Zscaler - Experts & Thought Leaders

Three in five businesses have experienced a significant failure caused by a supplier or third-party vendor over the past year, with 61% reporting that their cyber resilience policies are too internally-focused, according to a new report by Zscaler. Two-thirds (65%) of IT leaders believe the macroenvironment is driving significant volatility in their supply chain, causing 63% to expect a similar failure within the next 12 months. Cyber resilience policies The findings come from Zscaler’s latest report, The Ripple Effect, a study of 1,750 global IT leaders and business decision makers in companies above 500 employees. Adding to the risk, 68% reported a higher reliance on contractors and third parties than ever before, yet only four in 10 have updated their cyber resilience strategy to address this rising supply chain instability. Experienced operational disruption Andy Ward, SVP International at Absolute Security: "Last year alone we saw the extent in which high level cyber-attacks can disrupt business operation when cyber resilience isn’t robust enough to withstand disruption. The Asahi attack alone highlights the impact these incidents can have on supply chains, production and revenue." "Our recent research shows that nearly one in five organizations experienced operational disruption lasting up to two weeks following a cyber-attack, with the majority facing almost five days of downtime.” “These threats are not a matter of if but when, therefore it is essential that every organization embeds true cyber resilience into its operations. This is not just to prevent attacks, but to anticipate them, withstand them, and recover quickly enough to keep business running.” Driving continued investment Over half (52%) report that their organization’s security systems are unable to defend against current advanced threats, let alone emerging threats, with only 62% of businesses updating policies to address AI-generated threats. Worryingly, seven in 10 admitted they have limited visibility over staff use of shadow AI, despite 56% agreeing that it’s likely exposing sensitive data. The global landscape continues to be a major focus for IT and security teams, driving continued investment and defense strategies. Nine in 10 have increased their cyber resilience investment over the past 12 months, with 96% updating their cyber resilience strategy in response to external factors.

FireMon, the pioneering network security and firewall policy management company, detailed expanded support for Zero Trust microsegmentation across hybrid environments, including a deeper integration with Illumio and continued coverage for VMware NSX and Zscaler. By normalizing, analyzing, and continuously validating segmentation intent across network, virtual, and host enforcement points, FireMon helps security teams operationalize Zero Trust at enterprise scale. Firewall governance report “The future isn’t more consoles,” said Jody Brazil, CEO of FireMon. “It’s one policy playbook that proves control efficacy every day and the evidence to back it up.” Organizations using FireMon to unify segmentation and firewall governance report measurable outcomes, including up to a 90% reduction in compliance reporting time through consolidated policy data and faster validation and change reviews across the hybrid networks. They also eliminate blind spots between virtual, host, and network enforcement points, strengthening segmentation consistency, and overall control assurance. “Zero Trust only works when segmentation policies are governed and consistent across every layer,” Brazil added. “We’re giving teams one place to validate intent, spot drift, prove compliance, maintain least access, whether the control lives on a firewall, a fabric, or the host.” Making Zero Trust real with microsegmentation Regulators and industry groups are pushing beyond periodic audits toward continuous proof that controls work every day. While Zero Trust has become mainstream, many organizations still struggle to operationalize segmentation due to siloed policies and governance blind spots. Fresh telemetry from FireMon Insights found 60% of enterprise firewalls fail high-severity compliance checks on first evaluation and 34% fail at critical levels — failures that point to process and ownership issues, not just isolated misconfigurations. Unifying segmentation and firewall policy under one governance model directly addresses this challenge, allowing enterprises to prove control efficacy across every enforcement plane. Illumio label-based policies “The Illumio Platform is the enforcement engine enterprises rely on to stop lateral movement and contain breaches. As organizations scale segmentation across hybrid environments, they need governance that aligns host-level intent with broader network policy." "Our collaboration with FireMon enables customers to extend Illumio label-based policies into unified governance workflows, ensuring segmentation remains consistent, validated, and continuously enforced, strengthening breach containment,” Sarab Matharu, Director, Tech Alliances at Illumio. How host-level segmentation from Illumio Matharu added: “Our collaboration with Firemon gives organizations the visibility and governance they need to connect segmentation intent with enterprise-wide policy assurance.” This integration highlights how host-level segmentation from Illumio and centralized policy governance from FireMon combine to deliver continuous Zero Trust validation, from the data center to the endpoint. What’s new Deeper Illumio integration (host-based Zero Trust Segmentation). FireMon ingests Illumio’s label-driven policies alongside firewall and cloud controls to: Optimize Illumio-defined policies to achieve least access, detect inconsistencies between network and host policies, validate segmentation against frameworks (e.g., PCI, NIST, CIS), and automate recertification and evidence collection across enforcement planes. NSX distributed firewall groups The result is a single governance workflow that keeps segmentation intent aligned from the data center to the cloud to the endpoint. VMware NSX microsegmentation, modeled in context. FireMon visualizes NSX distributed firewall groups and rules within the same hybrid topology used for physical firewalls, enabling conflict detection across virtual and physical layers, change simulation before deployment, and automated compliance checks for NSX-managed zones. FireMon has long supported NSX policy orchestration and visibility. Zscaler cloud-delivered Zero Trust, governed centrally. By integrating Zscaler policy data, FireMon extends policy visibility, risk analysis, and reporting to SASE and firewall-as-a-service environments, aligning user-to-app paths with on-prem and cloud controls, and reducing misconfiguration risk before changes ship. Operationalizing Zero Trust with FireMon Unified topology and policy normalization. See how access is permitted or denied at the network, virtual, and host layers in one console; analyze multi-vendor rules with a consistent schema for faster troubleshooting and safer change. Continuous compliance, not audit season. Run automated checks against control baselines, track exceptions, and measure time-to-remediate across firewalls, NSX segments, Zscaler policies, and Illumio labels with evidence on demand. Change simulation and policy optimization. Design and verify segmentation and access changes before deployment; flag redundant, shadowed, or overly permissive rules to shrink attack paths and simplify audits. Scale across the environment. FireMon supports 120+ firewall and cloud platforms, so segmentation governance lands where teams already manage policy. Built for hybrid reality The integrations align with how operators run modern environments: Illumio for label-driven, host-level containment to cut lateral movement, VMware NSX for distributed microsegmentation in virtualized data centers, and Zscaler for cloud-delivered enforcement at user and app edges, all governed through FireMon’s policy management workflows.

