• Hybrid environments are now the norm, but their complexity leaves dangerous gaps, especially when legacy and cloud-native systems meet.
• These blind spots, fragmented tools, and outdated defenses widen the attack surface, giving attackers plenty of room to move laterally.
• A unified, hybrid-ready security stack is essential—one that delivers seamless integrations, centralized controls, and full visibility across environments.

The rush to the cloud isn’t new, but that doesn’t mean all the challenges of hybrid environments are solved. That’s why we’re launching this 3-part guide, inspired by the webinar our expert Brian Cummins co-hosted with SANS expert Matt Bromiley, Navigating the Challenges of Securing Hybrid Environments, to help you make sense of today’s hybrid complexities.

With 43% of companies splitting their data between cloud and on-premises, hybrid is the new normal. But when cloud-native applications pair with legacy, on-prem infrastructure, blind spots can multiply. Attackers thrive on misconfigurations, gaps, and identity abuse—all issues exacerbated by limited visibility across disconnected hybrid environments. 

In 2024, 60% of incidents like compromised credentials, tokens, or API keys enabled bad actors to move laterally across hybrid systems, virtually undetected. One financial services firm Matt highlighted turned this around by adopting a unified endpoint security platform, cutting response time by 60%. With consistent policies and centralized visibility, they closed risk gaps and buffed their defenses—outcomes worth writing home about.

Now more than ever, this needs to be the model for organizations looking to stop lateral movement and secure their hybrid workflows. 

Hybrid environments aren’t the problem—but these are

In our digital landscape, we’ve seen the pendulum swing far into the cloud—and now, it’s swinging back to “earth.” It’s a natural development, but also a prudent approach. Hybrid environments offer flexibility, scalability, and control, but they also make security inherently more complex. Without the right oversight, you can be left with inconsistent policy enforcement and much slower incident response. Oof.

When you’re operating in this reality, four critical areas demand close attention. 

Lack of deep visibility

In 2024, 85% of organizations experienced at least one cloud security incident, with 82% citing lack of visibility as the main reason. Without a clear view across your environments, risks—known or unknown—go undetected until it’s too late. In both cases, the inability to detect risks in real time leaves leadership, teams, and users vulnerable to opportunistic bad actors who are more than ready to wreak havoc. 

Fragmented systems and teams 

Every hybrid environment is different, which means policies can’t be one-size-fits-all. To complicate matters, development and security teams often operate separately. When developers prioritize speed and expansion, they may forget to loop in security until days later. And because they're not thinking about possible attack paths as they build, this inconsistency in coverage widens gaps and can even cause friction.

Inconsistent policies

Users may not understand all the intricate pieces required to access applications and data, but attackers absolutely do. Without consistent authentication and access policies across environments, attackers can move through systems unchecked and take advantage of every policy gap in their way. Under an adaptive, unified policy framework that operates across different infrastructures, hybrid environments gain consistent protection without slowing productivity or frustrating users just trying to log into Zoom. 

Outdated perimeter defenses 

Too many organizations rely on perimeter-based security, simply layering them onto existing stacks. But as Matt explained, perimeter-based security doesn’t work in hybrid models. Once an endpoint is compromised, the whole environment is at risk. Without modern controls to secure endpoints and workloads, one breach can snowball into a full-scale incident that nobody wants.  

Good thing there’s a fix that teams do want.

A solution that makes for simpler, stronger hybrid security

Hybrid environments need a security approach that’s as dynamic as the systems it's intended to protect. Because no single tool can cover every angle, organizations need an integrated, hybrid-ready endpoint security solution that unifies visibility, response, and control. 

Here’s what that should look like:

• Centralized visibility for faster, more confident responses from security teams.
• AI and automation to analyze massive volumes of data and adapt policies in real time.
• Cloud-delivered policy management that keeps protections consistent on-premises and the cloud—making compliance less headache-inducing.
• Rollback and offline protection that secures endpoints even when they’re disconnected from the main network.
• Context-driven identity verification to stop attackers from stealing credentials and using them as a free pass into systems. 

Let’s be real—businesses that treat clashing tools and fragmented visibility as “good enough” are leaving their valuable assets out to the elements. To close those gaps, they need a solution that brings everything under one solid roof and plays nice with their existing stack. 

That’s where leading solutions like Symantec Security Endpoint Complete (SESC) and Carbon Black EDR come in. Sized to match your business needs, these solutions deliver a comprehensive view of all devices in your environment, how they interact, and what that means for your risk posture—while adapting as fast as your environment evolves. 

For large enterprises, SESC provides everything needed for secure, fast and vast growth, and Carbon Black EDR delivers simplified protection for leaner teams to manage. But no matter the size or complexity of your hybrid environment, we’ve got the solution built to secure it. 

For the full story on Navigating the Challenges of Securing Hybrid Environments, watch the on-demand session and grab the whitepaper to see what smarter, stronger hybrid security looks like in practice.