A zero trust approach to security has been steadily gaining steam for the last several years. This year, the importance of this approach reached a new level with the May 2021 White House executive order requiring federal agencies to shift to this architecture by fall 2024.

Even beyond the executive order, zero trust continues to build momentum. This approach assumes a breach has occurred and puts enforcing access and detecting adversaries in a network first. The 2021 Cyber Resilient Organization study, based on an annual global survey of more than 3,600 IT and security experts in over 15 industries and published by IBM Security with independent research by the Ponemon Institute, found 35% of respondents now report their organizations have adopted this approach. That may seem like a small percentage. However, evidence suggests it is gaining ground faster than any other strategy. Read on for a glimpse at the top news about this approach from 2021.

Quick Briefs: Top Zero Trust Insights

What NIST’s Guidelines Mean for Your Resources
3-Minute Read 🕒

The White House made a big splash with an executive order on improving the nation’s cybersecurity in May. Among other efforts, the order focused on the federal government’s advance toward a zero-trust architecture. This article examines the standards and guidance the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlined in reference to it, including NIST’s “seven tenets of zero trust”.

2021 Cyber Resilient Organization Study: Rise of Ransomware Shows the Need for Zero Trust and XDR
2-Minute Read 🕒

Ransomware continues to grow. Of the respondents to the Cyber Resilient Organization Study, 46% faced one or more ransomware attacks in the last two years. Clearly, leaders need to establish a mature level of cyber resilience to better handle ransomware and other potential data breaches. Luckily, zero trust can play a critical part in that strategy. Find out more about how it can bolster your security posture.

Data Breach Costs at Record High, Zero Trust, AI and Automation Help Reduce Costs
6-Minute Read 🕒

Data breaches are expensive. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2021 report, the average total cost of a data breach is at its highest in 17 years, at $4.24 million. But a zero trust approach can reduce that cost. The report found a difference of $1.76M, or 42.3%, between the cost of a breach to a mature zero trust organization versus the cost to entities that did not start on that path. Moreover, entities that did not apply this approach paid 19% more in breach costs for an average of $5.04 million. Find out more about how it is proving to be an effective way to support privacy, mitigate insider threats and work across hybrid clouds and edge devices.

How Data Discovery and Zero Trust Can Help Defend Against a Data Breach
4-Minute Read 🕒

A zero trust approach to data security and privacy might be the ideal framework when moving to the cloud. See how combining this approach with data discovery and classification can close gaps in your walls and make your work more efficient. You’ll also learn why it must start with sustainable and automated data discovery and classification.

What Is Zero Trust? A Complete Guide
6-Minute Read 🕒

The pandemic helped push the digital landscape toward the zero trust framework. Remote work became the new norm, and e-commerce increased. With a greater reliance on online channels, threats grew in response. Cyber crime alerts to the FBI rising to 4,000 a day compared to 1,000 before the pandemic. This article takes a back-to-basics look at the model and how it can help protect your network. In addition, it explores how to implement the framework in your business or agency.

More on This Topic

There’s little doubt that zero trust is effective, but putting this model in place won’t always be easy. A report released in December by One Identity looks at some of the challenges that crop up.

Given the new federal government mandate, it’s not surprising state government chief information officers (CIOs) are also starting to plan for the future. A National Association of State Chief Information Officers survey released in December found 67% of state CIOs said adding or expanding a zero-trust framework would be a focus in the next two to three years.