Intelligent CIO North America Issue 18 | Page 82

FINAL WORD

Hybrid working works best with Zero Trust and zero friction

Joseph Carson , Chief Security Scientist , ThycoticCentrify , explains how a Zero Trust approach can reduce risk without increasing friction for users .

Last year we added a new phrase to our vocabulary , ‘ working from home ’ or WFH . This year , we added another term , ‘ hybrid working ’, to describe a flexible approach that combines working from home and the office , and which many organizations are embracing in response to employee requests or to minimize their physical space requirements .

But just as organizations were challenged in the rush to support WFH at the beginning of the pandemic , hybrid working comes with its own set of risks and challenges .
Employees need to be able to start work and log in at their preferred location while still being able to access the same systems and information they need . If this is difficult , involving what employees may see as unnecessary friction , productivity is reduced and the organization ’ s business will be impacted . It ’ s no secret that cybersecurity has a reputation for generating friction . But as we saw with WFH , strong security controls are necessary as threat actors increasingly take advantage of flexible working environments where users log in from different locations and use a mix of work and personal devices .
Strong controls and / or a frictionless approach
Imagine that an organization ’ s information infrastructure is managed like a VIP event . A strong control would be to have security guards check everyone before they can
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