Two out of three companies have a Zero Trust account rights management policy within their organization. However, organizations still encounter many problems during implementation.

zero trust is no longer a hip marketing term, but an important building block in the security strategy of companies worldwide. That’s the conclusion Fortinet comes to in a research report published today. While in 2021 54 percent of companies will have a zero trust policy, it is now 67 percent. Fortinet surveyed 570 IT and security decision makers from 31 countries.

For those unfamiliar with the jargon, zero trust essentially means giving users as little freedom of movement on your network as possible until it’s proven that they can be trusted. The concept has been around for almost thirty years, but today it seems to be gaining more and more importance, partly due to the impulse of hybrid working.

In practice, a zero trust principle can be implemented, for example, by verifying users wherever possible using MFA techniques. This reduces the risk of secret files falling into the wrong hands. Zero Trust is generally considered a more effective approach than using a VPN.

Easier said than done

That’s the theory, in practice the implementation of Zero Trust doesn’t seem to go smoothly. Today’s usual integration between locally hosted applications and cloud applications in a hybrid multicloud is the biggest stumbling block for 48 percent. Three out of four companies have struggled because they only use cloud solutions for Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

What other problems arise? Other respondents reported issues with applying security rules across the organization, application latency, and a lack of reliable information when choosing a Zero Trust solution.

SASE

“Effective security” therefore remains an absolute priority for 58 percent of the companies. Organizations are looking for ways to consolidate disparate security solutions from many different vendors. A total of 89 percent consider the integration of SASE into their on-premises security solutions to be very to extremely important for the security of their company.

Download Fortinet’s full research report here.