Ransomware wreaked havoc in 2021. The shift towards remote work and VPNs gave hackers a golden opportunity to exploit businesses, and ransomware officially became the most popular form of cyber-attack, rising in prevalence by 350 per cent over 2018 levels.
These threats have not gone anywhere in 2022 and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) has become a popular solution to such attacks.
In a recent survey of 5,400 IT professionals, Sophos found a direct correlation between ransomware attacks and the adoption of a zero-trust approach, which is an effective way to bolster security and access management and simplify security solutions.
What is ZTNA?
In the early days of the pandemic, organisations required large numbers of employees to use their personal devices to work remotely. Unfortunately, this also gave hackers an unprecedented opportunity to exploit vulnerable VPN clients and breach networks.
ZTNA eliminates the need for VPN software by providing remote access to applications, data, and services while simultaneously implementing a multi-faceted authentication process for external devices. By verifying users, validating devices, and limiting privileged access, ZTNA can effectively protect against a range of hacking techniques.
Additionally, with the use of external devices becoming more common in remote working, ZTNA provides improved security against the most common points of exploitation.
Learning from ransomware victims
Sophos research found a far greater awareness of ZTNA among organisations that had already suffered a ransomware attack – 59 per cent of victims were ‘very familiar’ with it, compared with only 39 per cent of non-victims. This rises to 71 per cent among those organisations that had been hit and paid the ransom.
This means ransomware victims are adopting ZTNA at a much higher rate. Twenty-five per cent of businesses who fell victim to ransomware the previous year have fully implemented ZTNA into their cybersecurity, while 40 per cent of victims who paid the ransom now have ZTNA. Just 17 per cent of those that hadn’t experienced an attack have fully migrated, by comparison.
Why is ZTNA the right choice?
Organisations are adopting ZTNA for a variety of reasons. VPNs can be confusing and in many cases weren’t implemented properly at the outset of the pandemic. Organisations were also expected to ensure their VPN vulnerabilities weren’t exploited, despite often having only a minimal understanding of how they operate.
ZTNA makes cybersecurity easier to understand and operate, and 43 per cent of ransomware victims were motivated to adopt ZTNA to simplify their cybersecurity operations, according to Sophos-commissioned research. More complex doesn’t correlate to stronger security, and organisations not understanding their security only creates more vulnerabilities.
ZTNA also supports the increased use of the cloud, which has become integral to businesses operating at disparate locations, providing quick and easy access to files and enhanced security for peace of mind.
For example, Sophos ZTNA provides secure, easy-to-manage and frictionless remote access solutions that remove the need for VPNs, greatly limiting opportunities for ransomware actors to access a network.
Granular access controls enable easy restriction of specific resources to those who need them, while Sophos ZTNA uses automation to constantly check user and device security, preventing attackers from exploiting previously authenticated user access.
Sophos ZTNA is also easily implemented and managed from the cloud-based Sophos Central platform, enabling customers to manage all their Sophos solutions via a single interface for enhanced day-to-day management and control.
With the global average cost of ransomware remediation now US$1.85 million for small and mid-sized organisations, moving to secure remote access via Sophos ZTNA will lift your organisation’s cyber resiliency, allowing your tech team to get a better night’s sleep.
For more information on how Sophos ZTNA can help your business, visit the Sophos website.
