Cyber Defense eMagazine May Edition for 2022

A New Paradigm for Absolute Zero Trust and
Infrastructure Resiliency
By Rajiv Pimplaskar, President and CEO, Dispersive Holdings, Inc.
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How Secure is your Public Cloud?
Public cloud is an IT model where 3 rd -party-managed on-demand computing and infrastructure services
are shared with multiple organizations using the public Internet. Over the last decade public cloud
services and SaaS applications have exponentially grown to become mainstream across governments
and enterprises worldwide. This phenomenon, coupled with the unprecedented shift of people working
from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, have “de-perimeterized” the corporate network and eroded
IT’s control over infrastructure.
Erosion of control and the rise of new and emerging threat actors have led to an “implicit trust” problem
with the network. Implicit trust occurs where a public cloud or network resource is “trusted” on a de facto
basis without meeting the burden of proof for earning that trust. Implicit trust can be very dangerous as
information is most vulnerable for a data breach or malware infection when it’s in motion. As we’ve seen
on multiple occasions over the last two years, network resources are prime targets for unauthorized
access, insider threats, code and injection attacks, Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks, privilege
escalations, as well as lateral movement.
The public cloud can also become a gateway for attacks by Nation state threat actors. The current
geopolitical events are a stark reminder of the security risks and fragility of business resiliency when
relying on public cloud infrastructures across different countries. Unquestionably, an evolved paradigm
for both securing corporate users, sensitive data and resources and assuring underlying infrastructure
resiliency is no longer a luxury – it is essential!
Cyber Defense eMagazine – May 2022 Edition 113
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