Lacework - Detailed Review
Networking Tools
Lacework - Product Overview
Overview of Lacework
Lacework is a leading cloud security platform that leverages advanced machine learning and automation to protect cloud environments. Here’s a brief overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features:Primary Function
Lacework’s primary function is to provide comprehensive cloud security solutions. It does this by continuously collecting and correlating vast amounts of data from various sources, including configurations, permissions, vulnerabilities, attack paths, secrets, and runtime activity. This data-driven approach helps in detecting anomalies, identifying security risks, and responding to threats in real-time.Target Audience
Lacework’s target audience includes a diverse range of businesses, from small startups to large enterprises, particularly those in sectors like technology, finance, and healthcare. These organizations often have high security and compliance needs and operate in complex cloud environments. Lacework also serves global enterprises with a strong presence in North America and Europe.Key Features
Data Ingestion and Correlation
Lacework continuously collects data throughout the entire application lifecycle, using both agent and agentless technology to maximize coverage and deeply understand the attack surface.Machine Learning and Automation
The platform leverages a behavior-based machine learning engine to deliver unmatched cloud visibility and pinpoint accuracy in security alerts. This engine is supported by over 100 patents and is designed to detect anomalies and conduct deep analysis of cloud and security events.AI Assist
Lacework AI Assist is an AI-powered feature that helps teams understand and action security alerts with personalized context. It provides clear, simple steps to mitigate risks and resolve security issues faster, making security management accessible to both technical and non-technical teams.Compliance and Security
The platform is particularly beneficial for industries with strict compliance requirements, such as healthcare and finance. It helps organizations adhere to regulations and standards to ensure data privacy and security.Scalability
Lacework’s solutions are scalable and can adapt to the needs of businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large global enterprises. This scalability ensures that the security measures grow with the organization. Overall, Lacework is a powerful tool for any organization looking to enhance its cloud security posture with advanced, AI-driven solutions. Lacework - User Interface and Experience
User Interface Overview
The user interface of Lacework, a leading AI-driven networking and cloud security tool, is designed with a strong focus on ease of use, performance, and comprehensive visibility.
Ease of Use
Lacework is praised for its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy to set up and integrate into various environments. Users appreciate the platform’s simplicity, noting that it is “exceptionally easy to use” and promotes “operational efficiency” through its seamless plug-and-play functionality.
Unified Interface
One of the key features of Lacework is its unified interface, which simplifies the management of security across multiple cloud and on-prem environments. This single user interface allows users to access all necessary security features and data from one place, reducing the need to switch between multiple tools and improving overall efficiency.
Real-Time and Inline Workflows
Lacework Edge, the latest addition to the platform, introduces real-time and inline workflows that automate processes based on user behavior, risk, and business policies. These workflows integrate directly into the access flow, enabling secure resource access and significantly reducing the mean time to detect and respond to threats. This real-time capability enhances the user experience by providing immediate and automated responses.
Visibility and Dashboards
The platform offers extensive visibility into network and cloud environments through detailed dashboards and reports. Users can create custom reports and dashboards, which helps in prioritizing efforts and addressing urgent security issues. The comprehensive user interface provides a “single plane of glass” view, allowing users to monitor and manage all their workloads from a single dashboard.
Feedback and Alerts
Lacework’s interface is also commended for its effective alert handling and feedback mechanisms. Users receive clear and timely alerts, which are crucial for incident response teams to prioritize and address security issues promptly. The platform’s network diagrams and polygraphs are particularly helpful in visualizing communications between services and responding to alerts.
Continuous Improvement
Despite some users noting areas for improvement, such as the need for more customization options in reports and better integration with various applications, Lacework is recognized for its continuous development and improvement. The platform actively listens to user feedback and releases new features and improvements regularly, which enhances the overall user experience.
Conclusion
In summary, Lacework’s user interface is characterized by its ease of use, unified and intuitive design, real-time workflows, and comprehensive visibility. These features collectively contribute to a positive user experience, making it easier for organizations to manage and enhance their security posture.
