If CISOs already believe in the zero trust myths, they may need to rethink and revamp their zero trust strategy.
The interest in zero trust is rapidly growing among organizations. In fact, as per IDG’s 2020 Security Priorities Study, 40% of survey respondents confirmed that they are actively researching zero trust technologies, up from just only 11% in 2019. Additionally, 18% of all respondents indicated that they already have a zero-trust solution in place, more than double the 8% in 2018. While these stats show a promising adoption of zero-trust technologies, most CISOs still misunderstand zero-trust’s basic concepts and principles. Many CISOs are still guilty of holding onto zero trust myths that are getting their way of utilizing the technology to its extent.
Here are common myths and misconceptions CISOs are guilty of associating with zero trust:
Zero trust helps to address technology issues
Most CISOs still associate zero trust with addressing technology problems. However, in reality, it addresses business problems. Hence, to incorporate technology, CISOs should sit down and understand what business problems they are trying to solve. They should collaborate with business counterparts to understand their needs and what business outcomes they should achieve.
Also Read: Top 7 Cybersecurity Tips for a Safer Workplace
Thinking zero trust is a product or set of products
Another misconception about zero trust still prevalent within security leaders is that by deploying identity management, access control, and network segmentation, organizations have successfully implemented zero trust. However, CISOs should know that zero trust is not a suite of products or set of strategies but rather a strategic initiative designed to stop data breaches. CISOs should consider zero trust as a set of principles they can use to build a secure environment.
Zero trust doesn’t translate to not trusting the employees
Zero trust is aimed at eliminating the concept of trust from IT systems, not at making systems trusted. Since trust is the vulnerability that is often exploited in data breaches, removing it from the system can help to strengthen the infrastructure. However, organizations misinterpret this concept and suddenly stop trusting their employees. Therefore, CISOs should explain to their counterparts and the employees that it’s not personal. Its ultimate goal is to prevent and stop data breaches from happening that affect everyone in the organization.
Believing it is difficult to implement
Most CISOs still think implementing zero trust is complex and requires a lot of resources. But, industry experts state that it is a mythology that is created by people who don’t want others to do it as it kills their defense-in-depth model. They state that zero trust is not complicated as one might perceive it and is not more expensive than what other organizations are already doing when considering the cost of a data breach. Today’s security tools have significantly improved, and vendors actively collaborate with CISOs to collaborate across their product lines.
Also Read: Four Key Factors for Maintaining a Secure Hybrid Work Environment
Deploying SASE translating to having zero trust
Emerged as a popular way to lean into the zero-trust environment, SASE is a service that puts security controls in the cloud. But, CISOs should know that organizations only turned to SASE during the early days of the pandemic to address the problems of employees working from home. SASE can help organizations to address zero trust at edge; however, it is not suitable for hybrid models. Hence, organizations should apply zero trust as an enterprise-wide strategy.
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