The business case for Zero Trust
Picture this, you’re running an organization that offers a great flexible working policy, meaning on any given day your team could be logging on from anywhere. On top of this, each team member has multiple devices and uses WiFi with varying levels of connectivity and Internet security that you have limited control over. There’s hardware, software, and everything else in between. In addition, these team members and devices can be subject to cyber attacks of varying strengths and complexities. What can you do, to ensure your teams and organization are effectively safeguarded from potential cyber vulnerabilities?
The reality is organizations of all sizes are now needing to upgrade and adopt new security measures to protect their systems and infrastructure given recent trends around digital transformation, remote work, and ongoing technological advancements.
Unfortunately, some lack the foresight and guidance to efficiently adopt strong security measures, leaving them vulnerable. It is quite simple; no matter the size or type of organization, without strong, resilient network protection like Zero Trust, it is only a matter of time before systems are compromised.
The move away from the office into hybrid work has resulted in data and resources being widely distributed, creating complexities when looking to connect both instantly and securely. Control has been taken away from corporate IT departments as employees are now operating across a range of networks and devices leaving businesses vulnerable to cyber security threats. A reduction in conventional onsite infrastructure protection and work-from-home setups have created vulnerabilities that put business networks at risk.
What is Zero Trust?
Zero Trust is a cyber security model upon which strict access to controls is maintained by not trusting any user, be it remote or inside the network. This sees one-to-one verification of every request to every resource. With other traditional forms of network security, if a threat is to make it past defenses and into an organization's systems, they would have free reign to move as they please.
By enforcing a Zero Trust framework, no user is automatically trusted due to the assumption that there are threats in and outside of the network. It works based on regularly verifying user identity, privileges, device identity, and security. The login and connections will time out continually, ensuring users and devices regularly re-verify themselves.
Furthermore, those who do adopt a Zero Trust framework can provide continuous monitoring and validation to control and limit access to the network. This is achieved by using the main principles behind Zero Trust security which are limiting access privileges, micro segmentation, and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Boosting team productivity
Workers are yearning for an easy and fast user experience, whether they are logging on, sharing files, or setting up their devices on their first day; outdated and ineffective security measures only slow us down no matter the role. Something that no one wants.
The main reason we use Zero Trust is to provide security to anyone, anywhere, on any device. Zero Trust significantly reduces time spent on manual security tasks, reduces the attack surface, and ultimately leads to greater team productivity by giving back time that would be spent on outdated security measures.
Stemming from this is that we are seeing a shift in security protocols, the castle and moat environment no longer exists, the legacy password is close to obsolete and VPNs are increasingly redundant. Why? because we need to be able to connect anywhere at speed, to enable freedom of the workforce and improve the flow of business.
With the ever-expanding world of connectedness, comes an inherent risk of cyber security threats. This reality should emphasize to CISOs, CSOs, and all C-suite executives that Zero Trust is necessary to protect your business and its networks.
Don’t underestimate your employees
Gone are the days when IT and Security experts were the only staff who needed to understand the network and the threats against it. We live in an age where employees must be more than just ‘computer literate’ in order to protect their organization and networks.
Employees can be your first and last line of defense when dealing with cyber threats, so creating a cyber security culture within your organization is a must. And why wouldn’t you create this culture given the evolving nature of cyber safety in the workplace? The security benefits of Zero Trust are clear and proven; however, employees need to be trained on the purpose of Zero Trust within their network.
To capitalize on this, investing in and training employees to understand their network and cyber security needs to be prioritized to strengthen the network across the board and weed out unnecessary vulnerabilities. Employees should be regularly educated on the use of and reasoning behind Zero Trust security, especially explaining that the measures taken are used to protect, not monitor.
The ultimate goal of this is to create an environment where employees understand the benefits and are empowered to work with Zero Trust rather than against it.
Zero Trust is needed now more than ever
With an ever-increasing risk of cyber attacks and security breaches, organizations need to employ the appropriate strategies to protect their assets and data. Training and upskilling employees on cyber security and creating a Zero Trust mindset is a great start!
If an organization is not regularly reviewing, updating, and improving their network security, they are simply leaving itself unnecessarily vulnerable. Zero Trust may sound complicated and overwhelming, however, the uptake of the security model is a no-brainer for those who want to ensure they are properly protected.
Cloudflare Zero Trust verifies, filters, isolates, and inspects all network traffic — all on one uniform and composable platform for easy setup and operations. With a secure virtual backbone using a 320 city global network with over 13,000 interconnections; significant security, performance, and reliability benefits are gained when compared to the public Internet.
This article is part of a series on the latest trends and topics impacting today’s technology decision-makers.
This article was originally produced for Technology Decisions
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Learn more about Zero Trust and how to get started with the Step-by-step roadmap to Zero Trust architecture guide.
Author
Raymond Maisano — @rmaisano
Head of SASE APJC, Cloudflare
Key takeaways
After reading this article you will be able to understand:
The workforce is often the first and last line of defense when dealing with cyber threats
Maintaining control has become more difficult for corporate IT
How the Zero Trust framework enables continuous monitoring and validation