Page 117 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Special RSA Conference Annual Edition for 2022

Zero trust and isolation

Between Log4j being both highly accessible and potentially hugely costly, a rising tide of attackers driven
by a thriving ransomware-as-a-service landscape and the growing prevalence of HEAT attacks; the task
facing security teams is difficult.

However, there are some steps that can be taken to remedy such scenarios. This needs to start with a
shift in mindset away from post-breach detection and mitigation to prevention with a zero trust approach.

With a zero trust approach, organisations can work to stop threats in their tracks before they reach the
endpoint – something that is entirely necessary today given the evasive actions of modern attackers. It
recognises trust in a network as a vulnerability and therefore advocates that all traffic, from emails and
documents to websites and videos, should always be verified.

At Menlo, we recommend that organisations abandon traditional detect and respond approaches to
cybersecurity and implement a zero trust approach powered by isolation – a technology that ensures that
no active content from the internet is ever executed on the user’s endpoint.

Critically, this protects IT infrastructure from ransomware and other HEAT attacks regardless of patch
status. Shutting off any access to the endpoint is the only way to stop these attacks with 100 percent
certainty.

About the Author

Tom is a Solution Architect at Menlo Security for the EMEA region. He
works closely with customers to meet their technical requirements and
architects web and email isolation deployments for organisations across
different industries. Prior to Menlo Security, Tom previously worked for
LogRhythm and Varonis.

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