Lacework - Key Features and Functionality
Lacework Overview
Lacework is a cloud security platform that leverages advanced technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, to provide comprehensive security solutions. Here are the main features and functionalities of Lacework:Data Ingestion and Correlation
Lacework continuously collects vast amounts of data throughout the entire application lifecycle, including configurations, permissions, vulnerabilities, attack paths, secrets, and runtime activity. This data is correlated to provide powerful insights and pinpoint accuracy, offering unmatched cloud visibility.Anomaly Detection
The platform uses a behavior-based machine learning engine to detect anomalies in user and application behavior. It establishes a baseline of normal activity and flags any deviations, such as a machine sending data to an unknown IP or a user logging in from an unfamiliar IP.Risk Scoring and Analysis
Lacework provides risk scoring for suspicious activities, vulnerabilities, and other threats. This feature helps in identifying and prioritizing potential network security risks, vulnerabilities, and compliance impacts, ensuring that the most critical issues are addressed first.Compliance Monitoring
The platform monitors data quality and sends alerts based on violations or misuse. It ensures compliance with various regulations by continuously monitoring and reporting on data quality and security standards.Security Auditing
Lacework performs security audits by analyzing data associated with security configurations and infrastructure. This helps in providing vulnerability insights and best practices, ensuring that the cloud environment is secure and compliant.Policy Enforcement
Administrators can set policies for security and data governance, which are enforced across the cloud environment. This feature ensures that all activities adhere to predefined security and governance policies.Multicloud Visibility
Lacework offers visibility across multiple cloud services and providers, allowing users to track and control activity seamlessly. This feature is crucial for managing and securing diverse cloud environments.Workflow Management
The platform streamlines existing workflows or creates new ones to better handle IT support tickets and services. This helps in improving the efficiency of security and IT operations.Security Integration
Lacework integrates with additional security tools to automate security and incident response processes. This integration enhances the overall security posture by leveraging multiple security solutions.Cloud Gap Analytics
This feature analyzes data associated with denied entries and policy enforcement, providing insights into better authentication and security protocols. It helps in identifying gaps in cloud security configurations.Vulnerability Management
Lacework includes features such as vulnerability scanning, threat hunting, and vulnerability intelligence. These features help in identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities across cloud, network, and IT infrastructure.AI Assist
Lacework has introduced an AI Assist feature that leverages generative AI to provide personalized recommendations and guidance for security analysts. This AI Assist helps in investigating and remediating alerts more efficiently, enhancing the overall efficiency of security operations centers (SOC). It offers natural language interactions and personalized context based on the user’s role and previous activities.Reporting and Logging
The platform generates detailed reports outlining log activity and relevant metrics. It also provides adequate logging to support auditing and troubleshooting, ensuring that all security-related activities are well-documented and accessible.Continuous Image Assurance and Runtime Protection
Lacework offers features like continuous image assurance and runtime protection, which monitor container activities and detect threats across containers, networks, and cloud service providers. It also scans application and image source code for security flaws without executing them in a live environment.Conclusion
These features collectively enable Lacework to automate cloud security, prioritize risks, and provide comprehensive visibility and control over cloud environments, making it a powerful tool for cloud security management. Lacework - Performance and Accuracy
Evaluating the Performance and Accuracy of Lacework
Evaluating the performance and accuracy of Lacework in the AI-driven networking tools category reveals several key strengths and some areas for improvement.
Performance
Lacework’s performance is significantly enhanced by its data-driven approach and the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Here are some highlights:
Advanced Anomaly Detection
Lacework’s platform creates a comprehensive baseline of cloud workloads, API interactions, and cloud-based activities, allowing it to identify deviations that may signal potential threats without relying solely on predefined rules.
Geographic Detection
The platform uses geographic sources to detect and flag unusual login and network connection behaviors, enhancing the speed and effectiveness of security responses.
File Transfer Performance
With the introduction of Lacework Edge, file transfer performance has improved dramatically, up to 20 times faster than traditional solutions, from 900 kilobytes per second to about 20 megabytes per second.
Zero-Trust Connectivity
Lacework Edge provides end-to-end zero-trust connectivity, securing access to various applications and data centers while improving performance and user experience.
