As many companies embrace technologies such as big data, cloud, and the Internet of Things, security is pushing itself to the forefront now more than ever before. In the digital era, securing networks is not as easy as it appears. An increasing focus must be placed on safeguarding customer data across a multiplicity of systems including the cloud.
Mobile computing and automation of nearly all processes and systems within a business have induced a path for the entire value of connectedness and interconnectedness to take effect. It has also significantly raised the risks of cybersecurity and enforced the need to pay attention to applications from every angle.
Both devices and their users are moving outside of the traditional enterprise perimeter and zone of control. This forces IT managers and security personnel to look for new ways to secure devices, applications, and data. It also means more employees must be trained and made aware of the security risks.
It is increasingly difficult to control employees and their access to data on their individual devices. Here’s why:
> According to one survey, “More than 40% of companies have more than a quarter of their employees working remotely. More than 25% have more than 40% of their employees working remotely.”
> Additionally, “More than 67% of workers use their own devices at work.”
> Beyond that, “80% of all BYOD is completely unmanaged.”
New business processes that require more people and more devices to be involved may be more efficient for getting things done but it also increases the risk of attack. In fact, instead of closing the door, it opens the door wider for cyber attacks to occur. According to one report, “The number of malicious installation packages found striking mobile devices more than tripled in 2016, resulting in almost 40 million attacks.”
Unfortunately, “trust but verify” is no longer an option as threats are increasingly no longer visible to the naked eye of IT managers and security professionals. Such threats are moving inside of the perimeter resulting in increased data breaches, increased ransomware attacks, and the misuse of DNS to get into an enterprise.
Traditional perimeters are complex, increase risk, and are no longer conducive to today’s business models. Instead some companies are leaning into a cloud perimeter. A cloud perimeter allows for the leveraging of a zero trust security and delivery model for successful digital transformation. With such a model, you will be able to:
> Only deliver applications and data to authenticated and authorized users and devices
> Always verify with full logging and behavioral analytics
> Verify everything, but trust nothing
