Page 33 - EngineerIT December 2022

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Zero Trust is the future of cybersecurity

nce the integrity of the in the cybersecurity chain. Once the integrity of the corporate network has been
corporate network has been compromised, malicious users can remain undetected for months stealing data and
Ocompromised, malicious potentially infecting files with malware. Some research suggests that it takes an
users can remain undetected average of six months for a company to detect a breach in its defences. By this time,
for months. Given the increased significant damage would have been done.
sophistication and pervasiveness of “Zero Trust takes what people think they know about cybersecurity and throws
modern cyberattacks, the assumption it on its head. The ‘never trust, always verify’ mindset is quickly proliferating in
that anything within the security companies around the world as one of the most effective forms of protection against
perimeter of the organisation can be compromise. Of course, Zero Trust is more than a mindset – it is a cybersecurity
trusted is quickly being replaced by model that will assist in shoring up any weak points in the perimeter.”
a Zero Trust approach. As the name By denying access by default to users, devices, and systems, an organisation can
suggests, it sees no user, device, or isolate traffic until such time as a level of trust is established. However, if Zero Trust is
system either inside or outside a to be effective, a level of automation and orchestration must be employed. The sheer
company’s cybersecurity perimeter number of access points connecting to the corporate network today mean security
being trusted. This is according to personnel cannot be solely responsible for managing it. Fundamentally, a Zero Trust
Syrex, a provider of hyperconverged architecture must integrate within the existing cybersecurity environment of a
cloud technology solutions in South company to leverage its existing investments.
Africa. Think of Zero Trust as providing cloud security beyond the perimeter. It effectively
“Hybrid work, the rise of Internet extends the safety net typically associated with cyber defence solutions inside the
of Things, and analysing data organisation and ensures that nothing malicious can gain access to sensitive data and
close to the edge mean traditional infrastructure.
ways of safeguarding data are no “Zero Trust does not have to be a complex or expensive undertaking. It is also
longer sufficient. Zero Trust has not about reinventing the cybersecurity wheel but just approaching from a different
emerged as a more proactive way perspective. It all begins with the company needing to identify and understand its
for businesses to keep their systems, entire environment. Critical to this is monitoring, logging and analysing every activity
data, and networks protected against across the network. Once this is done, Zero Trust can be managed through policy
compromise,” says Ralph Berndt, and procedures using advanced solutions that can automate much of the defences.
sales and marketing director at Syrex. It comes down to injecting real-time threat prevention and detection across all entry
All this contributes to a rapidly points into the business. By enabling the company to pro-actively managing access as
expanding attack surface where opposed to reacting to attacks that have already penetrated the perimeter, decision-
cybercriminals are continuously makers can deliver a better security environment that allows for better productivity
searching for the weakest link and growth,” concludes Berndt.

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