IT teams are on a constant treadmill of change, which is driven by five major trends shaping the delivery of Secure Access.

1. The consumerisation of IT is revolutionising.

It has completely changed the nature of today’s workplace and contributing to digital business transformation. Enterprises are confronted with proliferation of smart devices and online apps. Millennials, who will represent almost fifty percent of the workforce by 2020, are tech savvy and accustomed to a rich, on-the-go personal digital experience – and they expect a similar digital experience at work using their own mobile devices. Enterprises are challenged to support workforce dynamics and deliver this consumer-like user experience for their employees without compromising key compliance and security requirements.

2. Networks are increasingly under attack.

With new cyberthreats and data leakage in the headlines, security breaches have reached crisis proportions. Reducing the Mean-Time-to-Detect (MTTD) and Mean-Time-To-Respond (MTTR) to vulnerabilities and incidents has never been more important for organisations. Visibility, real-time prevention and automated response are critical for IT to combat threats that are the result of insider activity, privilege misuse, non-compliant and unsanctioned devices and device loss.

3. Cloud computing and hybrid IT environments are the norm.

The traditional data centre environment has morphed into a blended enterprise, cloud and cloud service environment. In this new world, IT resources are typically deployed in an enterprise’s own private cloud or leverage third-party public clouds, including Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings. Even though multi-cloud has become the new normal, cloud security still may not be as trusted as traditional data centre protection. After all, the primary product offering of cloud providers such as Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) is space, processing power and bandwidth – not security. To ensure appropriate and protected connectivity to applications and information, businesses need Secure Access solutions that can extend proven data centre security to the cloud.

4. Use of multiple security silos for enterprise access.

Hybrid IT environments contribute heavily to this trend as IT extends existing data centre security policies to cover IaaS and SaaS situations. Unfortunately, the use of point solutions to address access security within different computing environments frequently leaves gaps, limits visibility and yields inconsistent policies. This also often results in a complex and frustrating user experience. In a 2017 report by ESG, 66% of cybersecurity and IT professionals agreed or strongly agreed that security analytics and operations effectiveness is limited because it is based upon multiple independent point tools.

5. The Internet of Things (IoT) is exploding.

Printers, smart TVs, personal WiFi, security cameras, sensors, and other peripheral devices are becoming commonplace. These devices are all connected via laptops, desktops, smartphones, or directly on enterprise networks and often further connected through IP networks to other corporate and third-party resources. The security of these systems, from changing default passwords to installing patches, is often an afterthought at best – frequently leaving IoT devices vulnerable to attack and misuse. Typically, organisations are unaware of these devices, and the myriad of ways they are connecting to their internal systems and data. With the rise of Industry 4.0, which uses IoT and cloud to boost manufacturing output, cybersecurity concerns are now bleeding over from IT into the operational technology (OT) domain. Hackers now view IoT as a new opportunity for targeted attacks, taking advantage of security weaknesses and employee ignorance alike. To gain control of the risks posed by IoT, organisations need to redesign their security architecture for IT and OT end-to-end visibility, contextual awareness, and real-time action.

Secure Access ensures that in a Zero Trust world only authenticated users with compliant devices can connect to authorised applications and information at any time, from any location, over any network.

Original source: Zero Trust Secure Access Checklist via https://www.pulsesecure.net

Read Secure Access for Today and Tomorrow: Part 1 here

Read Secure Access for Today and Tomorrow: Part 3 here