Earlier this year, MIT Technology Review surveyed global business leaders about their current concerns and future plans regarding cybersecurity. This report surveyed 256 respondents this year and 70% of them are executives or directors. MIT Technology Review published its findings of Zero Trust Bridges the End User Gap in Cybersecurity on September 19, 2022.
This report focused on the approach to cybersecurity and primarily demonstrates how organizations are going beyond passwords to take a new approach to defending against cyberattacks.
In general, all cyber criminals start with phishing emails to attack end users’ systems. Specifically, there is a finding that 68% of respondents worry that applications and data in the cloud are subject to malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks. The report also found that the first biggest cybersecurity challenge companies face is securing a hybrid or fully remote workforce, with 55% of respondents. The reason is that COVID-19 brought cloud computing center stage: lockdowns sent millions of workers home, where they connected to company systems remotely, often using their personal devices. instead of those of employers. Their second and third biggest challenges are securing cloud infrastructure and protecting enterprise IT software from attack, with 49% and 48% of respondents, respectively.
To protect the cloud against the rising tide of cybercrime during COVID-19, the zero trust cybersecurity philosophy is the key to transforming global networks. These networks, sites, or apps won’t let you join (or stay) without proof that you belong there, and they monitor for unexpected behavior. A key finding is that the zero trust model has been adopted by approximately 40% of respondents, while another 18% are in the process of implementing it and 17% are planning.
When it comes to the path to zero-trust adoption for different organizations, the report found that for about 46% of respondents, the biggest challenge is integrating the model into a legacy IT infrastructure or replacing old systems with legacy-compatible systems. zero trust. systems Mike Wilson, Director of Security for Molina Healthcare also shared that:
Zero trust is not a switch that you turn on, but a philosophy of putting controls on data locally
the The good news is that zero trust is not an all-or-nothing proposition, but can be adopted incrementally based on the assets an organization needs to protect the most. A successful zero trust strategy involves all vendors working together to ensure secure access to the applications or areas for which they are responsible. Some legacy systems may not be able to adapt to a zero-trust approach right away, but we can anticipate increasing the zero-trust strategy and investment in IT and staff against core systems. More and more organizations will build a zero-trust model for cyber security programs in smaller parts.
The full report Zero Trust Bridges the End User Gap in Cybersecurity is available for download from MIT Technology Review Insights.