Intelligent CIO North America Issue 18 | Page 33

EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
KURT GLAZEMAKERS , CTO AT APPGATE

In this new work-from-anywhere era , organizations have been under increasing pressure to adopt efficient and secure access policies . With employees working from multiple locations at different times , organizations are under increasing threats from cyberattacks , with every connection a possible route for bad actors to compromise the network . In order for organizations to protect their networks they must adopt a Zero Trust mindset , which always assumes a device , or an employee account might be compromised .

Zero Trust is founded on the idea of authenticating an identity . These authentication requirements are based on the assets that are being accessed and the device that is being used to access them .
Zero Trust Network Access ( ZTNA ) is a solution that creates an identity-based access boundary around applications with access depending on the user having the right credentials . ZTNA allows security teams to control how an organization ’ s network can be accessed and enables them to implement network segmentation which limits a user ’ s access to only the areas they need in order to fulfill their job . departments benefit from an automated setup with a greater degree of control , rather than having to continually assign and configure dozens of different firewall policies . Security teams with a reduced management burden can deal with threats much faster , which significantly reduces the damage caused by cyberattackers .
A good ZTNA solution will also provide access logs , which details which user accessed what and when . This is crucial in the remote working era when CISOs
Organizations that fail to adopt Zero Trust solutions will find themselves exposed to further cyberattacks .
need to quickly detect threats and deal with them before they can cause significant damage to an organization ’ s network .
Segmentation helps stop any suspicious activity before it turns into a potential breach . In a Zero Trust model , you can isolate a network segment as soon as suspicious activity is detected . With employees accessing the network at different endpoints with varying degrees of security , it is important that organizations can restrict the movement of possible threat actors and mitigate the damage caused by any cyberattacks that may occur .
A highly automated ZTNA approach also reduces the management burden for IT and security teams while maintaining a secure network . IT and security
Organizations which still rely on legacy tools , such as VPNs , will find out quickly that they are not sensible choices in today ’ s fast-paced digital world . As malware continues to become more advanced and threat actors find new methods to breach networks , organizations that fail to adopt Zero Trust solutions will find themselves exposed to further cyberattacks , which will cause significant damage across their whole network , resulting in both major financial and reputational damage . With Zero Trust , CISOs can have confidence that they are able to deal with threats despite workers accessing the network from multiple locations at different times .
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