As the world becomes more connected, the threat of cyberattacks becomes increasingly problematic. The traditional "trusted network" is no longer viable, forcing organizations to build upon a Zero Trust architecture to protect and strengthen their network infrastructures.

Optiv Security, a leading end-to-end cybersecurity solutions partner, is helping clients do just that with its Zero Trust Readiness Assessment. It's an approach designed to guide organizations and CISOs through their Zero Trust journey.

"Zero trust isn't just a buzz word in the remote work era; it's a fundamental business strategy that will enable organizational resilience," says Kevin Lynch, Optiv CEO. "Companies need to move to a model where no person or device is trusted by default. All should be authenticated before access is allowed to anything, regardless of your technology stack. This approach should also extend to the physical world and include employees, customers, trading partners and your supply chain."

Zero Trust is an information security model based on the principle of maintaining strict access controls by not trusting anyone or any action by default, even those already inside the network perimeter. Each transaction is evaluated for need and risk. In other words, "assume breach" and "trust nothing" by taking the default position that any entity - user or device - is a potential threat. In a networked world full of threat actors, "never trust, always verify."

Optiv's Zero Trust assessment helps organizations:

• Build stronger access control that minimizes risk of ransomware and insider threats
• Secure expanding, complex network, hybrid users, and proliferating devices
• Reduce security vulnerabilities as the business moves forward further into the cloud
• Minimize attack surface penetration

"Zero Trust is a journey, it's an evolution, a continuous process," says Jerry Chapman, technical director and engineering fellow at Optiv. "Breaking down the silos between identity and security solutions will provide a more integrated and adaptive approach to Zero Trust and guide organizations further up the path to a Zero Trust architecture."