Accuracy
The accuracy of Lacework’s threat detection is bolstered by several innovative features:
Risk Analytics
The platform uses environmental data to create customized threat assessments, distinguishing between normal operations and genuine threats. It also adjusts alert severity based on common activities across multiple customer environments.
Composite Alerts
Lacework generates Composite Alerts that correlate low-severity signals to detect malicious activity, such as AI resource hijacking, early in the attack lifecycle.
Feedback Mechanism
The updated user interface includes a feedback mechanism for addressing false positives, which helps refine detection accuracy across the entire customer base.
Generative AI Assist
Lacework AI Assist uses generative AI to provide clear explanations of alerts, suggest investigative steps, and offer remediation guidance, improving the accuracy and speed of response to security threats.
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
While Lacework has made significant strides, there are a few areas to consider:
False Positives
Although Lacework has improved its management of false positives with a feedback mechanism, this remains an inherent challenge in any threat detection system. Continuous refinement is necessary to minimize false alerts.
User Familiarity
While Lacework AI Assist helps bridge the knowledge gap for both technical and non-technical teams, there may still be a learning curve for some users to fully utilize the platform’s capabilities.
Data Privacy
While Lacework emphasizes privacy and ensures that customer data never leaves their secure infrastructure, maintaining this level of privacy and security is an ongoing challenge that requires constant vigilance.
Conclusion
In summary, Lacework’s performance and accuracy are enhanced by its advanced anomaly detection, geographic detection capabilities, and the integration of AI and ML technologies. However, managing false positives and ensuring user familiarity with the platform remain areas that require ongoing attention.
Lacework - Pricing and Plans
Lacework Pricing Structure
Lacework’s pricing structure is largely based on the size and needs of the organization, with several key factors influencing the cost.Organization Size-Based Pricing
Lacework’s pricing is segmented according to the size of the organization:- Small to mid-sized organizations: The annual subscription cost typically ranges from $23,000 to $43,000 for companies with up to 200 employees.
- Mid-sized organizations: For companies with a headcount of around 1,000, the price range is $46,800 to $79,000 per year.
- Large enterprises: Organizations with more than 1,001 employees can expect costs ranging from $68,500 to $142,500 annually.
Features and Tiers
While the exact tiers are not explicitly named in the sources, here are some key features that are generally included in Lacework’s plans:Cloud Security
- Real-time threat and misconfiguration detection for IaaS and PaaS
- Compliance management
- Agentless workload scanning
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) misconfiguration detection
- Least-privileged access implementation
Cloud Workload Protection
- Deep visibility into processes, users, and applications within cloud workload environments
Container and Kubernetes Security
- Vulnerability detection and behavioral analysis in containerized environments
- Comprehensive threat detection for Kubernetes pods, management nodes, and clusters
Additional Features
- Attack path analysis
- Cloud infrastructure entitlement management
- Behavior-based network traffic analysis
Pricing Model
Lacework calculates costs based on the number of cloud resources and agents used. Here are some details:- The pricing is determined by the average number of cloud resources for selected resource types, calculated for each Lacework account and cloud account.
Free Options
Lacework offers several free options to help potential customers assess the value of their product:- Free Trial: A 14-day free trial is available, allowing users to test the platform in their production environment.
- Lacework Cloud Care Program: This includes a free, no-obligation 14-day Cloud Threat Hunting Assessment to help handle threats like the Log4j vulnerability. It also includes a support hotline and a Coverage Booster for existing customers.
Negotiation Insights
The final cost can be influenced by negotiations. For example, maintaining a consistent scope of needs at renewal can help achieve a flat renewal rate, and committing to higher purchasing tiers can secure discounts. In summary, Lacework’s pricing is flexible and based on the organization’s size and specific needs, with various features and a free trial option available to evaluate the product. Lacework - Integration and Compatibility
Cloud Service Providers (CSPs)
Lacework integrates seamlessly with major cloud service providers. For example, it supports:- AWS: Integrations include AWS CloudTrail, AWS Security Hub, Amazon EKS, Amazon EventBridge, and AWS Control Tower Account Onboarding. This allows for automated security auditing, monitoring, and incident response within AWS environments.
