When we think of cyber attacks or data breaches, one of the first things that comes to our mind is information theft from people in C-suite. But how can a CEO or CFO be held accountable if they aren’t even aware of what’s going on? It’s simple, c-suites shouldn’t have access to confidential company data as this can lead to disastrous results.
With this heightened vulnerability facing c-suites around the world, zero trust has emerged. Zero Trust is a security model that helps counter successful data breaches by removing the concept of security from a company’s network architecture.
Understanding Zero Trust Security
Zero trust refers to a computer network security standard requiring identity verification for every device or individual attempting to place an access request on an interface. It applies to any individual or device requesting access inside or outside the interface.
Additionally, Zero Trust is a holistic program where only authorized devices and individuals can access apps and data to protect the app from cybercriminals and online fraudsters. In addition, compared to the fundamental security model, robust identification of user machines, controlled access to information, reliable transfer and storage of data are some of the main advantages of zero trust security.
The fundamental principle of zero trust security is that cybercriminals or hackers can be inside the interface or outside the network. Therefore, businesses cannot blindly trust a machine or user. In addition, another crucial feature of the protocol is least privilege access.
This implies that people will only be given the access they need or everything they should know. Therefore, not all people who send access requests can access confidential parts of the application. In other words, sensitive data remains secure.
However, to make smart choices in a zero-trust security model, IT teams need to better understand who users are and how they work. Additionally, a permanent privilege no longer applies with Zero Trust, defining the extent of harm if data hacking or malware enters the system. Apart from that, zero trust can help organizations in the following areas:
- Zero Trust protects remote employees more effectively than conventional methods, and the benefits go beyond security to improve business productivity and agility.
- One of the most vital perspectives of zero trust is its least privilege access feature, which reduces user extreme trust within a standard interface.
What are the repercussions of a C-Suite account violation?
Companies give access to data to their senior executives for a variety of reasons, but are these decisions always the best? While business leaders have a lot of valuable insight into how the business should handle information, when access is granted to too many people, repercussions are known to occur. Some of the main ones are as follows:
From the moment your organizational data is compromised through to the method of search and recovery, the consequences of a data breach dramatically affect business operations. Additionally, depending on the severity of the breach, data breaches can result in complete data loss, forcing victims to spend a long recovery time.
Also, the most common course of action in these situations is to shut down operations until you find a solution, giving you enough time to focus on finding the source of the breach. C-suite.
The financial repercussions of a c-suit account violation are arguably one of the most critical and hardest impacts businesses will ever have to live without.
Expenses can include compensating affected customers, setting up incident response efforts, investing in new security measures, investigating the breach, legal fees, not to mention exorbitant regulatory fines. imposed for non-compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
If a c-suite’s account violation occurs during a loss of confidential data, the results are disastrous. Private data is any data that is used indirectly or directly to identify a person. Besides, it will cover everything from name to IP address, email address and images. It is also confidential data, such as biometric or genetic data, processed to distinguish a person.
Understanding the Security Benefits of Zero Trust
Modern cloud platforms can be a harsh place, and granting global access to your c-suite can be risky. Therefore, it becomes crucial for contemporary businesses to adopt a zero-trust security model that helps businesses extend relevant access to the right people. Below are some of the major security benefits of Zero Trust mentioned.
- Zero Trust security helps your IT team run more efficiently. Besides, it uses centralized monitoring and can easily store data in one location.
- Zero Trust facilitates sophisticated analytics, allowing your team to gain insight they wouldn’t otherwise have. As a result, your IT team will be able to maintain a more supervised atmosphere with fewer employees.
- Zero trust presents exceptional data security. A Zero Standing Privilege architecture coupled with real-time access prevents malicious employees or malware from accessing important sections of your interface.
- The Zero Trust security model is developed on constant monitoring and analysis, and you can use automation to review access requests.
The bottom line
The majority of organizations do not have a data manager. As a result, they don’t have a specific person who is solely responsible for protecting their company’s data (and privacy) from malicious attacks or large-scale leaks. But are C-Suite executives even the best candidates for this role? It is time to think about it.