Report: Zero Trust is key to addressing rising cyber attacks
Across Asia Pacific cyber attacks are increasing, and organisations are now looking for new ways to secure their workforce, which is leading them to turn to Zero Trust security models.
Cloudflare, an American web infrastructure and website security company, has released new findings on security practices across the Asia Pacific, revealing how organisations are coping with increased cyberattacks and flexible workforces.
Are outdated security measures leading to more attacks?
More than half (54%) of organisations in Asia Pacific have experienced more security incidents in 2021 than in the previous year, according to the study. With attacks on the rise, 83% of respondents said they had to make changes to their IT security procedures.
The sudden disruption of the pandemic left organisations unprepared to cope with the challenges of remote working and added security risks. According to the survey, 44% of the respondents said the pandemic has had a significant impact on how their organisation approached IT security, and 77% shared IT security as one of the main areas “keeping them awake at night”.
As businesses navigate their way through a post-pandemic world, 88% of respondents said their organisation will be implementing a flexible workforce, with 85% saying their workforce will be more mobile in the future.
“Companies are moving towards a hybrid way of working and the only way to secure today’s work-from-anywhere economy is to secure each individual employee. That means protecting their individual networks, devices, and access to business-critical applications. Cloudflare knows the importance of being able to give organizations of any size the power to solve their security and networking needs seamlessly, no matter how their business needs or work environments shift,” said Jonathon Dixon, Vice-President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Japan and China of Cloudflare.
Zero trust models
During turbulent times organisations have turned to zero trust security models in the hope of making their workforces more secure. 66% of respondents indicated they have implemented a zero-trust strategy. Of those that have yet to implement Zero Trust, 58% said they will be implementing a Zero Trust strategy in the next 12 months.
However, businesses face a number of challenges when it comes to incorporating Zero Trust in their IT security strategy, with 67% of respondents stating that the biggest risk to their ability to execute is the lack of internal IT security experts. Likewise, educating internal stakeholders to obtain buy-in, and allocating the appropriate level of financial resources are also key to implementing Zero Trust.
In October 2020, Cloudflare launched Cloudflare One, a Zero Trust, network-as-a-service (NaaS) solution for enterprises that securely connects remote users, offices, and data centers to each other and the resources they need.
“As we embrace a hybrid way of working, enabling remote collaboration at scale is a priority. Implementing a Zero Trust strategy allows us to focus on adding value to our platform, growing the team and expanding into new markets with confidence,” said Jim Tyrrell, Head of Infrastructure at Canva.
