CIO OPINION
In a world where the workforce has shifted significantly to a ‘ work anywhere , work anytime ’ model , embracing a ZTA simply makes sense .
In other words , organizations cannot protect against what they cannot see . The deeper the level of observability into a network , the more insight an IT team can gather and then action to improve their entire security posture . This is actually explicitly required by NIST SP 800-207 , the gold standard of Zero Trust .
The very nature of ZTA is deep and thorough inspection of all users and all data , including encrypted traffic . With this architecture and micro-segmentation in place , it will also stop cybercriminals moving laterally within a network , meaning that adversaries looking to traverse an IT infrastructure and deploy ransomware across more critical data will be unable to do so .
Over recent years , cybercriminals have become far more savvy and sophisticated in how they deploy this kind of malware . An attack in today ’ s climate typically will be carefully considered and strategically targeted against known vulnerable organizations that store critical data .
It is also common for bad actors to penetrate a network and lie dormant for months at a time . Visibility is central in the fight against ransomware : by eradicating blindspots across the network , adversaries will no longer be able to exist on a network undetected . With Zero Trust and deeper observability into all data , criminal dwell time can be cut dramatically from the current average of 285 days .
It ’ s important to remember that Zero Trust is not the singular silver bullet to ransomware protection . However , paired with visibility , it will be essential for bolstering a company ’ s cyber posture . By prioritizing deep observability , ZTA becomes far easier to introduce and ransomware threats will become far easier to detect . p
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