47 with the flexibility and freedom they want with the security they and businesses need.” Instead of assuming everything behind the corporate firewall is safe, a zero-trust model assumes a breach and verifies each request as if it originates from an open network. Regardless of where the request originates or what resource it accesses, zero trust teaches users to ‘never trust, always verify’. Every access request is fully authenticated, authorised and encrypted before granting access. “Customers who have implemented a zerotrust strategy report that their employees can complete their duties from anywhere in the world while still maintaining necessary control over core security needs,” says Lefferts. “They are able to quickly scale up remote work as needed, and they say their employees are more productive with a reliable connection and simplified sign-in.” The ability to maintain a high level of security from remote locations is particularly important today, as workforces are increasingly dispersed. “At the beginning of the pandemic, when organisations all over the world were figuring out how to support a suddenly remote workforce, people were very much in a reactive mode of survival, figuring out how to sustain productivity,” says Lefferts. “As we began to settle into this new normal, our customers started to look at the unique problems remote and hybrid work presented – from managing devices to ensuring employees are using secure connections to staying on top of insider risk. “Remote and hybrid work accelerated adoption of the cloud in new ways and also uncovered some security risks that had remained unnoticed in the past. We’ve seen many of our customers really take a proactive and hands-on approach to create a new way of working that is secure, flexible and productive for their employees.” To truly meet the challenge of hybrid security, Jakkal believes that defenders across the industry must come together for an end-to-end, zero-trust security approach that covers the entire technology ecosystem. “Digital transformation cannot happen without security transformation,” Jakkal says. “Hybrid work requires a zerotrust strategy. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to zero-trust implementation, and that’s a good thing. It means you’re free to start anywhere. Organisations of all sizes begin in different areas, based on their immediate needs and available resources.”
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