Friday, March 29, 2024

Trends, Cisco redefine workforce, workloads, workplace with Zero Trust cybersecurity

Change is not a one-time thing. It’s a process. At times, changes need to be refined before they are considered perfect. The finer points have to be figured out. This is true for almost every kind of change — including ICT platforms. Indeed, businesses with digitally transformed ICT infrastructures require cybersecurity strategies that go beyond the traditional concept of protecting the network. 

Trends and Technologies, Inc. (better known as Trends) has provided guidance to enterprises and small businesses who are looking for tech-enabled solutions that will enable them to maximize the capabilities of their ICT environment. To expand clients’ options, Trends has partnered with globally recognized technology providers like Cisco.

Tech synergy

US-based multinational tech conglomerate Cisco is known for manufacturing networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, as well as other high-technology services and products.

Trends makes it easier for Philippine companies to adopt Cisco solutions on a large scale. Trends gets complexities out of the way and simplifies the process of embracing new technology for businesses.

Cybersecurity without borders

By teaming up with Cisco, Trends is able to easily offer and deploy the full range of Cisco Zero Trust security solutions to its clients.  How exactly does this work?

In the white paper Zero Trust: Going Beyond the Perimeter, Cisco noted that in the past there was “an invisible line” drawn “between what belongs to the enterprise and what doesn’t — such as servers, desktops, networks, applications, and logins.” These depended on firewalls and

endpoint-resident security software to protect the so-called boundary. This would not be enough today, what with the IT infrastructure perimeter already including remote components — from offsite workers to cloud-hosted resources. 

Cisco acknowledged, “The idea of getting rid of the perimeter is generally too scary for enterprises to contemplate, especially if they’ve only recently solidified one.” This is where Trends comes in, essentially simplifying the change management for companies that are about to use Cisco Zero Trust security solutions. Such process requires Trends’ deep expertise, enterprise-grade capabilities and globally recognized partnerships.

Zero Trust mode

The Cisco Zero Trust security framework “aims to help prevent unauthorized access, contain breaches, and reduce the risk of an attacker’s lateral movement through a network.” It addresses the three most common challenges faced by modern enterprises: increased access, increase on the attack surface, and security gaps. 

With a three-pronged approach for the workforce, workloads, and the workplace, organizations can deploy security techniques tailor-fit to the nature of their business. For each pillar, Cisco offers a different solution. Duo takes care of the zero-trust workforce security, while Tetration secures workloads. When it comes to ensuring security in the workplace, Software-Defined Access or SD Access takes care of detection and response to risks in the organization’s environment.

How do Trends and Cisco’s Zero Trust security solutions tend to transform the three pillars of business?

Workforce. The Zero Trust for the workforce pillar revolves around the user touchpoints and their corresponding access to work applications on either personal or corporate-managed devices. Whether it’s stolen credentials, authentication policy gaps, an inside job, or even unmanaged and unpatched devices, the workforce can easily bring harm to the critical systems and data of the organization.

That is why the Zero Trust solution is not limited to multi-factor authentication systems. It instead includes more device visibility, an adapting access requirement system that varies based on the sensitivity of resources and known security state, and a continuous monitoring and response to risk events, all the while maintaining convenience with a single sign-on process. 

Workload. When it comes to securing mission critical workloads, visibility on the application environment is key, from the devices, processes, packets, network flows, and all the way to work communications. 

As the ecosystem of an organization evolves, so must its policies as well. 

While micro-segmentation moves the access perimeter where it matters in the workload, policies are put up to minimize trust within the application system and are then deployed consistently across all environments, its accuracy depending on accurate application mapping. 

Zero Trust for Workloads basically “redefines the perimeter around expected behavior.” Thus, malicious activity, from initial compromise to lateral movement to data exfiltration, then becomes apparent and preventable.

Workplace. Establishing Zero Trust within the confines of the workplace begins with identifying the function of the users and applications in relation to their workplace systems within the organization, as well as the level of access and operation within the network.

By gaining visibility to what users within the workplace do with their devices and applications in terms of communication and network flows, the organization is able to configure network capabilities and requirements for in-scope users. 

This configuration must be continuously improved depending on the changes in the needs of the organization itself, or with the devices and user capabilities.

While it may seem like an overwhelming task to take on a new way of implementing cybersecurity, Trends and Cisco stand together in their approach: “Zero Trust doesn’t require a complete reinvention of your infrastructure. The most successful solutions should layer on top of and support a hybrid environment without entirely replacing existing investments.”

To learn more, register to Trends and Cisco’s FREE webinar this June 25: http://tiny.cc/8ym5pz

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