Zero Trust security has become a major industry trend, and yet there still is uncertainty about its utilities. Read on to know about Zero Trust is essential for your organization…
Organizations all around the world are facing new cybersecurity threats as a result of digital transformation, cloud technology, and remote workforce. The urgency of defending against and responding to security attacks has never been greater. To effectively protect people, devices, and data across the enterprise, today’s modern organisations require an adaptable and resilient Zero Trust Security model.
The development of mobile technologies and cloud migration has made defining an organization’s network perimeter much more difficult. Data is being regularly exchanged between Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), remote users, IoT devices, and other systems, offering multiple entry points for threat actors to access critical information.
Zero Trust principles enhances an organization’s security maturity by eliminating a perimeter-based defence and focusing on stringent authentication at each access point, rather than assuming everything beyond the corporate firewall is safe. A Zero Trust security model assures that no device, user, system, or workload, regardless of its location, is trusted by default.
Why Zero Trust Security
The following are the some of the reasons why CISOs and InfoSec leaders should implement a zero trust strategy to strengthen their organizations’ security postures:
* In the ever-changing enterprise sector, perimeter-based security is ineffective. The way enterprises do business and use digital technologies is continuously changing and at a rapid speed. Traditional perimeter-based cybersecurity models are becoming obsolete as a result of these digital transformation, as perimeters no longer determine the scope of security enforcement.
* Shared Security Responsibility Is Necessary in Cloud Data Centers. Critical applications and workloads are migrating to the public or hybrid cloud from corporate data centres. Now is the time for CISOs and InfoSec leaders to rethink their the legacy assumptions of trust around people, data centre security tools, technologies, processes, and skills.
This new cloud environment necessitates a shared responsibility approach, in which the cloud vendor and other partners is responsible for some aspects of security while the enterprise is responsible for others. The fundamental assumption of infrastructure trust is no longer valid. This shared cybersecurity responsibility can be covered by a zero trust approach.
* Everyone in the expanding workforce shouldn’t have unlimited access to information.
Enterprises’ critical business processes and the people they rely on to perform key functions have evolved. Employees and customers are no longer the only ones who use the corporate network. Vendors servicing a system, suppliers, or partners are only some of the users who have access to a organization’s applications and infrastructure.
None of these non-employees require or should have access to all of the organization’s applications, infrastructure, or business data. Employees, too, perform specific functions and hence do not require complete network access. A well implemented zero trust strategy provides authenticated access based on key dimensions of trust. This allows organisations to control access more precisely, even for users with elevated credentials.
* Cyber-attacks are on the rise: Every year, cyberattacks are become more common, and no industry appears to be immune. During COVID-19 Pandemic, hackers have targeted on the healthcare pharma, and retail industries for obvious reasons. Cyberattacks have been particularly successful against overburdened hospitals dealing with an influx of patients and pharmaceutical research labs racing to develop a effective vaccine. They are willing to pay large ransoms to preserve business continuity since the risks are so high. During the shelter-in-place period, cybercriminals have targeted online retailers who benefit from increased e-commerce demand. Financial institutions and even transportation service providers have also been targeted by the hackers.
The Road Ahead
There is no doubt that the future of cybersecurity in enterprise sector will be based on zero trust security model. The perimeter-based, reactive security measures that used to be the cornerstone of old, traditional security should be phased out. To confidently provide a cyber-secure future to the customers, partners, and employees, enterprises must be proactive and implement zero trust security model.