Autonomous Business Monitoring by Anodot

My main use case for Umbrella  is for VPN purposes, and we are also using Cisco Meraki for our network.

One specific example of how I use Umbrella  for VPN purposes in my daily work is that we have restricted some applications to our employees, so once they want to access our Menzies applications, they have to connect Umbrella VPN to their computer, and after that, they can access everything.

Uploading VPN profiles in Umbrella has greatly helped my team; for example, it is very easy to upload Umbrella VPN profile, as we just upload the XML file in Umbrella, and it automatically fetches the details and connects to our VPN server without any issue.

Umbrella offers an easy-to-use interface as the best feature in my experience, as we can add or upload profiles of our internal VPN server with just one click; we just go to our provided directory, and then our system will upload it after we post the XML file.

Umbrella has positively impacted my organization because of its ease of use, and with the simple UI, our internal staff just click on Umbrella icon to select from multiple VPN server profiles that we have uploaded, choosing their region and connecting; as we have set up SSO  in our Microsoft organization, they just enter their official credentials in Umbrella, and after connecting and verifying, it automatically connects without any issue.

Ease  of use and SSO  integration have led to measurable improvements in our organization; for instance, since we have set up SSO for Umbrella, it helps connect all employees through a single portal.

To improve Umbrella, I think that every application needs ongoing improvements over time because technology continuously updates; sometimes, Umbrella disconnects automatically without any notification, so I suggest that Cisco should work on this, although it works fine other than that.

I have been using Umbrella since 2024 in my previous organization and currently at Menzies Aviation.

I have mostly covered all the features that I have already used in Umbrella, but I would mention that sometimes we encounter an issue where the system will not disconnect automatically due to a network issue, requiring us to restart the application; otherwise, Umbrella is working very smoothly without any issue.

My advice to others looking into using Umbrella is that I would definitely recommend Umbrella if any IT professional is seeking a VPN solution, as Cisco is a large organization that provides more support compared to others in the market.

My main use case for Umbrella  is to safeguard all our servers, IPs, and devices from going into malicious IPs or domains that could manipulate our system. The main purpose is protection, but one of the uses I have observed is that some internal users have been going through a particular IP, which I bring down more. It was a particular domain from MS Rubber that is quite malicious. When I searched the root cause from this app, I found that it is making a frozen domain and creating EC2  communication to our internal server, which is quite risky to our environment. When I searched the domain in Virus Total, one of the malware antivirus checking sites, I did not find anything, but from this tool, I can see how the forensics from this application show that the IP is inserted into our internal system. Therefore, it is a very good tool to use.

There are almost one thousand servers, so we cannot manually monitor all of them.

The best features Umbrella  offers, in my opinion, are its ability to sort down by matching its signature or pattern, possibly using their internal database AI server. It gives me things such as the optimization of a particular server as well as which branches' domain adware they will reach. If any adverse site is blocked from their site or anything our internal user is trying to reach, it is very helpful to our system.

The optimization and blocking features of Umbrella have helped my team significantly. For example, a normal user might search a site domain that seems very clear, but there could be something adverse on their site that is not recognizable from our site manually. The app can be a part of detecting that site.

Umbrella has positively impacted our organization by being tool-based and user card driven. We have minimal paper dependency for any slight things concerning particular NDX. By minimal paper dependency, I mean it has reduced the manual work or reliance on my team for detecting threats. I can say both time is saved, obviously, because we cannot search when one appears.

Umbrella can be improved in the license part and processing part. I think we should see particular things such as domains that are not found in our specific server. We use our DNS server, so we have to look for it in the Microsoft server. In the Clarity server, they have most of the important data, such as that which would resolve a new clean IP that causes C2 communication and goes undetected. It is very helpful, especially considering the most recent attack of zero-day vulnerabilities, so we can add it there.

I have used Umbrella for almost two years with my company, which brought that product for the DNA security.

Regarding Umbrella's AI capabilities, I think it is a privacy and confidentiality-focused app that proceeds with their certification from media sites to protect data.

Regarding Umbrella's AI capabilities, I think its accuracy and reliability of output are at ninety percent, and ten percent we have to evaluate very well.

The advice I would give to others looking into using Umbrella is that if they do not have the sufficient signatures or database to look up their AdWords , PIVAIR site internals, they have to do that manually. Additionally, their license could be too costly for particular thousand servers or maybe a hundred servers.

I think Umbrella is a good tool, but it needs to be improved, especially because of the most recent scenario of AI-driven attacks. I would rate this product a seven out of ten.

The primary use case for Umbrella  at Menzies Aviation is blocking malicious and unwanted websites at the DNS level. Whenever a user tries to access a website, Umbrella  checks the domain before the connection is made, and if the domain is malicious, phishing-related, or against our company policies, it blocks it instantly. From a service desk analyst perspective, Umbrella protects us from phishing and malware that can come from websites, which reduces our security incidents related to our cybersecurity team. Every user is expected to follow best practices, and failing to do so means they won't be able to access specific websites, allowing access only to business-approved websites while working alongside Cisco VPN and Secure Client to maintain protection.

Recently, I encountered a user who received a suspicious email with a link that seemed to come from me.sharepoint. When the user was unsure about the email and attempted to click the link, Umbrella immediately blocked the domain access, identifying the site as potentially unsafe. The user received a prompt stating that the website was blocked by Menzies IT, and they could reach out to IT if they needed it unblocked. This represents the best recent use case I have encountered.

A unique aspect of Umbrella at Menzies Aviation is its ability to block websites combined with Cisco Secure Client and VPN, providing global workforce protection and enforcing strong policies. This means that regardless of the user, access to unsafe websites is blocked while allowing all compliant and business applications on the laptop.

The best feature that I have found useful in Umbrella is blocking website access to users, which significantly reduces our cybersecurity incidents, prevents computers from being attacked by malware, and stops users from accessing unproductive applications such as Netflix on their work laptops.

Umbrella positively impacts my organization by not allowing users to connect to suspicious or phishing emails, thus reducing incidents where users accidentally click on unsafe links and potentially get infected. This improvement in productivity results from preventing such incidents, which previously required us to clean up malware, saving valuable time for both users and IT support.

Before using Umbrella, we experienced around ten to twelve daily incidents at our company, which has more than seventy thousand employees. Each incident required us to reach out to the user, isolate their device, and check for malware, which wasted both the user's and the IT support's time. Since deploying Umbrella, it has significantly reduced the ability for users to access harmful websites.

To improve the Umbrella experience, a dashboard or daily statistics along with visual widgets would be useful if they were added.

For Umbrella to reach a ten out of ten rating, it should have a more user-friendly interface, additional widgets, and more customization options.

I have been using Umbrella for more than one year.

I definitely advise others to consider Umbrella, as we have deployed this tool and found it easy to manage, with significantly good benefits and advantages. I have given this review a rating of eight out of ten.