Surge in ransomware is driving zero trust adoption

(Paradigm credit: Image Credit: Xtock / Shutterstock )

Nil drives the adoption of zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solutions similar a practiced, sometime-fashioned, ransomware attack, a new report has claimed.

Findings from Sophos saw awareness of ZTNA is much higher among those companies that had suffered a ransomware set on, than among those that hadn't.

Surveying 5,400 IT professionals, Sophos establish those who'd been hit by ransomware are almost 50% more likely to be "very familiar" with ZTNA, compared to those that hadn't experienced such an incident (39%). The percentage is even college (71%) amidst those who paid the ransom.

Adopting ZTNA

To put things in even more than perspective - only x% of ransomware victims had no idea what ZTNA is, compared to 21% of those that suffered a ransomware attack in the last 12 months.

Only these organizations are not only "aware" of the solution - many are also implementing it. Sophos has found that a quarter (25%) of victims take already fully adopted ZTNA, something only 17% of those free of ransomware incidents had washed. Amongst the victims, 40% of those who paid the ransom already deployed ZTNA.

Drilling deeper into these companies' motivations, about were inclined to deploy ZTNA to amend their overall cybersecurity posture, simplify their cybersecurity operations, and support their motility to increased use of the cloud.

However, many are also interested in moving from a CAPEX to an OPEX model, and to ditch vulnerable VPN customer software. In fact, ever since the pandemic made businesses send near of their employees abode, accessing the corporate network via VPN has get standard practice.

As a result, malicious actors take been increasingly targeting vulnerable VPNs as their entry points, and have been relatively successful in that respect.

Past removing the need for VPN clients, ZTNA reduces the assault surface, making it harder for ransomware actors to get on your network, Sophos concludes.