Cloud software provider Okta recently released the results of a commissioned study titled “The State of Zero Trust Security in Asia Pacific 2021” to gauge the attitude of security execs in the region towards the “Zero Trust” approach, a system that revolves around constant assessment of user access privileges in cloud-based environments.
Locally, the surge in organizations migrating IT infrastructure from on-prem systems to the cloud has whittled down the timeline for digital transformation from years to months. Despite the quick pace, these businesses have to deal with network insecurity due to the sudden increase in devices, networks, and applications used within their respective IT ecosystems.
Among the Filipino respondents on the survey, a majority of 95% expressed intentions in bolstering Zero Trust initiatives in the upcoming 12 to 18 months. Compared to other Asia Pacific countries, however, only 5% of local organizations are actually leveraging on existing Zero Trust security measures.
One of the major hurdles that slow down Zero Trust strategy adoption in the Philippines is talent or skill shortage (45%), followed by concerns about the necessary expenses (30%), and just overall gap in technology (15%). According to Okta APAC general manager Graham Sowden, most business leaders today are recognizing the value of hybrid working arrangements in driving long term growth.
“Our data has shown that the country has plenty of room for improvement when it comes to implementing Zero Trust Security strategies. It is imperative to the long-term growth of these businesses that they continue to be vigilant in anticipating new threats that emerge in this new digital landscape, by continually assessing their current IT infrastructure, and making strategic investments to stay ahead of threat actors,” Sowden further explained.
To tap the growing market in the country expressing interest on Zero Trust solutions, Okta is offering its Identity Access Management Curve that reviews an organization’s identity-driven security practices on every aspect – from the type of resources they manage, to how they provision and deprovision users.
“The reality is that threat actors will only get savvier and find new avenues to exploit vulnerabilities. Adopting advanced measures like ‘password-less’ technologies − such as biometrics and contextual factors, for instance, will help businesses increase security and tackle data breaches more effectively.”
