Enterprise network management has long followed a clear assumption: the network boundary is at the data center exit. Firewalls, gateways, and intrusion detection devices are deployed at the network exit, controlling “whether external traffic can come in and whether internal traffic can go out.” This assumption no longer holds today, when endpoints are highly mobile and businesses are highly cloud-based.
Today’s network traffic has both its starting point and endpoint on endpoints. An employee can access internal systems through a wired network in the office, connect to a VPN through Wi-Fi at home, or connect to cloud services through a mobile hotspot in a café. The same endpoint switches between different network environments, generating different traffic types, access targets, and security risks. Traditional network management devices can only see traffic passing through the exit, not “who is initiating a connection on the endpoint, where it is connecting to, through what protocol, and what content is being transmitted.”
More troublesome still, endpoint network behavior is tightly coupled with endpoint security status and data flow status. An endpoint infected with a virus may quietly connect to an external C2 server in the background; an employee may, while normally accessing business systems, upload files to a personal cloud drive through HTTP; a device without a security client installed may laterally access shared data on other endpoints through the intranet. The common feature of these behaviors is: they occur at the network layer, but the root cause is at the endpoint layer.
The network management capabilities of the Ping64 integrated office security platform are developed precisely around this logic: rather than placing the focus of network management on exit devices, it sinks control capabilities down to endpoints, making every endpoint a manageable, auditable, and controllable network node. Seven capabilities—network traffic auditing, network protocol monitoring, network access control, unauthorized external connection detection, trusted network, HTTP protocol filtering, and network security zones—operate collaboratively on the same platform, forming a complete closed loop from traffic visibility to behavior controllability.
I. Traffic: From “Exit Statistics” to “Endpoint Traceability”
The first step of network management is “visibility.” Traditional network traffic statistics are usually based on exit devices, counting “which IP address occupies how much bandwidth,” but cannot answer “which endpoint, which user, and which application this IP address corresponds to.”
Ping64’s network traffic auditing capability collects statistics on client network communication traffic within a specified time range, including statistics by address, protocol, and port category. The core difference of this capability lies in the attribution of traffic data—every traffic record is associated with a specific endpoint, user, and application, rather than an isolated IP address.
This means that when the security team discovers abnormal traffic to an external address, it can directly trace which endpoint, which user, and which process is initiating the connection, rather than seeing an unlocatable IP on the exit device. When the IT department needs to evaluate bandwidth usage, it can conduct segmented statistics by department, application, and protocol type, rather than seeing only a total traffic number.
The value of traffic visibility lies not only in “seeing,” but also in “correlation.” Ping64 stores traffic data in association with endpoint security status, user identity, and application behavior, making network traffic no longer an isolated number, but a behavioral clue that can be cross-analyzed with other security events.
II. Protocol Monitoring and Access Control
Traffic visibility solves the problem of “what happened,” while protocol monitoring and access control solve the problem of “what should happen.”
Ping64’s network protocol monitoring capability supports monitoring and auditing of DNS and FTP protocols. DNS protocol monitoring can identify domain name resolution requests initiated by endpoints, discovering whether endpoints are attempting to access malicious domains, unknown domains, or non-compliant domains; FTP protocol monitoring can identify file transfer behavior on endpoints, discovering unauthorized file uploads or downloads. These protocol-level monitoring capabilities make up for the deficiency of traffic statistics that “only look at traffic size, not traffic content.”
Network access control capability goes further. Ping64 restricts computers’ access to the intranet and Internet through parameters such as programs, network ports, IP addresses, communication directions, and protocol types, avoiding risks brought by arbitrary information interaction. The core design of this capability is “program-level” access control—not simply allowing or blocking by IP address, but precisely controlling “which application, through which port, in which direction, and using which protocol” initiates access.
Take a specific scenario: on an office endpoint, WeCom accessing the network is normal, but Xunlei or unauthorized remote control software on the same endpoint accessing the same network is clearly risky behavior. Traditional IP-based access control cannot distinguish between these two cases, while Ping64’s program-level access control can accurately identify and block network requests from unauthorized programs.
HTTP protocol filtering further refines the granularity of access control. Ping64 can block HTTP protocol file upload behavior on endpoints, preventing employees from uploading sensitive files to the outside through web forms, webmail, online documents, and other channels. This capability is linked with the data loss prevention module. When HTTP upload behavior triggers sensitive content identification, the system can automatically block and alert.
III. Unauthorized External Connection and Trusted Network
The truly dangerous behavior in enterprise networks is often not “what was accessed,” but “what was bypassed.”
