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#TECH: Why companies should adopt zero trust architecture

"IN a multi-cloud world, an organisation's cybersecurity strategy must transcend its infrastructure and extend to its applications and data," said Dell Technologies' global chief technology officer, John Roese.

During an invite-only session with Asia Pacific's media, Roese said that Zero Trust is a cybersecurity model that shifts how organisations approach security; however, since it is not a product, "many don't know where to start" and Dell aims to simplify Zero Trust cybersecurity adoption by streamlining integration across IT environments.

"Since it is a journey, (zero trust) is not a product, not a single device. It's architecture. What we found is we don't have to do everything, but every time you (organisation) adopt one of the elements and start to move in the right direction, a series of threats start to become less likely to happen."

ADOPTING ZERO TRUST

According to Roese, today, we are playing defence. However, regardless of having the best, most advanced security in place, "most compromises happen not because of a smart bad actor, they happened because someone didn't know what's on their infrastructure, they didn't understand if it was patched, they didn't understand what it could do, they allowed it to have too much access, they allow lateral movement across the infrastructure – all of these things disappear in properly implemented zero trust architecture – which is why not just Dell, but the entire security industry—we believe that if we could just get there faster, we could change the security posture".

The zero trust, instead of relying solely on perimetre defences, uses a proactive strategy that only allows known good activity across ecosystems and data pipelines.

"It allows organisations to better align their cybersecurity strategy across the data centre, clouds and at the edge" and Dell aims to serve as a catalyst for customers to achieve zero trust outcomes by making the design and integration of the architecture easier.

"We believe a zero trust strategy is the best path forward. Dell has the proven IT

and security foundation, technology integration experience, and extensive global partner ecosystem to help simplify customers' cybersecurity transformations.

ZERO TRUST CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

Dell announced it will be opening a Zero Trust Centre of Excellence in collaboration with CyberPoint International and the Maryland Innovation Security Institute (MISI) in Spring 2023 at DreamPort, the United States Cyber Command's premier cybersecurity innovation facility.

"Zero Trust is a fundamental paradigm shift emphasising the need to protect applications and data pipelines – beyond networks – across a multicloud topology. The launch of our Zero Trust centre of Excellence, as well as new cybersecurity services and solutions, will enable our customers in Asia Pacific and Japan to stress test their security architecture and enhance their cyber resilience. This is especially critical in this ever-changing cyber landscape that we're navigating," said Dell Technologies' president for Asia Pacific and Japan, and Global Digital Cities, Amit Midha adding that the centre of excellence will provide a cybersecurity blueprint for customers to test their environments in the US Department of Defence-approved architecture before broad deployment.

"The centre of excellence, the architecture that is being used there includes a very broad ecosystem. Only the foundational technology is compute, storage virtualisation are Dell VMware companies that we know very well," explained Roese in details.

He added that there are over 20 partners who are being pulled together to create the reference architecture for zero trust and "if you're a customer trying to build the zero trust architecture, because it is not a single product – where do you start? Which tool do you use? How do you integrate them? and "...by us doing that (zero trust centre), with the very advanced cybersecurity area – we take many of those decision off the table – we'll show you what works together, which are best, how to integrate them – our goal is not to develop magic product – (but) to take much of the integration burden and the complexity away from the customer by doing it on our side of the ledger".

RISK REDUCTION

To provide organisations with a Zero Trust roadmap that builds on their existing cybersecurity assets to assist them in aligning to Zero Trust principles and achieving cyber resilience, Dell announced its own Cybersecurity Advisory Services. It identifies and closes security gaps, recommends advanced technologies to customers, and teaches organisations how to enable continuous vigilance and governance for long-term cyber resilience.

Roese also added that Dell will also be offering a new Vulnerability Management service with Dell experts who regularly scan customer environments for vulnerabilities, provide a full picture of exposures, and help prioritise patching efforts to reduce attack surfaces and better protect organisations.

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