Data is life, and business owners are devising ways to protect it for the company’s and customers’ benefit.
Unfortunately, many organizations are still not implementing reliable data protection solutions, putting their network assets in possible jeopardy and not meeting compliance regulations.
Zero Trust security is one critical strategy business owners need to implement, and it has now become a must for enterprise owners. In addition, the widespread use of data across industries has resulted in an increasing number of regulations that mandates enterprise protection information that can be applied across different industry domains.
The principles of Zero Trust are quite easily understandable. It means “Never trust, always verify.” In its implementation, every network user must pass through a constant process of being authorized and authenticated before being eligible to access resources. All user requests, whether within or outside of an organization’s perimeter, must be authorized, authenticated, and encrypted in real-time to provide a high level of security beyond other network security models.
Zero Trust stops malware attacks on a network, offers adequate protection, and simplifies how security operations can be managed without interfering with employees’ productivity. The model also helps to extend visibility into possible security threats to prompt proactive reactions and remediation.
Zero Trust changes the perimeter concept from a location base to an identity and access base, a security model highly essential to modern-day security requirements. This makes the Zero Trust strategy a game-changing model that helps to lower costs, reduce complexities, lessen the deployment of tools and resolve the increasing shortage of skilled cybersecurity personnel.
Adroit Market revealed in a research report that the Zero Trust deployment is growing at an increasingly fast rate of 17% yearly, with a projection of 38billion dollars by 2025.
A key factor responsible for this growth is how Zero Trust vendors can quickly and seamlessly deploy the framework without so many costs.
The Zero Trust model is the future of cybersecurity, and it is precious when implemented over an organization’s network infrastructure.
Zero Trust is now a must for enterprises, and here are the reasons why:
All Data Access Shouldn’t Be Given To The Entire Workforce
Business owners must understand the dynamics of securing business operations. Traditionally, workers and customers are given access to the company to software and infrastructure, but today, suppliers and vendors have gained so much involvement in the system. As a result, leading to an increased rate of insecurity.
Employers must narrow the attack surface to a network by restricting access, especially to non-employees. Also, since employees are specialized in different departments of an organization, they should therefore be limited to the data they need to carry out their duties at the time. With a Zero Trust security, enterprises will have access based on a certain level of trust which will help to retain a clear and sanitized system, even those with elevated privileges.
An Increasing Rate of Network Insecurity
Corporate data is more vulnerable to attacks now than before. A report shows that over 8000 vulnerabilities were published in Q1 of 2022. That massive record creates huge concerns in organizations operating remote and hybrid work systems.
Visibility solutions and network perimeter security employed in many organizations are ineffective in preventing data breaches and keeping away threats. In summary, the concept of implicit trust is no longer required in data security. Hence, Zero Trust, with its “verify all” and “least privilege” principles that broad visibility to network activities.
Government Institutions Bothered About the Effect of Potential Attacks
Cyberattacks have grown beyond DDoS attacks. DDoS means Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks, which is when an attacker overwhelms a server with internet traffic to deny users access to online services and sites.
Cyber thugs now target customer data, financial services, and IP and proprietary functions. They have evolved into government Institutions, nuclear power plants, financial data, weapon arsenals, and even democratic election systems.
This makes it non-negotiable to institute resilient cybersecurity strategies at each level of society and government. As a result, small and large organizations and Government institutions can leverage the Zero Trust security framework to increase cyber resilience and mitigate threats and attacks.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are Becoming Tougher
Many years back, cyber-attacks were only carried out on websites to reveal the vulnerabilities in their security posture. However, attackers steal sensitive information and intellectual property rights from secure databases today.
Beyond phishing scams that have become easy to detect, they now deploy more advanced tools these days to cause damage to enterprise networks and impact entire financial, societal, national, and physical systems.
In addition, cybercriminals have become more organized than ever. They are now often run by ransomware groups, international crime rings, and nation-states. With their level of operation, they can bypass traditional perimeter security. They can, however, be detected by Zero Trust security frameworks only and micro-segmentation.
Employee-owned Devices are More Porous to Threats than Company-owned Devices
Many companies update their systems with necessary security software to avoid attacks and meet standard security requirements. However, most remote employees do not have their devices equipped with the essential security software and tools. And while using their laptops, computers, and phones, they expose company data to potential threats and attacks.
Zero Trust security efficiently offers fundamental principles of “trust no one; verify all,” which enforces access controls across every network node.
Adopt Policies To Become Cyber-Resilient
With a wave of cyberattacks hitting over 30,000 online platforms daily, it is essential to become cyber-resilient to hackers’ activities. Cybercriminals have ripped off a considerable amount of intellectual property rights and formulas for vaccines that have forced pharma companies to pay ransoms for business advancement.
The Zero Trust model guarantees less vulnerability to organizations’ networks and equips them better to prevent potential damage to their financial condition.
In a Nutshell
Organizations can no longer depend on the old and traditional security, perimeter-based reactive methods. They are no longer reliable in providing top-level security.
Zero Trust has proven to be the future of cybersecurity which must be adopted in organizations and governments to ensure that employees, partners, customers, and citizens adhere to security and monitor how the system is being accessed and monitored.