CrowdStrike's latest research shows that 71% of all detections indexed by CrowdStrike Threat Graph are malware-free, demonstrating how dangerous it is to rely on legacy technology that cannot identify the most recent threats.
From solo attackers to large-scale operations funded by organised crime and nation-states, every attacker understands that legacy VPN, endpoint, and perimeter technologies cannot see a malware-free attack, attack plans, or payloads.
The more siloed security systems are, the more likely it is that an attacker will gain access and remain unnoticed, in some cases for years, because an organisation relied on perimeter protection for too long and was infiltrated. Today's primary targets for attackers are healthcare and industry because even a minor hiccup can cost lives and potentially destroy a corporation.
The Zero Trust Edge Solutions Landscape, Q2 2023, published by Forrester Research, provides insights and useful analysis on how CISOs can transition away from unsafe legacy tech stacks that rely on obsolete perimeter security methodologies and better secure their IT infrastructure with Zero Trust Edge (ZTE).
According to Forrester's research, the primary drivers of ZTE adoption include the trend to remote work and distributed assets, enhanced business speed, and disruptive vendors offering integrated network/security, as well as profiles of 22 of the market's leading suppliers.
The report includes Barracuda Networks, Cato Networks, Cisco Systems, Cloudflare, Cradlepoint, Forcepoint, Fortinet, Google, HPE Aruba Networking, Huawei, iBoss, Juniper Networks, Lookout, Menlo Security, Netskope, Nokia, Open Systems, Palo Alto Networks, Sophos, Versa Networks, and VMware Zscaler.
Cloud, IoT, and remote-work gaps must be filled immediately.
Attackers are out-innovating companies in the most critical areas, beginning with endpoints and moving to gaining control of identities and privileged access credentials. Gaps in legacy tech stacks, long known internally within organisations but not prioritised for repair, are as much to blame as the increasing sophistication of social engineering techniques, especially the growing popularity of pretexting used by attackers to mislead victims.
Attackers are aware that IT teams struggle with cloud configuration, frequently leaving entire instances and accounts open. IoT is another source of concern; remote access has allowed thousands of organisations around the world to be hacked.
The design aims of the Zero Trust Edge (ZTE) centre on offering tech stack consolidation, lowering risks and costs, and boosting visibility and control across IT infrastructures. ZTE is growing popularity among CISOs, whose top priority is often to consolidate from too many vendors while enhancing efficacy and bolstering security postures.
The goal for CISOs is to consolidate their legacy firmware and hardware systems, as well as software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), secure web gateway (SWG), and cloud access security broker (CASB) vendors, into a more integrated, adaptive architecture supported by a core set of vendors.
Defining Zero Trust Edge
Forrester defines ZTE as “a solution that combines security and networking functionalities — such as software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), cloud access security broker (CASB), Zero Trust network access (ZTNA), and secure web gateway (SWG) — that a single vendor can deliver and support in any combination of cloud, software, or hardware components.” Leading use cases include improving application performance, cloud secure access, visibility, and cloud management require integrated networking and security.
"ZTE is a disruptive and high-stakes architecture," writes Forrester analysts, alluding to ZTE's ability to solve numerous important problems while simultaneously unifying four fundamental technologies into a cohesive architecture solution.
Early ZTE pilots are yielding promising results in terms of safeguarding remote workforces, boosting distant site security and dependability via different connectivity options, optimising networking, and enabling more efficient security administration. Transitioning ZTE's discrete components to cloud-based managed and monitored services, according to CISOs and their pilot teams, frees up localised hardware and systems to optimise workloads even further locally.
By selling tech stack consolidation, ZTE presents a significant opportunity for cybersecurity vendors to drive new revenue growth. Legacy network security measures, according to CISOs, have failed to sufficiently secure today's distributed systems with remote workers and cloud-based services. According to one CISO, legacy perimeter systems are equivalent to not having a system deployed at all because they are beyond the point of blocking threats devised less than a year ago.
Legacy network practises have caused gaps in organisations' capacity to secure resources, continuously enhance efficiency, and respond quickly to new digital business initiatives. ZTE addresses these issues by integrating security and networking capabilities into a unified, cloud-delivered architecture.
Top vendors are capitalising on ZTE's potential to integrate point solutions into a single product consumed as a service, according to Forrester's ZTE research. This is consistent with CISOs' buying preferences for simplified operating expense (OPEX) models.
According to Forrester's Security Survey, 2022, an estimated 78% of organisations choose to acquire or consume aggregated features as a service. According to Forrester's analysts, the major vendors' aspirations to deliver a whole turnkey package are ambitious, and "the idea of having a single architecture for all security solutions on an opex basis will be compelling for the SMB/midmarket." Forrester warns that companies providing ZTE are still working to overcome limits in their primary domains.
With CISOs prioritising IT stack consolidation, ZTE has the potential to be the next viable development of security infrastructure. According to CISOs running pilots, ZTE is delivering quantifiable advantages in operations performance, more effective endpoint and identity security, and lower costs as a result of standardising on a unified architecture. The market dynamics indicate that ZTE is the new revenue engine that cybersecurity providers require.
Top ZTE applications
Forrester highlighted six key use scenarios in which ZTE provides the highest value. Underpinning them all is a significant emphasis on enhancing network performance and reliability while increasing cyber-resilience.
Banking and financial industry CISOs tell VentureBeat that ZTE's use case of giving cloud-secure access and securing virtual work teams utilising Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is already part of their pilots. Every pilot VentureBeat has learned of is collecting real-time and historical network statistics to assess visibility and observability advantages.
In addition to the core use cases, Forrester found four additional Zero Trust Edge use cases that CISOs are less interested in yet exhibit meaningful vendor differentiation. End-to-end visibility and governance are provided across all network segments.
Credential mapping unifies user identities across systems, making it easier to implement access policies. Unauthorised access detection and prevention safeguard against credential tampering and insider threats. Acceptable use policies are extended by web content filtering from external sites.
ZTE represents a watershed moment in the way businesses safeguard their virtual teams and remote workers, assets, cloud environments, and expanding IoT networks.
Legacy approaches to network, device, endpoint, and identity security, according to CISOs, can't keep up with the speed and complexity of cyberattacks. ZTE provides a cloud-centric paradigm that may be consumed as a service and paid for as an operating expense by combining networking and security.
The difference of scope and tactics used by the 22 ZTE vendors mentioned in this study to offer consolidation on their platforms demonstrates how various the enterprise needs are that each is attempting to fulfil. According to VentureBeat, the initial ZTE pilots are fulfilling expectations by supporting new digital-first revenue efforts while plugging gaps in tech stacks that have previously led to intrusion and breach attacks.
Forrester forecasts that larger companies would use a multivendor approach in the near term, merging best-of-breed ZTE components from market leaders highlighted in their analysis. ZTE's main value proposition of simplification and consolidation makes it a viable option for SMBs and midsize firms looking to standardise on a uniform architecture.
The demand for a solution that can tackle the most difficult multicloud and hybrid cloud security concerns, as well as support remote work and zero trust programmes, is growing. ZTE is well positioned to benefit from these market dynamics.