Zero Trust Policies: Bridging the Gap for Cybersecurity

Zero Trust Policies Bridging the Gap for Cybersecurity-01

While the cybersecurity community has been working on making cyber security awareness training for employees more realistic and practical through simulated phishing programs and interactive training, there remains a large gap between well-trained employees and the overall security posture of an organization.

As companies incorporate remote work into their long-term plans, security has become a priority. However, many companies are beginning to realize that their traditional approaches to security are not suitable for the cloud-native, remote workforce.

Protecting data has to be a top priority for large enterprises who are part-way through their cloud journey and those who are just getting started. Organizations need to explore modern, cloud-based solutions like SASE and Zero Trust that help enterprises protect and connect their workforce.

Also Read: Four Strategies to Build a Successful Cybersecurity Program

Bridging the Gap between training and behavior

Just like the past couple of years, in 2022, companies continue to be victimized by threat actors and ransomware gangs. The losses threaten the continuity of a business. This significantly affects small and medium enterprises that cannot afford ransomware incidents and are costly to remediate. Meanwhile, the sophistication of threat actors’ techniques continues to increase.

A crafty phishing or socially engineered business email compromise can turn a well-trained worker into a victim on any given day. To supplement cyber training, organizations should consider implementing a balanced approach that combines training with Zero Trust policies that enforce the least privilege, so employees only have access to the resources they need to perform their jobs.

Here are some techniques that organizations use, to apply this approach:

Zero Trust Browsing  

To put aside productivity concerns, employees who access websites for personal reasons may download malicious files or click links that could damage their machine or business network.

A healthy workplace allows employees the freedom to take personal time, but not at the expense of exposing the organization to cyberattacks. Zero trust remote browsing enables this level of independence while protecting the business network from malware. By using this method, employees can browse through a few issues but have a backstop when they navigate to the site or click on a link that appears hostile.

Also Read: Top Four Strategies to Prevent Cybersecurity Burnout

Browsing at zero trust is easy to use with solutions that force virtual machine (VM) sessions in the cloud on any reliable internet service, such as accessing private email or unreliable websites. The pre-download scanner for malware scanning on a local machine is also important for cleanliness. These methods allow for a more robust online approach to security threats introduced by employees in their daily workflow.

Zero Trust Application Management

In addition to web browsing, all employees should have access to externally accessible work-related resources such as HR systems, Finance, CRM, and other tools to perform their duties. These applications should be easily accessible to any device, but they can still create attack vectors to exploit and escalate privilege.

What is essential is that browsing is an important part of the business and this is where key vectors can be vulnerable. For this reason, workplace applications should be accessed in a centralized cloud environment. Zero Trust safety approach to web browsing and application access management provides monitoring lines that allow businesses to stay one step ahead of threat actors.

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