How Zero Trust Made the World Safe to Work From Anywhere

If a mantra exists for Zero Trust it would be “never trust, always verify.” Under this security philosophy any device or user attempting to gain access to a corporate network or application must be authenticated and have their identity validated before access is given. 

The IT industry has traditionally relied upon implementing a perimeter security strategy to validate users. In many cases, a user connecting from within an organization’s corporate headquarters or internal network was presumed trustworthy and they weren’t required to undergo any sort of additional validation. 

This was however, before the global pandemic of 2020 changed work forever. Security has now evolved to better complement the growing demand for a hybrid workforce that can safely and reliably function from anywhere. Because of this, the concept behind Zero Trust has gained traction to provide IT teams with the flexibility they need to customize identity verification for a dispersed workforce. 

Zero Trust has become mission critical for WFA   

The events of 2020 caught most organizations off guard with a host of security challenges for endpoints and employees trying to connect remotely to networks in greater numbers than previously experienced. 

A new report compiled by Absolute uses aggregated data from the global network of enterprise devices to demonstrate that the trend toward working ‘from anywhere’ doesn’t seem to be temporary. In fact, data gathered by Absolute over the past few months indicates there has been an increase in the number of locations enterprise devices have been connecting from. Increases of 7%, 18% and 13% respectively have been observed from January to February, March and April of 2022. 

The shift comes with a new set of risks as everyday realties for IT, as working remotely only increases the likelihood that a vulnerable device could be exploited by opportunistic bad actors. IT teams require visibility into endpoints in order to remain proactive with remedial and preventative action against any potential cybersecurity threats.  

Any device not connected to a corporate domain is a potential chink in the armor of the entire network as dark endpoints create a vulnerable blind spot that can be compromised without an IT department being aware. Absolute has found that 13% of its enterprise devices are not currently connected to a corporate domain, making the prospect of a security breach more than a hypothetical threat for all too many organizations. 

13% of enterprise devices are not connected to the corporate domain*

Keeping a constant eye on devices is mission critical for protecting workers on and off a corporate network and security investments are only useful to IT if they can see what they’re dealing with in the first place.  

Adopting a Zero Trust strategy 

The recent stats collected by Absolute suggest that many organizations should be doing more to protect and control their workers’ remote endpoints and remote access.  

If your organization is looking to find a better way of implementing a Zero Trust strategy, or to learn more best practices for organizations dealing with the increased risks faced by hybrid and mobile workforces, then take a few moments to read Absolute’s new report “The value of Zero Trust in a WFA world” and you can also reach out to book a demo with Absolute now.

*data pulled from >4.2M Absolute-enabled active enterprise devices.

Listen in on how to implement a Zero Trust strategy in the work from anywhere era as discussed by our cybersecurity evangelist, Torsten George in our Absolute Undeletable Podcast series: