As we recognize Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October, it’s the perfect opportunity to reassess how we secure applications in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape. With the increase of remote work, cloud-based applications, and SaaS platforms, attack surfaces have expanded dramatically. In response, we’re introducing the concept of Zero Trust Application Delivery and Protection (ZTADP)—an approach that integrates zero trust principles with cutting-edge Citrix technologies to safeguard both custom and modern applications.
In this blog, we explore how Citrix’s unique capabilities enable IT admins to securely deliver applications—whether they’re custom-built or modern SaaS-based—anywhere and on any device. We’ll also discuss how Citrix offers unparalleled flexibility by securing all types of applications in a hybrid IT environment.
What is Zero Trust Application Delivery and Protection?
Zero Trust Application Delivery and Protection (ZTADP) is an approach designed to secure every aspect of application access and delivery based on the principles of “never trust, always verify.” This approach continuously verifies every user, device, and session, enforcing least privilege access to minimize the risk of threats
ZTADP secures all types of applications—whether custom, cloud-based, or SaaS—by delivering them through secure channels, monitoring user activities, and preventing unauthorized access. With ZTADP, applications are protected at every stage, ensuring that every interaction is secure, from access to delivery.
Securing Custom Applications with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
For many enterprises, custom applications remain essential to day-to-day operations. These include legacy systems or proprietary tools specifically tailored to meet unique business needs. However, these applications were often not built with modern security requirements in mind. This is where Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) steps in, allowing organizations to virtualize and securely deliver custom applications without requiring rewrites or replacements, while enhancing monitoring through observability technologies and tools like uberAgent.
Common Examples of Custom Applications:
- ERP Systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle E-Business Suite): Many organizations have custom workflows and configurations within their ERP systems, which are mission-critical for managing supply chains, inventory, or financials.
- Healthcare Applications (e.g., custom EHR/EMR systems): Hospitals and healthcare providers often rely on custom-built Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems that store sensitive patient data, making security paramount.
- Manufacturing Control Systems: Manufacturing companies often use custom applications to control machinery, manage production lines, or track operations. These applications typically run on legacy systems that require secure remote access.
- Banking Software: Banks and financial institutions use custom core banking applications that are central to managing transactions, client records, and regulatory compliance.
- Government/Legal Applications: Custom software used for case management, court scheduling, or regulatory compliance in government agencies, which must meet strict security and privacy requirements.
How Citrix Secures Custom Applications:
- Isolation and Virtualization: Citrix virtualizes these critical custom applications, delivering them through a secure, isolated environment. The application runs on a secure server and is accessed via encrypted channels, reducing the risk of endpoint compromise.
- Centralized Management: With Citrix, custom applications are centrally managed, making it easy to apply security patches, updates, and configurations. This ensures security best practices are consistently applied across the enterprise, regardless of where the application is accessed.
- Granular Access Control: By integrating Citrix’s access control technologies, administrators can enforce role-based access and apply contextual security policies based on factors such as device compliance and user behavior. For example, only authorized healthcare professionals can access patient records in custom EHR systems based on their role and device security status.
- Data Protection: Data from custom applications like ERP systems, banking platforms, or healthcare systems is processed and stored on secure servers, ensuring that sensitive information remains protected, even if the end user’s device is compromised.
Enhancing Security with Observability and uberAgent:
Citrix’s observability technologies provide visibility into how applications are being used, offering deep insights into application performance, security posture, and user behavior. When combined with uberAgent, these tools provide a detailed understanding of how custom applications are accessed and utilized, allowing IT administrators to:
- Monitor performance metrics: Track resource usage, application responsiveness, and user activity, ensuring that custom applications are performing optimally.
- Identify potential security threats: Detect anomalies in user behavior or access patterns that may indicate a security breach, and respond before an attack escalates.
- Optimize resource allocation: By monitoring which resources are being consumed by specific applications, IT teams can optimize performance and troubleshoot issues more effectively.
- Improve endpoint visibility: uberAgent offers real-time insights into endpoint health, usage patterns, and application performance, ensuring that devices accessing custom applications are compliant with security policies and standards.
By delivering custom applications through Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and leveraging observability tools and uberAgent, organizations can not only extend the life of critical systems but also gain real-time insights into the performance, security, and usage of these applications.
Incorporating observability and uberAgent helps IT admins and security teams monitor and secure custom applications in real-time, ensuring they operate securely and efficiently across diverse environments. This combination of technologies allows organizations to stay ahead of potential issues while keeping their custom applications secure against modern threats.
