To mark Sekuro’s launch of our Zero Trust Strategy services on the AWS Marketplace, we are delivering a series of blogs that are designed to help you maximise the new offering.
How can Sekuro’s Zero Trust Strategy services on AWS Marketplace safeguard your organisational assets?
As part of our strategy, Sekuro identified endpoint and data protection, combined with identity and network access as the cornerstones of an effective Zero Trust strategy. Along with CrowdStrike, Zscaler, and Okta, we created the Zero Trust Alliance, working collaboratively to deliver world-class solutions to the challenges posed by the evolving threat landscape.
CISOs, CSOs, CTOs and CIOs have long been sold on the importance of Zero Trust: a notion that challenges the traditional security posture by assuming that no entity inside or outside the network should ever be trusted by default. Instead, a ‘never trust; always verify’ principle is embedded into every arena of an organisation, allowing businesses to evolve beyond conventional approaches to cyber security that were not designed for a cloud-security world.
The launch of Zero Trust Strategy services on AWS ushers in greater convenience for our clients to purchase and manage Zero Trust security services. Having Sekuro’s Zero Trust Strategy on AWS Marketplace simplifies purchasing and billing of associated software licences, making a mature and holistic cyber security posture even more accessible – especially to organisations seeking to extend their existing AWS capabilities.
Get your board on board. Achieving true Zero Trust is a journey. It involves rewiring decades-old practices and processes, rebuilding security stacks from scratch, training all employees, and making tough investment decisions. Debunking common myths around Zero Trust will help you communicate its strategic imperativeness to your stakeholders.
Debunking the myths of Zero Trust
1. Myth: it’s too difficult to get started, so why not wait a while?
This is not true – a large number of organisations have already completed their Zero Trust journey, or are well underway with it, and those that are not will be left to face the consequences that come with a lack of investment into resilience.
However, some boards can be nervous about the potential disruptions to existing workflows and operations. Whilst this is true in some ways, the potential disruptions likely to arise from a wide-ranging cyber attack far outweigh the inconveniences of a gradual and carefully-planned update to security systems.
Organisations that once saw Zero Trust as a hypothetical framework have now moved beyond the planning phase and are actioning their strategies. According to Okta’s State of Zero Trust Security report, four years ago, just 16% of companies surveyed said they either had a Zero Trust initiative in place or would have one in place in the coming 12–18 months.
The latest 2023 report shows that, globally, 61% of all organisations now already have a defined Zero Trust security initiative in place, and another 28% plan to implement one within the next 6–12 months.
As of 2023, 80% of organisations are increasing their investment in Zero Trust initiatives.
A vast majority of businesses are now electing to proactively protect sensitive data and ensure business continuity by implementing Zero Trust.
Sekuro’s Zero Trust Strategy is tailored to each organisation’s level of maturity, which is determined through a simple and easy assessment. The Strategy can be applied to businesses that are digitally native, have a legacy footprint, or anything in between.
And whilst the start of the journey may seem insurmountable, it needn’t be if you select the right partner. Sekuro’s unique approach to Zero Trust through its Zero Trust Strategy framework has been created 100% in-house to focus on the areas that give the greatest security benefits whilst being pragmatic and realistically achievable for all organisations.
2. Myth: the user experience will be too cumbersome with Zero Trust
Zero Trust is centred on Identity, and the verification and re-verification of Identity as a core means of proactively protecting any network perimeter, no matter how large or disparate.
More than half of the C-suite respondents in Okta’s State of Zero Trust Security Report 2023 deem Identity as extremely important to a Zero Trust strategy, with another 40% declaring it somewhat important. Compared to the previous year’s findings of just 26% of respondents considering Identity as mission-critical, this demonstrates the increasing pervasiveness of a board-level recognition of Identity’s role in combating cyber incidents.
Identity and the protection and verification of Identity involves introducing new processes to an organisation via Zero Trust. And it’s this concept of constant authentication and authorisation requirements on behalf of users, employees, partners, and customers that many boards mistakenly believe will hinder productivity or cause further problems.
However, because Sekuro’s Zero Trust Strategy goes beyond simply advising, organisations can configure a way of working that balances security with user convenience. Based on the maturity of the organisation and its available internal resources, Sekuro offers implementation and ongoing support options to ensure investments are maximised and compliance with the Sekuro Zero Trust Strategy is maintained at all user levels.
3. Myth: My board thinks security is only the responsibility of the tech team
Security is a board-level concern and priority, and those who believe it is not are leaving themselves wide open for disaster.
Boards play a crucial role in setting the tone for a cyber security-aware culture and ensuring that a business is prepared to effectively face the challenges posed by an increasingly complex threat landscape.
No longer the concern of the IT team in isolation, organisations embracing best practices in Zero Trust are able to better leverage cyber security strategies across their entire organisation and network infrastructure, creating new efficiencies.
Importantly, Zero Trust is not a one-time effort, but an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, adaptation, and improvement. For this reason alone, the board must be involved in not only investment and strategy, but in a pervasive effort to embed the Zero Trust culture from a top-down perspective.
If anyone still harbours doubts about whose responsibility it is to secure the organisation’s network infrastructure — just point them to recent wide-scale cyberattacks and ask them who, if not the leadership team and the board, had to manage the reputational risk, brand trust, and financial implications.
As a strategic and advisory partner, Sekuro can work directly with you to sell the holistic concept of Zero Trust to your board — rather than each point solution directly. Boards may be enticed by the ability to access streamlined procurement, flexible pricing and terms, and centralised governance for Zero Trust alliance software.
The Zero Trust Strategy services are delivered in partnership with CrowdStrike, Zscaler, and Okta as part of the Zero Trust Alliance. You can find more information about the Zero Trust Strategy on AWS Marketplace.
OKTA
Okta advocates for a Zero Trust security framework which is grounded in the principle of ‘never trust, always verify.’ This approach puts identity at the very core of an organisation’s cybersecurity strategy, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorised access and data breaches.