- Azure: Lacework integrates with Azure Activity Logs, Azure AKS, and Azure Key Vault, providing enhanced security monitoring for Kubernetes clusters and other Azure services.
- Google Cloud: It supports Google EventArc Alert Channel, Google Cloud Audit Logs, and Google Chronicle Alert Channel, ensuring comprehensive security monitoring and alert management.
DevOps Tools
Lacework integrates with several DevOps tools to secure CI/CD pipelines and automate security tasks:- Buildkite: This integration delivers robust security for CI/CD pipelines, enabling teams to innovate faster and safer.
- Chef: Automates the monitoring and security of Linux systems.
- Hashicorp: Automatically configures the Lacework platform to secure public cloud environments.
- Puppet: Automates security and compliance checks.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Lacework FortiCNAPP supports multiple IaC tools and languages, including:- Terraform: Supported across Code Security App, CI/CD, and CLI integrations.
- CloudFormation: Fully supported for code security, CI/CD, and CLI integrations.
- Dockerfiles: Supported for code security, CI/CD, and CLI integrations.
- Helm Charts: Supported for code security, CI/CD, and CLI integrations.
- Kustomize: Also supported across these integration points.
Git Providers
Lacework FortiCNAPP integrates with various Git providers to enhance IaC security:- GitHub: Supported for IaC security.
- GitLab: Supported for IaC security.
- Bitbucket: Supported for IaC security.
CI/CD Pipelines
Lacework supports several CI/CD pipelines, including:- GitHub Actions: Supported for CI/CD pipeline security.
- GitLab Pipeline: Supported for CI/CD pipeline security.
- Bitbucket Pipeline: Supported for CI/CD pipeline security.
- Jenkins: Also supported for CI/CD pipeline security.
Incident Response and Alert Management
Lacework integrates with various tools for incident response and alert management:- Jira: Sends security alerts to Jira and automatically creates Jira tickets.
- OpsGenie: Sends Lacework security alerts to OpsGenie.
- PagerDuty: Sends Lacework security alerts to PagerDuty.
- ServiceNow: Sends Lacework security alerts to ServiceNow.
- Splunk: Sends Lacework security alerts to Splunk.
Compliance and Security Tools
Lacework also integrates with tools focused on compliance and security workflows:- Kaholo: Automatically remediates security threats and compliance violations.
- Tines: Streamlines security workflows in response to Lacework alerts.
- New Relic: Sends Lacework security alerts to New Relic for comprehensive monitoring.
Operating Systems and Environments
Lacework extends its workload security capabilities to various operating systems and environments:- Windows Server: Provides runtime workload visibility and threat detection for Windows Server OS in cloud or on-premises environments.
- Linux: Supports Flatcar Container Linux, Rancher OS, and other lightweight operating systems optimized for running containers.
- Kubernetes: Supports Red Hat OpenShift, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE), and Linkerd, covering both on-premises and managed Kubernetes workloads.
Lacework - Customer Support and Resources
Customer Support
24/7 Support
Community and Networking
Educational Resources
Lacework Academy
Live Security Workshops
Documentation
Demos and Guided Tours
Platform Status
Delivery Partners
Additional Tools and Features
By leveraging these resources, users can ensure they are getting the most out of the Lacework platform, addressing any issues promptly, and enhancing their overall cloud security posture.
