Zero Trust: Setting The New Standard For Enterprise Security — But It May Not Be Enough

Data security statistics for businesses can be anxiety-inducing. In 2019, the U.S. alone suffered more than 1,400 breaches, exposing nearly 165 million records. Furthermore, IBM’s 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report observes that across 507 organizations in 16 geographies and 17 unique industries, these events cost enterprises an average of $3.92 million.

Businesses’ increasing reliance on digital strategies means that data is becoming a critical asset; information is also subject to expanding risk. Data breaches jeopardize revenue, but they can also create a long-lasting (and sometimes debilitating) impact on customer trust and market reputation. To avoid these risks, the industry has made strides to overcome the outdated castle-and-moat ideology, which creates vulnerabilities by assuming that the only threats are outside the organization instead of implementing zero trust strategies — but this isn’t enough. While zero trust overcomes many previous security weak points by serving as both an externally and internally-facing solution, increasingly complex business footprints and IT architectures mean that even zero trust may not offer enough holistic protection.

Today, businesses are spread across more distributed and global footprints, utilizing clouds and offering BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) or remote work options. Zero trust does support these digital transformations by validating every user regardless of their relation to the business, validating every device used, and ensuring privileged access control is in place. Yet, remote business capabilities have become commonplace to secure the network from end to end. Authentication protocols, monitored network patterns, and traffic inspection need to be augmented with a strategy that adds an extra layer of insulation for more diverse attack points that now exist. To cover every angle — no matter where the business information goes, whether in an office or at home for remote work — more measures are needed to focus on home networks.

There are some options in the market today for optimizing zero trust and adding an extra layer of protection against attack. The ideal methods center around moving the attack point itself. This means shifting the exit IP away from the core network, making it difficult for attackers to target the user. Tools such as browser plugins are beginning to gain traction for these capabilities — they’re simple to install. Some even allow users to select browsing regions to further tailor the security strategy to their needs.

The same service can even be applied to voice calling or mobile messaging, utilizing the attack point strategy to allow users to directly manage single or multiple phone numbers from a central application and create entirely encrypted voice capabilities. For messaging, these services enable SMS users to securely send and receive messages from a single browser from phone numbers anywhere. This type of thorough attack point solution is vital for creating true end-to-end protection for distributed footprints that require a range of home or external networks. Individuals can browse the internet, send messages and make calls without worrying about any holes in their digital armor. At the same time, the business leverages the living, evolving insights that zero trust adds to help anticipate, protect against and overcome breaches.

While data security is paramount for most businesses, creating this comprehensive and holistic approach requires insight, expertise, time, and the right resources. Moreover, aligning this in-depth strategy with growing and transforming global business IT architectures can make the task even more challenging. This is why allying with a trusted managed service partner is the best way to efficiently and quickly ensure that security is at its strongest.

MOD Mission Critical, a managed service provider that offers expert insight, boutique-level attention, and bespoke solutions, is ready to serve as that security partner. MOD is dedicated to helping customers achieve zero trust strategies and implement attack point solutions with the added benefits of human touch, wholesale rates, access to 400 carriers, 200 data centers, 37 managed Points of Presence, countless on-net buildings, and more. MOD is the ideal partner for this critical security transformation, offering a full suite of unified communications security services.

The landscape of data threats will continue to evolve as the world becomes increasingly dependent on virtual means. Still, zero trust represents the latest and most incredible solution for keeping enterprises protected. With the most advanced measures, businesses can focus their attention on strategic goals and growth while enjoying greater peace of mind.

To learn more about MOD’s managed services, please visit www.modmc.net.