IBM Helps Customers Adopt a Zero Trust Approach to Security

IBM Security has introduced a new Software as a Service (SaaS) version of IBM Cloud Pak for Security, designed to simplify how organizations deploy a zero trust architecture across the enterprise. The company also announced an alliance partnership with leading cloud and network security provider, Zscaler, and blueprints for common zero trust use cases.

For security professionals, zero trust is a framework for modernizing their overall security programs and helps them adapt to the risks emerging from their changing business environment. In fact, a recent ESG study found that 45 percent of organizations who were more mature in their zero trust strategies had a smooth transition to employees working from home, as compared to only 8 percent of those that were the least mature1.

“With a mobile workforce and data residing everywhere, the Internet has become our primary network,” said Mauricio Guerra, CISO for The Dow Chemical “Embracing a zero trust architecture enables us to add new capabilities and strengthen security. Working with partners like IBM Security and Zscaler can help us provide users with secure remote access to all of our locations, as well as access to applications wherever and however they are hosted.”

The new IBM Security zero trust blueprints offer a framework for building a security program designed by applying the core principles of zero trust: least privilege access; never trust, always verify; and assume breach. These blueprints can offer companies a prescriptive roadmap of security capabilities along with guidance on how to integrate them as part of a zero trust architecture.

The capability and guidance for these blueprints were developed from real customer engagements to help organizations plan their zero trust journey and investments with a pragmatic approach that better aligns security and business objectives.

The IBM Security zero trust blueprints help address the following business initiatives:

  • Preserve customer privacy – The capabilities and integrations in this privacy blueprint tie together the security and compliance capabilities that help organizations protect the integrity of customer data and manage privacy regulations.
  • Secure the hybrid and remote workforce – With the hybrid workforce blueprint, organizations can build a workforce that can connect securely to any application on any network, from any location using any device
  • Reduce the risk of insider threat – With the insider threat blueprint, organizations can manage insider threats from every vector proactively, helping to strengthen resiliency and limit business disruption.
  • Protect the hybrid cloud – The hybrid cloud blueprint can help organizations modernize their security program with visibility and control over the most sensitive data and activities as they migrate to the cloud.

IBM Security believes that an open approach is required to address the fragmentation and complexity challenges facing security teams as they adopt a zero trust strategy. To help simplify and connect security across companies’ broader ecosystem of vendors, IBM is collaborating with leading technology partners. The Zscaler alliance partnership is a critical component of the zero trust approach to assist organizations with simplifying remote work and network security modernization.

“Working from anywhere, combined with enterprises’ move to SaaS and the cloud, has effectively rendered the perimeter security model obsolete and traditional security defenses ineffective,” said Jay Chaudhry, Chairman, CEO and Founder of Zscaler. “The only way to truly secure today’s digital businesses is to adopt a zero trust security model where validated user identity is combined with business policies for direct access to authorized applications and resources. Our alliance partnership with IBM Security, as part of the Zscaler Zero Trust Ecosystem, is helping organizations and their employees fully embrace working from anywhere while protecting enterprise data.”