Lacework - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Lacework
Lacework offers several significant advantages, particularly in the area of cloud and hybrid environment security:Comprehensive Visibility and Monitoring
Lacework provides both agentless and agent-based introspection, giving deep visibility into cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments. This includes continuous monitoring of configurations, permissions, vulnerabilities, attack paths, and runtime activity, ensuring comprehensive coverage of your security posture.Advanced Threat Detection and Response
The platform is praised for its threat intelligence and behavioral anomaly detection capabilities. It identifies and responds to potential threats in real-time, protecting critical assets before significant damage can occur. This proactive approach is enhanced by its ability to track assets and make risk-based access decisions.Automation and Integration
Lacework automates many security tasks, such as detecting and fixing security vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance issues. It integrates seamlessly with cloud service providers like AWS and Google Cloud, and offers features like automated inline workflows and advanced risk analysis for edge computing use cases.User-Friendly and Scalable
Users appreciate the ease of setup and deployment, with easy-to-use templates and a straightforward agent deployment process. The platform is highly scalable, making it suitable for teams of all sizes and capable of handling large-scale cloud environments.Strong Customer Support
Lacework is known for its excellent customer support, including a white glove approach to onboarding and ongoing support. The platform also offers a comprehensive training catalog for infrastructure security teams and SOC personnel.Zero-Trust Security
With the introduction of Lacework Edge, the platform extends its security capabilities to the edge, providing end-to-end zero-trust connectivity. This solution secures access from any user device to internet applications, private data center applications, and SaaS applications, while also securing data and improving performance.Disadvantages of Lacework
Despite its many advantages, there are some notable disadvantages and areas for improvement:Post-Acquisition Issues
Some users have reported significant declines in functionality and support since the Fortinet acquisition, including a lack of meaningful feature updates and difficulties in getting support due to frequent changes in support personnel.Limited Feature Updates
There have been complaints about the lack of new features in recent times, with some users feeling that the platform is falling behind competitors in terms of innovation and feature development.Specific Functional Limitations
Users have noted specific issues such as the vulnerability management at runtime only updating once per day, which can delay the process of closing out issues after code changes or dependency updates. Additionally, there is a need for more detailed remediation guides, such as Terraform samples, to speed up the remediation process.Initial Noise and Learning Curve
In the early stages of implementation, Lacework can generate a significant amount of noise, requiring time to fine-tune and adjust to the new system. This can be overwhelming for some teams.Integration and Customization
Some users have expressed a desire for better integration with a variety of applications and more customizable features, such as controlling agent permissions on endpoints and improving query functionality. By considering these points, you can get a balanced view of what Lacework offers and where it might need improvement. Lacework - Comparison with Competitors
When Comparing Lacework to Other AI-Driven Networking and Security Tools
Several unique features and potential alternatives stand out.
Unique Features of Lacework
- Cross-Customer Risk Analytics: Lacework introduces a risk analytics tool that sets a baseline by analyzing activities across multiple anonymized customer environments. This tool helps in identifying commonalities and adjusting the severity of alerts based on benign or common activities, ensuring more accurate risk assessments.
- Geographic Anomaly Detection: Lacework’s new anomaly detection technology uses geographic data to flag unusual login and network connection behaviors. This feature helps in identifying and alerting on activities that are outside the typical company behavior, enhancing security response times.
- AI Assist: Lacework AI Assist is an AI-powered tool that provides personalized context to security alerts, helping teams to understand and action these alerts more effectively. It offers clear, simple steps for mitigating risks and resolving security issues faster.
Potential Alternatives
Juniper Networks AI-Native Networking Platform
Juniper’s platform stands out for its unified approach to campus, branch, and data center networking operations via a common AI engine. It has been trained on seven years of insights and data science development, promising significant reductions in networking trouble tickets, operational expenses, and incident resolution times.
Arista Etherlink AI Platforms
Arista’s Etherlink AI platforms are optimized for demanding AI workloads such as training and inferencing. These platforms are designed to provide optimal network performance, which can be a strong alternative for organizations with heavy AI workload requirements.
Darktrace
Darktrace is an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that detects and responds to cyber threats in real-time by analyzing network traffic and user behavior. It is particularly effective in identifying anomalies and suspicious activities that may indicate a potential security breach.
Trellix
Trellix offers advanced threat detection and prevention capabilities through its AI-driven network security platform. It provides a centralized repository of network knowledge and automates repetitive tasks, helping network engineers streamline their workflows and improve productivity.
Palo Alto Networks Cortex Xpanse
Cortex Xpanse is an AI-driven platform for discovering and monitoring all internet-connected assets. It provides visibility and security insights for network infrastructure, helping network engineers identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
Key Differences
- Scope of AI Application: While Lacework focuses heavily on cloud security with AI-driven threat detection and risk analytics, Juniper and Arista are more geared towards optimizing network performance across various environments using AI.
- Geographic Detection: Lacework’s geographic anomaly detection is a unique feature that sets it apart from other tools which may not have such specific location-based alerting capabilities.
