In a world driven by digital business, enterprise security needs to be continuously monitored and improved to keep up with evolving cyber-threats and to ensure data protection across the web. As the corporate, office-based workforce evolves to become more permanently remote, increased access control to business assets is needed for those both within and outside of the company network.

Since the 1990s, the federal government has been issuing guidelines and recommendations for security via their 800-Series Special Publications. While some of those guidelines became mandates, things have largely inched forward, instead of making any dramatic leaps. OMB’s new memorandum M-22-09, “Moving the U.S. Government Towards Zero Trust Cybersecurity Principles,” is changing this pattern, and setting deadlines for implementation across the government.

According to Microsoft, Zero Trust is now ‘the top security priority’ for 96% of the interviewed security decision makers, while 76% were currently in the process of implementation. 90% of those interviewed stated that they were ‘familiar’ with Zero Trust and able to pass a knowledge test. The nature of this test and the appropriate right answers weren’t provided.

Organizations need to stay ahead of the ever-evolving security landscape. It’s no secret that Zero Trust security is crucial for successful endpoint protection. Due to the rapid transition to a remote workforce and shift from the traditional data center into dynamic cloud infrastructure we’ve witnessed in the last year, more and more companies are finding the need to accelerate their digital transformation to keep pace with the expanding threat surface.

As the pandemic continues, organizations around the world are working hard to adapt to the “new normal.” This article highlights the key trends that we will face in 2022 and beyond. Ransomware attacks more than doubled in 2021 compared to 2020, with healthcare and utilities the most commonly targeted sectors. Moreover, attacks are getting more expensive, with the average ransomware payment leaping from US$312,000 in 2020 to $570,000 in 2021.

With just about everything delivered from the cloud these days, employees can now collaborate and access what they need from anywhere and on any device. While this newfound flexibility has changed the way we think about productivity, it has also created new cybersecurity challenges for organizations. Historically, enterprise data was stored inside data centers and guarded by perimeter-based security tools.

On May 12, The White House published its Executive Order (EO) on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. The directive outlined a set of focus areas intended to improve cybersecurity for the federal government and critical infrastructure sectors including information sharing, supply chain security, endpoint detection and response, and cloud security.