An office endpoint connects to the external network through a mobile hotspot and uploads internal files to a personal cloud drive; a production network endpoint establishes a second network card through a USB network adapter and forwards production data to the outside; an R&D endpoint connects to an external server through an unauthorized VPN tunnel and synchronizes code out. The common feature of these behaviors is that they bypass all network-layer security devices deployed by the enterprise—the firewall does not see the traffic, DLP does not inspect the content, and the audit system leaves no record.
Ping64’s unauthorized external connection detection capability continuously monitors network connection behavior on the endpoint side, identifying and blocking unauthorized network access methods. The system can detect whether an endpoint attempts to establish external connections through unauthorized wireless network cards, USB network adapters, mobile phone USB tethering, unapproved VPN clients, proxy servers or tunneling tools, dual-network-card bridging, and other methods. Once unauthorized external connection behavior is detected, the system executes response actions according to preset policies: logging and alerting, blocking the network connection, and isolating the endpoint to a remediation zone.
Trusted network capability strengthens the network boundary from another angle. Users can customize the trusted network environment. When an endpoint leaves the trusted network, the system supports corresponding policy linkage—network disconnection, alerting, and screen locking. This capability is particularly suitable for scenarios with strict requirements on the network environment: R&D endpoints can only be used in the company’s intranet environment, automatically disconnecting from the network and locking the screen after leaving the intranet; finance endpoints can only be used in designated office network areas, triggering alerts when connected to other networks.
The combination of unauthorized external connection and trusted network forms a dual protection of “what should not connect cannot connect, and what should not leave cannot leave.”
IV. Network Security Zones
A special type of device often exists in enterprise networks: computers without security clients installed—possibly a visitor’s laptop, an outsourced worker’s device, or a temporarily connected test machine. These devices are not controlled by the enterprise endpoint management system, yet may access shared data on other endpoints through the intranet.
Ping64’s network security zone capability, once enabled, prevents computers without clients installed from accessing data on computers with clients installed. The implementation logic of this capability is: establishing a network access whitelist mechanism on the controlled endpoint side, so that only authenticated devices with clients installed can access shared resources on controlled endpoints. Even if uncontrolled devices connect to the same network, they cannot see or access data on controlled endpoints.
The value of this capability lies in extending “network admission” from the network device layer to the endpoint layer. Traditional network admission control (NAC) is usually based on switch ports or wireless access points, but cannot control “whether devices already connected to the network can access each other.” Ping64’s network security zones fill this gap, ensuring that data on controlled endpoints can only be accessed by controlled devices.
V. Advantages of the Ping64 Integrated Platform
Integrating the seven capabilities of network traffic auditing, network protocol monitoring, network access control, unauthorized external connection detection, trusted network, HTTP protocol filtering, and network security zones on the same platform provides advantages at three levels.
1. Same data foundation, correlation analysis. Network traffic data is stored in association with endpoint operation logs, file flow records, and outbound approval records on the same data foundation. When the security team investigates a data leak incident, it can simultaneously retrieve the endpoint’s network traffic records, access control logs, unauthorized external connection alerts, and file outbound records, forming a complete evidence chain, rather than manually piecing them together across multiple systems.
2. Policy linkage, closed-loop response. Network management policies and other security policies are centrally configured in the unified policy center. When unauthorized external connection detection discovers a violation, the system can automatically link with the network access control module to block the connection, link with the endpoint security management module to lock the screen for evidence collection, and link with the audit center to record the handling result. The time window from “discovering risk” to “controlling risk” is compressed to near-synchronous levels.
3. Unified management, improved O&M efficiency. Enterprises no longer need to deploy a separate system for network management, nor do they need to switch between multiple consoles. Capabilities such as network traffic auditing, protocol monitoring, access control, and unauthorized external connection detection run on the same platform as endpoint security management, data loss prevention, and behavior auditing. Administrators configure policies in one place, view data in one place, and handle incidents in one place. Management efficiency is improved by orders of magnitude.
VI. From “Boundary Protection” to “Endpoint as Boundary”
The paradigm of enterprise network management is undergoing a shift. Traditional “boundary protection” assumes that the network has a clear exit, all traffic passes through this exit, and security devices inspect at the exit. But today, with endpoint mobility, business cloudization, and the normalization of remote work, the network boundary has shifted from the data center exit to every endpoint.
What the Ping64 integrated office security platform represents is precisely such an “endpoint as boundary” network management logic: every endpoint is a manageable, auditable, and controllable network node; endpoint network behavior is tightly correlated with endpoint security status and data flow status; and network management policies operate collaboratively with other security policies on the same platform.
When network traffic auditing can trace back to specific endpoints and users, when network access control can be precise to the program level, when unauthorized external connections can be detected and blocked in real time, and when uncontrolled devices cannot access controlled data, enterprise network management is no longer a “checkpoint” on exit devices, but an “immune system” extending to every endpoint. This may be the most pragmatic response to network management in the era of mobility and cloudization.
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