Fortune Business Insights has released a report approximating the global zero trust market at $36.35 billion, with projections that it could hit $124 billion in the next few years. Enterprises are changing how they conduct business and use digital technologies, and traditional cybersecurity models are becoming ineffective and irrelevant.
But remember that as technology advances, so do online attackers. And at a time when, according to Exploding Topics, the number of daily attacks has gotten to 940,000, you don’t want to risk your business even for a minute. And clearly, this is why infrastructures like ZTNA have been making waves.
What is Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)?
As the name suggests, in ZTNA, you don’t trust any user or device by default. By enabling tighter security through micro-segmentation, this technology can limit lateral movement in case of a data breach. It ensures security measures are not just implemented at the perimeter because it presumes that a threat agent has penetrated the network.
To further understand zero trust security, consider these principles:
No Implicit Trust
- Unlike traditional security models that assume users within the network are trusted, Zero Trust assumes nothing and validates every access attempt.
Verify, Don’t Trust
- Every user, device and application must be authenticated and authorized before accessing any resource, regardless of location or previous access history.
Principle of Least Privilege
- Users and devices are granted only the minimum necessary access rights to perform their tasks, limiting the potential impact of security breaches.
Microsegmentation
- The network is divided into smaller, isolated segments, restricting the lateral movement of threats within the network.
Continuous Monitoring and Verification
- Security measures are continuously monitored and verified to detect and respond to potential threats in real time.
For organizations using cloud applications and managing lots of remote workers, such a framework can really be handy. It usually takes a defence-in-depth approach, where several security controls are implemented at multiple points to protect a company’s systems and data.
You may want to think of it as a castle with many defensive measures, such that getting past the moat does not necessarily mean you’ve gotten the crown jewels. You’ll also have to go through other points like strong locked doors and gates.
Why Zero Trust Security
The growing need for online safety
Statistics show that 82% of data breaches are associated with cloud data. Technology is advancing at a fast rate, giving cyber attackers an upper hand over ignorant users. Protocols like multi-factor authentication (MFA) that seemed to be very robust in the past now need advancements to match up with modern-day threat actors.
Just last year (2024), Netgate released a study showing that cloud security was a major concern for about 83% of organizations. It gets even more serious as the number of remote workers and businesses turning to the cloud increases.
Actually, according to Sprinto, more than 70% of companies have already shifted to the public cloud. All these statistics agree that ignoring online security is a no-go zone, and adopting more contemporary methods like ZTNA is a great way to get started. If you consider the losses associated with online attacks, then you’d understand why many businesses are welcoming this technology.
For instance, did you know you can spend up to $4.88 million just recovering from a single cyberattack? This is besides mentioning how such instances can injure your brand reputation. A good number of shoppers will never transact again with a brand after it survives a data breach – and you don’t want to be the brand.
More Reasons for Adopting ZTNA
Administering a remote access solution can actually be tiresome. Imagine having to contend with IP management, firewall access rules, certificate deployment and so on. It gets frustrating when more users join the network, which could make the management an unnecessary full-time job. Thankfully, ZTNA can help overcome these challenges and ensure new users can only access applications they are authorized to.
Plus, it provides a real-time overview of all your applications, including those accessing them. It also improves user experience, as there’s no need for interaction with the user beyond the initial identity validation. And by restricting resources based on user identity and device context rather than depending on network location, this infrastructure reduces the attack surface and potential damage.
Don’t also forget that new cloud environments need shared responsibility models. With workloads shifting from corporate-owned data centers to public cloud environments, the need to reconsider the assumptions of trust is quite apparent. And what better way to ensure this than to adopt a zero-trust model?
Plus, if you have remote workers, it means they no longer use a secured enterprise network. Instead, they’re using the unsecured internet, where network perimeter security and visibility solutions may not be sufficient to keep attackers away. Given that zero trust uses the ‘always-verify’ principles, more businesses are adopting it to improve visibility across their networks.
It shouldn’t be surprising that, according to Statista, about 94% of respondents claim to have an idea of this infrastructure. The number of cyberattacks is increasing by the day, and businesses are now looking for new ways to improve security. That explains why the zero-trust model, which emphasizes trusting absolutely no one, has become a popular solution for many businesses.
By Randy Ferguson