Securing your remote workforce with a zero-trust strategy starts today and starts here.

The reason for the immediacy is because it’s impossible to stress just how dangerous the current situation is with regard to cyber security. If you doubt our word, then take a look at the eye-watering cost of some of the biggest hacks and data breaches of the last 12 months.

The internet of today is a vast unsafe cyber-neighbourhood and it’s getting more dangerous by the day. To demonstrate just how unsafe it is, connect a newly loaded Windows system to the internet without patches, and within just a matter of seconds it will be attacked and compromised.

Data hacks, phishing scams, identity fraud, and in particular ransomware, have all increased exponentially over the last year.

And it’s about to get worse.

The future is looking increasingly dangerous.

The cause of the massive upsurge in malware attacks is directly linked to the sudden shift to supporting an increasingly distributed workforce. The consequences of maintaining the smooth running of an organisation in this new environment has led to a huge range of security challenges.

As a result, it has heaped enormous pressure on IT departments as they are now required to provide support for rising numbers of remote workers and a range of devices – all without compromising the overall security of the organisation.

A recent survey of over 1000 global Managed Service Providers revealed that almost 70% of respondents declared ransomware to be the most prevalent threat, with over 90% of businesses convinced that these attacks will continue to rise.

The main causes behind successful ransomware attacks are the growing sophistication of phishing scams, poor practices by end users, and a worrying lack of training in security protocols (one source reported that a third of staff working remotely have received no security training whatsoever in the last six months).

Yet, as remote working and the use of cloud applications continue to become more prevalent, no single product can deal with the sophistication of today’s attacks.

It requires a strategic, multi-layered approach with zero trust at every level.

How zero trust works.

To ward off any threat it requires an approach that soars above and beyond the limitations of standard anti-virus software, and traditional firewall and perimeter-based security.

As organisations continue to spread their data across different applications, multiple locations, cloud services and the like, the traditional firewall is no longer fit for purpose. Today, there are now so many different channels for cyber criminals to gain access that it simply doesn’t offer sufficient protection against the latest identity and credential based attacks.

The concept of zero-trust security was first introduced a decade ago and operates on the presumption that every single device, even if they are within the network perimeter, is likely to be or has already been compromised.

It’s a model that utilises a wide variety of capabilities such as, multi-factor authentication, access and identity management, file permissions, intelligence-driven Mobile Device Management, Secure internet gateways, unified endpoint management, and real-time threat intelligence.

The benefits of this new model are significant:

• It offers far greater protection for your organisation’s data.
• Greatly reduces the risk of a breach and detection time.
• Greatly increases control in the growing cloud environment.
• Improves overall visibility into network traffic.

To summarise, with the zero-trust approach interactions will only happen if they are already authorised. Everything else is simply blocked unless they are subsequently sanctioned.

It is perhaps best described as not trusting anything in your infrastructure to be secure unless fully explored and tested.

This includes your staff who present one of the most dangerous areas of possible compromise, and as such should be treated like an integral piece of your organisational infrastructure.

In fact, securing your distributed workforce is arguably the first and most important step in your journey to a zero-trust strategy.

How our Managed Digital Workspace solution takes you a step closer to zero trust security.

Our Managed Digital Workspace is a future-focused solution that incorporates 5 critical elements to introduce a zero-trust approach to your distributed workforce.

• VMware Workspace ONE intelligence-driven Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform.
• Cisco Umbrella Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) for remote users.
• Cisco Secure Endpoint (Advanced Malware Protection for Endpoints).
• Cisco Talos Intelligence Group.
• Quadris Security Operations Centre (SOC).

It’s a powerful set of services that provides comprehensive protection and ongoing threat analysis to every end user – no matter where they are working:

• Advanced policy control of digital workspace equipment, including encryption, USB access, patching, and application use.
• Web access control through DNS-based internet proxy for mobile devices and Windows desktops.
• Immediate identification and prevention of malicious data packets that are attempting to infiltrate your network.
• Monitor any potential cyber-threats that are on the horizon, before they impact your network.

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Furthermore, should any issues arise, you have at your disposal a round-the-clock service desk staffed by front-line technicians, and backed up by industry leading experts. So, if a problem arises or a threat is detected you can rest assured that your IT network is in safe and secure hands. 

Trust no one.  

We believe that zero trust relates to everyone, including us. Which is why we developed EyeQ, an intelligent and intuitive customer portal that enables you to see that we are delivering everything our solution promises – with complete transparency.

EyeQ delivers a comprehensive range of reports such as: any security incidents that have taken place, the current status of anti-virus software, the status of backups, proof that maintenance tests have been completed, how many tickets are open and the status of all tickets, adherence to agreed SLAs, etc.

It not only ensures that we deliver on all our promises, EyeQ ensures you have greater control over security than ever before.

Start today.

In the face of increasing uncertainty and fear of malware attacks, it’s not surprising that zero-trust security is fast becoming the standard for every organisation.

Make no mistake, zero-trust security isn’t going to be achieved overnight. Factors such as legacy infrastructure, outdated devices, and the need for training across the organisation means that it will take time to implement it successfully.

But at the very least, today should be the start of the journey.

Take the first step to zero-trust security by discovering the benefits of our Managed Digital Workspace solution, and contact Peter Grayson on 0161 537 4980 or email peter.grayson@quadris.co.uk