Zero Trust is getting on a bit

Cyber security vendor Illumio says that 2022 was the year that zero trust “matured”. Whatever that means.

According to Illumio, channel partners and customers have embraced the concept and the levels of activity around tools and solutions in that category have increased over 2022.

Illumio senior director, channel and alliances EMEA Scott Walker said there had been a huge uptick in a number of key areas of both an understanding of what zero trust really means and, more importantly, how that translates into the problems it solves for businesses.

“It’s starting to get to a point where it’s defined and reasonably well understood…a big part of our overall channel strategy has been to contribute and grow our business, but also to educate and help both customers and partners understand where zero-trust segmentation fits into the overall zero-trust strategy and zero-trust space.”

That maturity among partners and customers is a positive because it not only gets the technology into more hands but improves the chances of keeping the criminals at bay.

“It’s really positive because it supports our goal, which is to make it a safer place to be within a business and support businesses in mitigating risk associated with ransomware and evolving threats, and zero trust is the only proven way to help support that.”

A wider appreciation of zero trust has also translated into more channel activity and a greater number of partners looking to work with vendors operating in that market.

Earlier this year, Illumio carried out research to gauge the user interest in zero trust and found that 89 percent had implemented or were in the process of implementing zero trust in their organisation.

More than 90 percent indicated that zero trust was one of their businesses top three security priorities. Even with budgets under strain because of economic headwinds, many were locking in money to make sure they could continue to invest in security.