If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Stop It: Fixing the East-West Visibility Gap

Using East-West Traffic Visibility

When it comes to network security, perimeter defenses are only one part of the equation. While many organizations have invested heavily in securing the perimeter of their networks, what happens when an attack bypasses those defenses? 

Right now, you might be: 

• Relying mostly on endpoint protection tools like antivirus and anti-malware software. While helpful, these solutions focus on individual hosts rather than monitoring overall network traffic.

• Deploying firewalls, IDS, and IPS systems throughout your network. This approach requires installing physical or virtual appliances in multiple locations, increasing the risk of misconfiguration.

Without a clear view of east-west traffic, your team has no way of detecting threats moving laterally within your networks. In fact, 44% of ransomware attacks are detected during lateral movement, highlighting the need to monitor internal network activity. Gaining visibility into east-west traffic helps uncover hidden vulnerabilities and strengthens your defense against threats.

Why Perimeter Security Isn’t Enough 

Some organizations still assume that everything inside their network perimeter is inherently trusted. They may have security tools monitoring the perimeter, but once a threat slips through, it can move laterally—often undetected.

If you don’t have visibility into east-west traffic, attackers gain the upper hand. Malicious activity can go unnoticed, allowing bad actors to:

• Exfiltrate proprietary data and trade secrets

• Encrypt network file shares and demand ransoms

• Spread to other devices, increasing the blast radius of an attack

If you’re not seeing this activity or receiving alerts, you can’t stop it. Simply put, if you don’t know what’s happening inside your network, you can’t fully protect it.

Microsegmentation and Containing Attacks 

One of the most effective ways to limit damage from lateral movement is microsegmentation. This approach creates controlled segments within the network, restricting access between different areas. The challenge lies in understanding what those segments should be. By identifying network assets that depend on each other, you can group those dependencies together. 

Network observability is a critical tool during the planning stage, ensuring proper segmentation. Enriching endpoint data with flow data provides a complete picture of what's happening on your network – enabling security teams to detect and contain threats faster.

What Are the Key Benefits of East-West Traffic Visibility? 

Implementing an observability solution that gives you insights into east-west traffic offers several important advantages, including: 

Strengthening regulatory compliance

Many regulatory frameworks, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI, require organizations to maintain full visibility into network traffic. East-west traffic observability helps organizations meet these compliance requirements, reducing the risk of legal penalties. 

Reducing investigation and resolution time

When a security incident occurs, teams need to quickly understand what’s happening. Organizations that have visibility into east-west traffic can drastically reduce investigation times. 

For example, a hospital client using brain surgery equipment was struggling with system malfunctions. Initially, their team estimated it would take more than a day to analyze network traffic and diagnose the problem. Using ElastiFlow’s NetObserv, the same analysis took minutes rather than days, saving time and preventing future disruptions. 

Moving from reactive to proactive security

Without proper visibility, teams often rely on user complaints to detect issues, which can leave them a step behind attackers. With real-time logging, machine learning, and a network traffic analyzer, organizations can spot anomalies before they become major incidents. 

Mitigate risk around DDoS incidents

Many companies implement DDoS protection at the network perimeter, but issues can persist inside the network. These issues aren’t always malicious. Sometimes an outdated switch or misconfigured application can generate overwhelming traffic, effectively DoS-ing the company from within. 

For example, a company that upgraded a network switch inadvertently removed a bottleneck that had previously kept an inefficient application in check. As a result, the application flooded the network with traffic. With flow-based traffic visibility, the company was able to immediately identify the root causes, rather than having to go through a time-consuming trial and error process. 

Closing the Security Gaps 

As attackers continue to exploit blind spots within networks, organizations must now, more than ever, take a proactive stance. They can do this by implementing microsegmentation and using network observability tools that provide visibility into east-west traffic, support faster time to resolution, and improve security.