The Winning Combination: SASE and Zero Trust Strategies for Business Prosperity

Introduction

The contemporary cybersecurity landscape demands more than just traditional defense mechanisms, and zero trust has emerged as a beacon of resilience against the fallout of compromised user accounts. Yet, the full potential of zero trust unfolds when seamlessly integrated across an entire enterprise network. Enter SASE, or Secure Access Service Edge, a revolutionary WAN networking and security solution that harmonizes a robust security stack with the optimized network routing capabilities of software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN).

Positioned as a cloud-based solution supporting businesses' cloud-driven network infrastructure, SASE offers security inspection, secured remote access, and optimized networking across the entirety of a company's network. In this exploration, we unravel the intricacies of SASE and zero trust, shedding light on 6 crucial reasons why their collective implementation is paramount for your business.

Why Should You Implement SASE with a Zero Trust Strategy?

1. Cloud data servers need shared security responsibility:

In the contemporary landscape of data storage, companies are steering away from traditional corporate-owned data centers in favor of hybrid or public cloud solutions to house critical data. This strategic shift challenges longstanding assumptions of trust surrounding processes, technologies, people, skills, and data center security tools. Adapting to this change, a shared responsibility model is emerging as a pivotal framework, acknowledging that both the cloud vendor and the enterprise bear the responsibility for providing and upholding security. At the core of this collaborative paradigm is the zero-trust security model, serving as the linchpin for shared cybersecurity responsibility. By instilling a culture of continuous verification and skepticism, zero trust ensures that trust is earned and upheld at every interaction point within the cloud environment.

2. Perimeter-based security isn't very effective in today's enterprise environment:

The dynamic evolution of business operations in the digital age has necessitated a rethinking of cybersecurity approaches. Traditional perimeter-based models, once considered sacrosanct, have become increasingly irrelevant in a landscape defined by advanced digital technologies. Enter zero trust security, a paradigm that revolutionizes the way access requests are approved within networks. Operating on the principle of least privilege, zero trust security upends the conventional approach of assigning broad access based on organizational roles. Instead, it mandates that every individual is granted limited access to the entire system. This micro-level approach involves monitoring and verifying each access request to different parts of the network, ensuring a meticulous and granular security protocol in an environment where implicit trust is no longer tenable.

3. The entire workforce shouldn't have all access:

The evolution of business operations demands that enterprises reassess their historical dependency on people and processes. Traditionally, customers and employees were the predominant users of a business's applications and infrastructure. However, the contemporary business ecosystem incorporates vendors and suppliers as integral participants in the system.

In response to this paradigm shift, businesses must acknowledge that non-employees, including vendors and suppliers, should not be endowed with unrestricted access to business applications. Simultaneously, employees, each engaged in specialized functions, do not require access to the entire network. The adoption of a zero-trust security approach becomes imperative, allowing enterprises to grant access based on key dimensions of trust. This approach ensures vigilant monitoring of everyone accessing the system, even those with elevated privileges, fostering a secure and controlled digital environment.

4. The Internet is becoming insecure day by day:

The evolution of digital connectivity has ushered in a new era where accessing applications and databases predominantly occurs through remote connections to cloud networks. However, this shift towards remote access comes with a critical caveat – the once-assumed security of internet networks is now vulnerable to hacking and manipulation. Traditional visibility solutions and network perimeter security measures, long considered robust defenses, prove inadequate against the evolving tactics of modern attackers. In the current landscape of remote work, implicit trust has lost its former prominence, making way for the ascendancy of zero-trust security principles. Guided by tenets like "always-verify" and "least privilege," zero trust redefines network security by providing comprehensive visibility across the entire network, whether situated in the cloud or conventional data centers.

5. Adopt policies to become cyber resilient:

As cyber threats proliferate across industries, the pace of cyberattacks continues to escalate, posing a pervasive risk to businesses worldwide. The pharmaceutical sector, in particular, has borne the brunt of this surge, witnessing a notable increase in the daily occurrence of cyber incidents. Disturbingly, these attacks extend beyond conventional data breaches, with hackers explicitly targeting intellectual property rights and the proprietary formulas integral to vaccine production. This has left pharmaceutical companies grappling with the unsettling reality of paying substantial ransom to secure their vital information and ensure business continuity. 

In the face of such threats, the adoption of a zero-trust framework emerges as an indispensable strategy. This security paradigm offers a proactive approach to fortifying enterprises, making them less susceptible to security breaches. Through stringent access controls and verification protocols, the zero-trust model equips pharmaceutical companies to navigate the financial fallout of cyberattacks and enhance their ability to withstand evolving threats.

6. Employee-owned devices aren't as secure as work devices:

As remote work becomes the norm, employees increasingly rely on personal devices such as computers, laptops, and phones, diverging from their work devices equipped with regularly updated security policies and tools. Unfortunately, the shift to personal devices often results in a neglect of basic cyber hygiene practices. To address this vulnerability, zero trust security protocols become instrumental. These protocols, rooted in the principle of "trust nobody; verify everything," enforce stringent access controls across all network nodes. By adopting a zero-trust approach, organizations can mitigate the security risks associated with remote work, ensuring that every access point is subject to thorough verification regardless of the device used.

Conclusion

In the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity, the era of relying on perimeter-based reactive methods is coming to a close. The zero-trust security model emerges as the catalyst for a cyber-secure future, representing a paradigm shift towards a proactive and adaptive approach. Governments and businesses must recognize the imperative of adopting this cutting-edge model to ensure the resilience of their digital infrastructure. With its emphasis on network visibility and continuous monitoring, the zero-trust model reshapes cybersecurity as a dynamic and evolving defense mechanism. To fortify your organization against emerging threats and embrace the transformative future of cybersecurity, take the proactive step – book a demo today!