BackBox unveils BackBox 8.0

The release of BackBox 8.0 addresses the two major trends seen in today's enterprise networks: the inherent complexity of consistently enforcing cyber resilience across both on-premise and cloud-managed systems without a centralized orchestrator, and the resulting lack of comprehensive visibility into diverse network configurations due to the proliferation of siloed management tools. BackBox 8.0 is designed to bridge these gaps, offering a cohesive platform for comprehensive security, compliance, and automated lifecycle management.

"Network cyber resilience is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It is a complex issue, and each organization begins from a different starting point, with its unique vendors, tools, and progress made,” said Rekha Shenoy, CEO of BackBox. “BackBox 8.0 is designed to accommodate this reality by providing a unified view of your modern network infrastructure, seamlessly integrating on-prem and cloud-managed elements. This enables enhanced network security, compliance, and lifecycle management automation, bolstering your organization’s overall cyber resilience.”

BackBox 8.0 introduces a new platform home page, offering a holistic view of network cyber resilience across three key pillars: Automated Lifecycle Management, Configuration Compliance and Policy Management, and Network Infrastructure Integrity. This provides instant insights into network adherence to best practices and security policies, facilitating proactive risk mitigation essential for maintaining a robust cyber resilience framework.

“We have always been focused on ensuring that the businesses we serve remain resilient,” said Scott Nursten, CEO, ITHQ. “BackBox delivers greater visibility into on-prem and cloud-managed/SASE devices, which in turn delivers confidence that all devices are up-to-date and secure. Its reliable, automated backups, patches, and compliance checks take care of many tasks that were once manual, allowing us to stay focused on the bigger picture of protecting our customers.”

Key Innovations in BackBox 8.0 include:

Device Lifecycle Governance: BackBox 8.0 empowers network teams to manage the entire lifecycle of any network device, from initial onboarding to maintenance and End-of-Life. New lifecycle states (Staging, Active, Maintenance, Ignored, and Orphaned) facilitate automation, compliance checks, and license allocation, ensuring seamless tracking and management.

Meraki Device Management: Addressing the growing trend of cloud-managed networks (33% of enterprises are deploying or will deploy SASE within 24 months, despite existing hardware investments averaging four to seven years), BackBox 8.0 offers robust Meraki support. This enables scheduled device imports into a staging environment for compliance validation before production deployment, identification of orphaned devices for inventory accuracy, and validation of Meraki configurations against industry or custom policies, including vulnerability detection with guidance on workarounds.

Network Infrastructure Integrity: BackBox 8.0 enhances vulnerability intelligence with CVE Workaround Insights. Users can identify CVEs with available workarounds or device configuration changes, mitigating risk without requiring full device patching or upgrades. This is crucial given the record-breaking 40,009 CVEs published in 2024, reflecting a 38% increase from 2023, and a 34% increase in attackers exploiting vulnerabilities for initial access.

Compliance & Policy Management: BackBox 8.0 extends coverage and helps organizations ensure network adherence to standards.

Device Inventory and Configuration Comparison Reports: In response to regulations such as DORA that guide cyber resilience, BackBox 8.0 enables users to generate and compare device configuration and inventory reports between any two dates. This streamlines auditing and ensures compliance.

Device Compliance Status: With 67% of enterprise networking activities still performed manually, resulting in poor incident and change performance, BackBox 8.0 offers immediate visibility into the compliance status (Unchecked, Pass, or Fail) for each network device. This enables quick verification of compliance requirements and proactive management of non-compliant devices.

BackBox 8.0 empowers organizations to strengthen their cyber resilience strategy by centralizing and automating security and compliance across all network devices, whether on-premise or cloud-managed.