- User Experience: Lacework AI Assist provides a personalized and user-friendly experience for security teams, which is distinct from the more technical and operational focus of tools like Darktrace and Trellix.
In summary, Lacework offers a strong suite of AI-driven cloud security features, but organizations with broader networking needs or different security focuses might find alternatives like Juniper, Arista, Darktrace, Trellix, or Palo Alto Networks more suitable.
Lacework - Frequently Asked Questions
What is Lacework and what does it do?
Lacework is a comprehensive cloud security tool that provides high levels of visibility, control, and security across cloud environments. It uses behavioral analysis to identify and manage security threats, breaking away from traditional rule-based security methods. Lacework helps IT teams identify cloud configuration issues, compliance risks, and manages multi-cloud environments seamlessly.
How does Lacework use behavioral analysis for security?
Lacework employs behavioral analysis by establishing a baseline of normal behavior in the environment. This is done by passively gathering data over a period, typically up to 48 hours, to determine what normal data and behavior look like. This baseline is then used to compare incoming data, user behaviors, and other metrics to identify anomalies and potential malicious activities.
What is the Lacework Polygraph and how does it help?
The Lacework Polygraph is a visual tool that allows users to see all connections within their cloud environments, including where data is being sent and connections are being made. This tool helps in investigating and understanding events and communication within the cloud environments by showing which areas alerts are coming from and where potential malicious events are originating.
How does Lacework enhance threat detection?
Lacework enhances threat detection through several advanced features. It includes a risk analytics tool that analyzes activities across multiple anonymized customer environments to set a cross-customer baseline. This tool highlights how peer environments are operating and responding to threats, adjusting the severity of alerts based on common or benign activities. Additionally, Lacework uses geographic detection to flag unusual login and network connection behaviors based on geographic locations.
What is Lacework Edge and what does it offer?
Lacework Edge is a proxy-based, cloud-native solution that provides end-to-end zero-trust connectivity. It leverages contextual data to make continuous risk-based access decisions, securing access to internet applications, private data center applications, and SaaS applications. This solution replaces traditional VPNs and network security appliances, offering a unified interface that enhances security, performance, and user experience.
How does Lacework integrate with other tools and platforms?
Lacework integrates seamlessly with various tools and platforms, including AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and Kubernetes configurations. It also offers integrations with tools like Jira and Slack to expedite the remediation process. This unified platform helps in managing multi-cloud environments and addressing non-compliant resources effectively.
What are the pricing tiers for Lacework?
Lacework has a tiered pricing model with two major tiers: Enterprise and Pro. The cost per user generally decreases with higher tiers. For example, for a company with a headcount of 200, the price ranges from $23,200 to $43,000, while for a headcount of 1,000, it ranges from $46,800 to $79,000. Larger companies with over 1,001 employees can expect costs from $68,500 to $142,500. Negotiations can also affect the final cost.
Can Lacework help in managing compliance and security risks?
Yes, Lacework is designed to help IT teams identify and manage compliance risks and cloud configuration issues. It provides valuable recommendations for addressing non-compliant resources and ensures that the organization meets compliance requirements across various cloud environments.
How does Lacework handle geographic-based security threats?
Lacework uses geographic enrichment features to detect activities outside of typical company behavior. By referencing a user’s latitude and longitude and using fuzzy matching to detect unusual login locations, it flags and escalates alerts to the Lacework dashboards. For instance, a login from an unusual geographic location would raise an alert, helping security teams respond swiftly to suspicious events.
What are some potential drawbacks or limitations of using Lacework?
While Lacework offers significant benefits, some potential drawbacks include the need for careful evaluation to ensure it aligns with the unique security and operational needs of the organization. Additionally, the cost can be a factor, especially for smaller organizations, and there may be a learning curve in implementing and utilizing all its features effectively.
How can I negotiate the best price for Lacework?
To negotiate the best price for Lacework, consider the volume of users and aim to secure a discount by committing to one of the higher purchasing tiers. Using competition, such as Loom, as a bargaining chip can also be effective. Maintaining a firm budget position and keeping the scope of your needs consistent at renewal can help achieve better pricing. Utilizing negotiation insights from platforms like Vendr can also provide valuable strategies.