Ride the Lightning

COVID-19 Drives Businesses on a Forced March to Zero Trust Architecture

October 20, 2020

CPO Magazine carried a October 19 post about a recently released Forrester study (commissioned by Cloudflare).

Key findings:

Working from home compelled firms to transform how they operated in the cloud. However, 80% of the IT decision-makers interviewed said their companies were unprepared to make the transformation. Existing IT practices made it difficult to support employee productivity without security compromises.

As a result, 76% of the decision-makers said their firms intend to accelerate their shift to the Zero Trust security framework. More than three-quarters (76%) of decision-makers polled said their companies' security practices were "antiquated" and needed to shift towards the Zero Trust security model.

The report found that 82% of the firms said they were "committed" to migrating to a Zero Trust security architecture. To achieve this goal, close to half (49%) of the firms elevated the role of CISO to board visibility while 39% had a Zero Trust-oriented pilot for 2020.

The migration towards Zero Trust faces various challenges, with 76% of the firms identifying Identity and Access Management (IAM) as the major challenge.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Zero Trust security model, it allows remote workers to access applications through a secure web-based gateway. The solution implements least-privilege principles and supports multi-factor authentication (MFA) and device security checks. Unlike a VPN infrastructure, Zero Trust is highly scalable, more affordable, and easily integrates with various single sign-on (SSO) platforms already available in the marketplace. It also permits the configuration of access control policies to manage permissions based on users' privileges and devices

More than half of all businesses have experienced data breaches (58%) or increased phishing attempts (55%) during COVID-19. Ransomware attacks affected 29% of the respondents.

Infrastructure outages and VPN connection latency issues disconnected 33% and 46% of workers, respectively.

Several vendors offered their services for free or on extended trial periods to allow customers to test their Zero Trust security solutions during COVID-19. The free trial period allowed companies to migrate to a zero trust security model and test advanced security solutions from reputable vendors. They could then select the products that met their security needs and sign up on a permanent basis.

We always knew Zero Trust Architecture was coming, but COVID has accelerated its arrival.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225|Fairfax, VA 22030
Email: Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
https://senseient.com
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