No standing still: Zero Trust and cybersecurity

Cyberattacks are increasing in speed and sophistication, ranking among the biggest threats to businesses of all sizes and industries.

Previously unprecedented costs have made headlines; in October, a report from the Cyber Monitoring Centre revealed that the cybersecurity incident which affected Jaguar Land Rover in August cost the UK economy an estimated sum of 1.9 billion pounds.

Meanwhile, in North America, the aerospace sector has seen a spate of attacks, with WestJet’s June cyberattack resulting in the theft of 1.2 million passengers’ data while the data sets of 1.5 million flyers are believed to be compromised following September’s attack on Collins Aerospace.

Research released earlier this year revealed a stark dip in public trust; when questioned on which industry consumers trusted with their data, no single sector saw an approval rate of above 50%.

Without a clear and modernized security strategy, businesses are leaving themselves vulnerable to the far-reaching consequences of a breach, including reputational damage, operational delays, and financial loss.

Why Zero Trust Matters AI has given everyone with a computer , tablet , or even smartphone easy access to automation, including those using it with malicious intent.

In the cyber space, this allows criminals to continually change their approach, scaling their efforts and exploiting vulnerabilities in their target’s software.

To keep up with evolving threats, Zero Trust is vital, prioritizing data over assumptions is not optional.

The contemporary approach to the principle of Zero Trust has been developed from the work of the Jericho Forum, made up of industry experts keen to establish a ‘de-parameterized’ model that enables a more granular and flexible approach to security.

The group, which later became part of The Open Group Security Forum, paved the way for John Kindervag’s popularization of the Zero Trust principle in 2009, emphasizing the importance of 'Never trust, always verify'.

In a conversation with Gartner’s Neil MacDonald, he further explained that “Zero Trust is not a technology; it’s a security philosophy that rewires how we think about access”.

It's a smart idea; allowing security systems to keep up with industry change.

In reality, however, despite the majority (96%) of companies incorporating, or planning to incorporate, a Zero Trust strategy, only 35% have made it to the implementation stage.

To decrease the frequency of corporate security breaches, this needs to change.