February 10, 2022
Zero trust isn’t something you can buy: it’s a mindset and a strategy throughout your enterprise. If you wonder if your enterprise needs to implement Zero trust, the simple answer is YES! You can’t afford not to apply it. Per IBM Security based on 2021 analysis, “The average total cost of a data breach increased by nearly 10% year over year, the largest single-year cost increase in the last seven years.” In addition, “Remote working and digital transformation due to the COVID-19 pandemic increased the average total cost of a data breach.”
Zero trust simply means “never trust, always verify.” It is a mindset in defining key security objectives that extends beyond networking and can be applied across multiple aspects of enterprise systems. It is not solely purchased as a product or set of products. Zero trust replaces implicit trust with continuously assessed, explicitly calculated adaptive trust. It employs strategies to keep security up-to-date and adapt as changes happen and when new threats are detected to ensure your organization can continue to innovate while staying secure and compliant.
Benefits of implementing zero trust include:
Forming a guiding principle for security architectures improves your overall security posture and increases cyber-resiliency. Zero trust architectures reduce the risk of malware infections and minimize the potential spread of an attack.
Enacting Zero trust principles can securely enable the “anywhere, anytime, any device” hybrid workforce. Since your workforce may be dispersed and remote, zero trust does not depend on any particular location. Assets and users can reside anywhere – on-premises, in one or more clouds, whether in employee homes or as IoT devices.
Adopting Zero trust principles enable more secure use of cloud computing via identity-based adaptive controls.
Partial zero trust deployments still result in significant security improvements. Most midsize enterprises do not have the budget or time to implement zero-trust completely. Developing a roadmap with the ultimate goal of zero trust allows you to move toward a more secure environment over time.
Dewpoint security experts are here to help you learn more about Zero trust or increasing your overall security posture. Reach out to us today to better prepare for the next cyber-attack.