Global cybersecurity pioneer AlgoSec has released its annual ‘The State of Network Security Report’ providing a broad view of network security in hybrid cloud environments, identifying the most popular strategies adopted by security professionals. The report sheds light on key market trends and highlights the solutions and technologies that are in demand and why, helping organizations to navigate the complexities of modern network security.       Based on two comparative surveys conducted in H2 of 2022 and 2023, AlgoSec’s research evaluated market leaders including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Check Point, Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, and more, identifying significant shifts in cloud platform adoption, deployment of firewalls and Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), as well as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) implementation. Key findings Key findings from the report include: Security, continuity, and compliance driving cloud platform selection – When selecting a cloud platform, organizations prioritize seamless integration, compliance, and robust security features. While the overall adoption of cloud platforms has grown, the ranking of different vendors has remained relatively stable. Azure continues to be the most widely used platform, closely followed by AWS, which has shown the fastest pace of growth. The growing adoption of SD-WAN – The move towards remote working and cloud computing has been the catalyst for the increased deployment of SD-WAN, ensuring secure and reliable connections across multiple locations. That is reflected in the report, with a steep decline in the number of organizations that had no SD-WAN solution from 55.2% in 2022 to 34% in 2023. The rise in SASE adoption – With network infrastructures becoming more complex, SASE has become a popular solution for organizations, consolidating multiple security functions into a single, unified, cloud service. The report found the rate of SASE adoption has increased year-on-year, with notable growth of Zscaler implementation from 21.9% in 2022 to 37% in 2023, and Prisma access implementation from 16.2% in 2022 to 22.8% in 2023. The increasing importance of firewalls in cloud estates – With more businesses looking to secure corporate resources across complex cloud networks, firewall implementation has increased as a result, providing organizations with the means to safeguard against external threats. The rate of adoption has risen significantly, with only 7.1% of respondents saying they had no firewalls deployed in 2023 - a sharp drop from the 28.4% recorded in 2022. The persistence of hybrid networks – Despite the general shift towards cloud adoption, on-premise data centers and device rollouts remain a significant feature of the network landscape. Cloud-based network security solutions “According to our research there has been greater adoption of cloud-based network security solutions across the board,” said Eran Shiff, VP Product of AlgoSec. “However, there is still progress to be made in the SD-WAN and SASE space. By identifying the key trends and the most popular solutions on the market, we can provide some much-needed clarity into the complex world of network security.”