Embracing Zero Trust: Why Europe is prioritizing identity-based approach to security 

Cyber threats are on the rise, with sophisticated attacks costing organizations billions of dollars in damages through. As technology advances, the risk of cyber-attacks only increases. To avoid loss of critical data and service interruptions, organizations must prioritize identity-first security strategy to defend against growing cyber threats. The Zero Trust security approach is gaining popularity as a mainstream solution for implementing such a strategy. Forrester recently published a report highlighting the status of Zero Trust adoption in Europe. The publication states that in 2022 over 66% of the surveyed European organizations had begun developing a zero-trust strategy with public organizations leading the charge. 

What is Zero Trust?

Zero Trust requires continuous user authentication, authorization, and validation before granting access to resources, even for those inside an organization's network. It simply means do not trust anyone or anything without verifying their identity. 

In Zero Trust, no user or device is inherently trusted, and every access request is verified and validated based on multiple factors, such as the user's identity, device health status, and network location. This approach aims to reduce the risk of data breaches and other cyber threats by assuming that any request could be a potential attack and requiring additional verification before granting access. Zero Trust is becoming increasingly popular as organizations recognize the need to protect their data from sophisticated cyber threats. 

The rise of Zero Trust: Key factors driving mainstream adoption 

There are several reasons why Zero Trust is becoming increasingly popular: 

1. Increased cybersecurity threats: Cybersecurity threats have increased in frequency and sophistication in recent years, making traditional security measures less effective. Zero Trust provides a more comprehensive approach to security that can help organizations stay ahead of evolving threats. 
2. Regulatory compliance: The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) places a strong emphasis on data privacy and security. Zero Trust aligns with GDPR principles by limiting access to sensitive data and ensuring that only authorized users can access it. 
3. Remote work: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote work, which has created new security challenges for organizations. Zero Trust provides a framework for securing remote access to resources and ensuring that users are authenticated and authorized before accessing sensitive data. 
4. Industry adoption: Zero Trust has gained momentum as more organizations adopt the approach and share their success stories. This has led to greater awareness and understanding of the benefits of Zero Trust across industries and sectors. 

Enforce Zero Trust with trusted identities for people and things 

As many organizations today replace on-premises installations with cloud services, a new approach to security is needed. Instead of the conventional perimeter-based security model, a more dynamic and active security architecture is needed to protect the new hybrid environment with applications and data both in- and outside of the traditional firewall. With a zero-trust or identity-based security approach, you apply security mechanisms based on the identity of the user.  

“Most experts agree that it’s imperative you don’t trust anyone or anything before verifying their identity. Make sure to always authenticate and authorize every user, device, and network flow before you grant them access to any digital resources. Passwords are no longer sufficient; every user or device needs a digital identity that can be trusted,” says Olivier Dussutour, CEO of Nexus.  

Do you want to know more on how your organization can enable Zero Trust and digitalization with trusted identities?   
 
Download ZERO TRUST guide