A recent Forrester report says hybrid cloud adoption is a perfect time to migrate to a Zero Trust security architecture.
Many organizations make a number of unwarranted assumptions in assigning trust levels, and this can be dangerous. Internal network traffic isn’t automatically legitimate, employees don’t always have good intentions (nor are they infallible), and partners can’t always be trusted to treat your systems and data with the same caution they would their own.
The increasingly popular Zero Trust information security model maintains strict access controls by not trusting anyone or any action by default – and this applies even to those already inside the network perimeter. Each individual transaction is evaluated for need and risk. The approach increases security by employing encryption and tokenization; minimizing the risk associated with unnecessary user privileges; and using analytics and automation to enhance security detection and response.
According to Future-Proof Your Digital Business With Zero Trust Security, an October 2019 report from Forrester, the migration to hybrid cloud infrastructures represents an ideal opportunity for enterprises to adopt a Zero Trust architecture.
Security and risk (S&R) leaders can use their organization’s mandate for digital transformation to escape from legacy networks full of security debt stemming from tradeoffs and competing priorities. Security can take advantage of this migration to build in — rather than bolt on — Zero Trust security architectural principles.
In our view, their reasoning centers on three main points.
- First, while organizational inertia impedes enterprise-wide digital transformation, the hybrid cloud’s staggered migration methodology eases the path to adoption of Zero Trust and is an ideal time to initiate its transition.
- Second, contemporary CISOs now have to account for the security and integrity of increasingly commercialized data throughout the entirety of the digital supply chain which legacy perimeter-based security can no longer support.
- Finally, security and risk (S&R) professionals are responsible for back-end systems infrastructure support even as cloud adoption adds on reams of new responsibilities. Zero Trust has the ability to free up these S&R cycles that are already heavily-burdened.
This recent Forrester report, which we’re sharing free, is must reading not only for CISOs, but for CIOs, COOs and any other organizational leader charged with thinking strategically about security and business risk. It offers valuable insights on Zero Trust and the hybrid cloud in your organization and we would welcome an opportunity to discuss its implications for your business as it moves toward cloud adoption.
