Protector Advanced (ETP Advanced) – features of ETP Mobile plus more comprehensive traffic inspection capabilities, inline payload analysis and file scanning, sandboxing, antivirus features, and data loss prevention

Retail store with pop-up locations

A brick-and-mortar retail store keeps a minimal number of employees on site. The team works remotely to manage back-end operations and events to promote the store brand. And for pop-up locations, they offer Wi-Fi to encourage longer browsing of the retailer’s products. To cut costs, the retailer used a bring-own-own-device (BYOD) model for transactions and communication. Unfortunately, a team member’s personal browsing behavior opened the door for a ransomware attack that the business barely recovered from. Changing the business model wasn’t an option. And they didn’t have the resources to buy new equipment or hire a team to put cybersecurity protections in place to protect employees or guest users on the network.

The business implemented Enterprise Traffic Protector to monitor and manage access to the internet. This highly reliable, highly secure solution was easy to implement and did not require them to purchase hardware to do so. The retailer can now see how many cyberattacks have been attempted on their business and control the permissions of employee and guest access to the internet at any time. Because the retailer was still recovering from the ransomware attack, they were able to begin their service with ETP Mobile and have plans to upgrade to ETP Advanced as their business grows.

Small manufacturing facility with a fleet

To keep up with demand, a small factory operates 24/7. There are regular shipments of incoming raw materials as well as outgoing shipments to customers and vendors. Recently, they expanded their operation to include a fleet of trucks to make local deliveries. But for long-haul shipments, the business relies on third-party contractors to move their goods into the supply chain. Because these are not employees, the leaders felt they had little control over the risks posed to their network when on-site. With the manufacturing industry being such a high target for cyberattacks, they were concerned about how vulnerable their business was.

Enterprise Traffic Protector was the solution they chose. It enabled the business to assign permissions for web access, based on the roles of their employees. Their office staff and managers are now allowed more flexibility to access the web to complete their tasks. Only their sales and marketing team are allowed access to social media sites. And, their third-party contractors are now strictly limited to only business-related sites and applications when they’re using the company’s ne­­twork.

We’re here for you

Are you a small-to-medium business wanting to better support your workforce, customers, and locations? Contact us today. We have professionals who can demystify the technology for you and get you up and running with emerging technology and other solutions for your business.

AT&T Business is here to help small businesses in a big way. Our Technology Demystify series can help you decide what products and services will work for your business. To learn more, visit CDN Services or contact your local sales representative.

^{¹Annual number of ransomware attacks worldwide from 2014 to 2020
²22 shocking ransomware statistics for cybersecurity in 2021}