Zero trust security adoption matures as enterprise perimeters blur

• The cost of cybercrime, which is predicted to hit$10.5 trillion by 2025, is growing at an alarming pace.
  
• Zero trust adoption will continue to mature through 2022, with 78% of firms planning to bolster zero trust security operations.
  
• Advanced zero trust architecture helps ensure enterprise agility and successful digital transformation.

For the longest time, network perimeters remained the epicentre of enterprise security. All the efforts focused on securing the perimeter, and centered around the idea that everything inside a secure ‘perimeter’ can be trusted. It made sense at a time when all the data, applications, people and devices that accessed that data resided within the perimeter.

In the modern enterprise world however, this is an alarmingly outdated approach. Today, the conventional perimeter has blurred or rather expanded beyond the on-premise corporate network. In a world of digital interactions, zero trust security has been steadily gathering steam.

Data resides practically everywhere in a digital enterprise. A highly mobile workforce is accessing the data through various devices and networks from coffee shops to airports to hotels. Smart connected devices are deployed across your corporate network. It’s time that we burst the bubble of perimeter security.

Originally conceptualized by Forrester, the Zero trust security approach is today one of the top-most priorities of chief information security officers or CISOs across the globe. Zero trust adoption will continue to mature through 2022, with 78% of firms planning to bolster zero trust security operations, according to Forrester – Illumino study.

Striking the right balance

The notion that nothing—inside or outside the perimeter—should be trusted and has to be verified was fundamentally inspired by the collective experience of conventional security approaches failing frequently.

As cyberattacks become more sophisticated and frequent, zero trust model is predicted to become the new security norm. As a distinguished industry expert rightly said, ‘Zero trust is going to be the new cloud’.

Because, like any evolving model or technology, there is currently a lot of enthusiasm and some bit of confusion surrounding zero trust security. Much like the cloud, organizations realize that zero trust is not a question of if, but when.

Beyond combating growing cyberattacks, an advanced zero trust programme is the key factor in ensuring enterprise agility and success of cloud and digital programmes for enterprises.

Adopting zero trust security isn’t really about deploying a few security tools and mechanisms. It requires an organization to take a holistic view of its security systems, and implement an all-encompassing strategy that covers technology systems, processes, people and culture. At the same time, an organization needs to relook at the way they have so far approached network visibility, access, cloud workload protection and endpoint protection.

The cost of cybercrime

The cost of cybercrime is predicted to hit$10.5 trillion by 2025, according to the latest version of the Cisco/Cybersecurity Ventures ‘2022 Cybersecurity Almanac’, which is a startling increase from the$6 trillion figure in 2021. This is despite security budgets being increased year over year.

Despite its visible advantages, zero trust security deployment is not without its challenges. Skills shortage and lack of stakeholder buy-in are challenges that security leaders must address imperatively. With the traditional castle-and-moat security approach becoming passé, zero trust is emerging as the security model of the perimeter-less enterprise.
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