Lookout has announced an extension to the Lookout Cloud Security Platform to give corporate customers secure connections for employees working in mainland China without needing a VPN.
Lookout China Connect enables employees from multinational organizations working remotely in mainland China to benefit from the same access, security, and connectivity levels as employees working elsewhere.
Lookout is on the Acceleration Economy Top 10 Shortlist of companies representing cybersecurity as a business enabler.
China has a famously stringent internet access framework, the Great Firewall, resulting in hindrances including IP blocking, bandwidth limitations, latency issues, and remote data and application access. Lookout China Connect enables users to navigate these hurdles while complying with Chinese legislation.
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“Global enterprises operating in China find it challenging to maintain the same level of cloud application access, security, and overall user experience for the local workforce as employees elsewhere,” says Lookout CTO Sundaram Lakshmanan. “Lookout China Connect, an extension of the Lookout Cloud Security Platform operating in mainland China, offers multinational companies a comprehensive strategy to overcome these challenges.”
Beyond VPN
Historically, business users working from mainland China that wanted to continue operations without the productivity losses afforded by Chinese regulations in most cases used a VPN. Rerouting traffic away from mainland China is one practical, though not ideal, option.
In numerous cases, companies are prohibited from leasing the bandwidth to international locations required to run a VPN connection, many popular VPN services are blocked, and corporate VPN usage requires a state-issued license. Those limitations are precisely what Lookout is addressing.
Navigating Complexity
Lookout China Connect is a cloud service that enables companies to operate within regulatory boundaries while ensuring connections’ security. The Lookout China Connect extension provides the same level of protection as the Lookout platform, covering web-based threats such as malware, viruses, and malicious traffic, while providing secure remote access to private corporate applications and data, and connections to SaaS applications such as Salesforce, Google Workspace, and ServiceNow.
What stands out as the critical differentiator in the Lookout approach is that data isn’t rerouted to another location away from the Chinese mainland, as with a VPN. Instead, the company has a point-of-presence (PoP) in Beijing with another planned for China’s North-Central Ningxia region. This infrastructure means that latency is reduced and performance is maximized, all while ensuring the security and protection afforded by Lookout’s security platform.
Here’s how the service works:
- After evaluation by Lookout, any request to connect to an application is sent to a local ISP governed by China’s regulatory policies
- Any approved enterprise application traffic is routed to a data center after inspection and approval
- Restricted applications, those prohibited by China’s Great Firewall, are accessed via a customer-approved leased line
“With Lookout China Connect, multinational companies can now securely collaborate over cloud-based applications, and have consistent protection across their entire global infrastructure,” says Lakshmanan. “Their remote workers in China can work from anywhere and on any device, and can still get the same experience and protection as other colleagues – which includes being protected from malicious web traffic, malware and other threats.”
Chris Hughes, Acceleration Economy practitioner analyst and CISO, highlighted the value in Lookout’s approach. “Lookout China Connect is a very innovative solution for balancing the tightrope of security rigor and international regulatory compliance,” Hughes says. “It embraces principles of Zero Trust, moving beyond the VPN, and enables the distributed remote workforce, even those working from China while also accounting for unique regulatory requirements from the Chinese government.”
Why it Matters
While China has the world’s strictest internet laws, it isn’t the only nation restricting internet usage and access. This poses a complication for the fluidity of international business, mainly when dealing with distributed teams.
Business applications, especially productivity tools, enable companies to run global organizations more effectively because everyone simultaneously has access to the same information. However, when some in the team have their productivity hindered, there is tangible downstream effect.
Internet restrictions are just one barrier to the fluidity of modern global business operations. Another critical factor is data privacy. Various states have data privacy regulations that require organizations to comply when dealing with data originating from that jurisdiction. Many companies have introduced automated compliance policies into their data governance strategy to stay compliant.
Lookout China Connect works within the confines of the law. Instead of finding ways around the Great Firewall, it follows certified protocols to enable businesses to continue normal operations. Lookout has removed this complexity and this barrier from their customers with employees in China.
