From external collaboration and compliance to key financial info and intellectual property, here are five areas that need Zero Trust as a priority.
In mid 2024, Gartner research found that 63% of global organizations had fully or partially-implemented a Zero Trust strategy, but these strategies only covered a small portion of the organization’s environment and that many enterprises were still “not sure what the top practices are for Zero Trust implementations.”
It’s therefore no surprise that fully embracing Zero Trust security is one of Forbes top cybersecurity trends for 2025. However, as Zero Trust is not an out-of-the-box security solution that can be rolled out in one go, enterprise organizations need to prioritize implementation where it matters most in the next 12 months. This will ultimately depend on your organization’s operations, but there are five sensitive areas that you should treat as a priority in 2025.
IBM’s 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index found that 32% of cyber incidents involve data thefts and leaks, leading to cybercriminals logging into your network more often than hacking. Therefore, if you’ve suffered a data breach before - be it an accidental internal leak, a targeted attack of your cloud applications or mix-up along the supply chain - these incidents will highlight your most pressing vulnerabilities and show you which gaps need plugging with Zero Trust as a priority in 2025.
More than half of security breaches in 2023 involved external partners and over 75% of software supply chains suffered a cyberattack between 2023-2024. From accountants and lawyers to manufacturers and software developers, if your organization shares sensitive information with third-parties (who might not have as stringent security as your own internal network), securing your supply chain is paramount. It only takes one third-party breach to infect a whole supply chain, so focus on Zero Trust tools that safeguard shared data beyond your company’s borders.
The average data breach in 2024 cost $4.88 million - not to mention the negative impact on your brand reputation. But data breaches can be even most costly if they fall foul of compliance regulations or lead to you missing out on lucrative new contracts. For example, leaked HR data could lead to GDPR violations (resulting in a fine of up to $20 million or 4% of your annual revenue) while failure to adhere to CMMC regulations will disqualify you from Department of Defense (DoD) contracts from early-to-mid 2025. Zero Trust solutions that ensure your compliance should be top of your wish-list.
Losing financial information is a reputational headache that can lead to costly cyber extortion and ransoms. But sensitive financial information - especially if lost during closed accounting periods (i.e. year-end accounts) - can lead to hefty civil and even criminal fines. Recently, regulators have been clamping down on organizations for ‘avoidable mistakes’, such as the FTC fining Equifax $575 million for a data breach of financial information in 2017. You should therefore seek to protect the systems that contain your organizations’ most sensitive financial assets as a priority, such as securing SAP data exports with Zero Trust tools.
From construction blueprints and manufacturing designs to new product templates or your latest engineering break-throughs, a security breach of business-critical IP data threatens the future of your operations and directly impacts market performance. As such, you should give preference to Zero Trust solutions that protect IP files - especially if you work in critical infrastructure (cyber attacks on essential sectors have gone up 30% in 2024). For example, if you use computer-aided design (CAD) files to create technical drawings and share them along the supply chain, you need to embed Zero Trust protection in CAD files at inception to prevent business-critical information from being copied or stolen when shared externally.
Zero Trust protection ensures your most sensitive data stays protected even if leaked or stolen, saving you money, time, stress and bad press. But Zero Trust solutions vary widely in application, and it’s important to find solutions best-suited to your operational needs.
If you use SAP to protect your financial data or CAD files for your IP, download our latest eBooks to find out more.
How to implement Zero Trust security for SAP data exports