Delivering modern applications with Zero Trust Network Access and an Enterprise Browser
While custom applications are still in use, today’s enterprise environment increasingly revolves around cloud-based and SaaS applications. These applications are highly accessible, flexible, and support remote work environments—but they also introduce significant security risks, such as SaaS SSO-based attacks and unauthorized data access.
Citrix Secure Private Access and Citrix Enterprise Browser are designed to protect modern applications by providing a zero trust framework that enforces strict access controls, session monitoring, and data protection.
Citrix SPA: Enhancing Application Security with Zero Trust and Contextual Access Control
- Contextual Access Control: Citrix Secure Private Access ensures that every user and device is continuously verified before being granted access to applications. It does this by leveraging contextual information such as user behavior, device health, and location.
- Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Unlike traditional VPNs that grant broad access to the network, Citrix Secure Private Access provides Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). This means that users can only access the specific applications they are authorized to use, minimizing the risk of lateral movement if a user’s credentials are compromised.
- Protection against SaaS SSO-based attacks: Citrix Secure Private Access protects against common SaaS SSO-based attacks, such as phishing and credential stuffing, by enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and continuously validating session security. If an anomalous login attempt is detected, access can be revoked in real time.
Citrix Enterprise Browser: Isolating SaaS Applications for Enhanced Security
- Secure Browser Isolation: Citrix Enterprise Browser creates a secure, isolated environment where users can access SaaS applications. This isolation prevents malware from spreading beyond the browser and ensures that SaaS applications are protected from browser-based threats.
- Granular control: Administrators can control exactly what users can do within the browser, such as restricting downloads, file uploads, or copy/paste functions. This helps protect against data exfiltration and insider threats.
- Real-time monitoring and reporting: Citrix Enterprise Browser monitors user sessions and provides detailed reports on activity, allowing administrators to detect and respond to suspicious behavior quickly.
Citrix: The only solution that secures both custom and modern applications
In today’s hybrid enterprise, businesses are running a mix of custom and modern applications, both on-premises and in the cloud. Citrix is unique in its ability to offer a complete solution that secures both custom and modern applications under a single, unified platform. Here’s why Citrix stands out:
- Custom Application security: With Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, custom applications are virtualized and securely delivered to any device, ensuring they remain protected in the modern IT landscape.
- SaaS application security: Through Citrix Secure Private Access and Citrix Enterprise Browser, Citrix secures access to modern SaaS applications and cloud services, applying zero trust principles to every interaction.
- Flexible Deployment: Whether your applications are hosted on-premises, in the cloud, or delivered as SaaS, Citrix provides the tools to secure them. This flexibility allows you to adapt as your business evolves, ensuring security remains strong across all environments.
- Unified Security Framework: Citrix provides a single platform to enforce security policies, access controls, and monitoring across all applications, reducing complexity and improving the overall security posture of the enterprise.
Addressing Modern Security Requirements with Observability and Analytics
Citrix’s security solutions are bolstered by observability technologies that provide real-time visibility into application performance and security. For example:
- Real-time analytics: Citrix offers monitoring and reporting capabilities that allow administrators to detect anomalies, investigate security events, and respond quickly to threats.
- Behavioral insights: With advanced user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA), Citrix helps detect abnormal behavior patterns, providing early indicators of potential breaches or insider threats.
- Endpoint observability: Technologies provide visibility into user devices, including resource consumption, performance, and security compliance, ensuring that endpoints remain secure.
These insights enable businesses to continuously monitor their security landscape, ensuring that modern applications and custom apps are protected from emerging threats.
Take action this October: Implement zero trust application delivery and protection
As we recognize Cybersecurity Awareness Month, now is the time to take a proactive approach to securing any kind of application. By adopting zero trust application delivery and protection with Citrix, your organization can ensure that applications remain secure, no matter where they are hosted or how they are accessed. Start by:
- Deploying Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops to securely deliver custom, web, and SaaS applications.
- Implementing Citrix Secure Private Access to provide zero trust security for both cloud and on-premises applications.
- Leveraging Citrix Enterprise Browser to secure access to modern SaaS applications with browser isolation and granular controls.
Learn more about our security use cases, such as protecting sensitive business information, delivering mission-critical applications, and application performance and security. Discover how Citrix can help you enhance your IT security.