The July 2023 Edition

1. Statistic of the Month

Zero Trust will replace your VPN by 2025

A recent Gartner study finds that zero trust network access is the security framework of the future and will replace virtual private networks by 2025.

The growth will continue as organisations become?familiar with ZTNA?and elect to deploy it for office workers as well. Gartner predicts that the transition from virtual private networks (VPNs) to zero-trust network access will continue, so that by 2025 at least 70% of new remote access deployments will rely on ZTNA rather than VPN services.

Taking the 2025 timeline with a pinch of salt, we have certainly seen a demand among businesses to learn more about Zero Trust solutions as a method of displacing their VPNs.

SSE offers an opportunity to remove or reduce the need for a variety of security appliances - 63% are looking to reduce and even eliminate the use of VPN according to a recent survey from Cybersecurity Insiders.

Sure, there are still some spaces where a VPN is the best option for now. But if Zero Trust is your end goal, retiring your VPN for a Zero Trust based solution is going to give you a better, more secure experience for users whilst being much easier to manage and control.

2. Tip of the Month

There’s no such thing as “too small” to be a cyberattack target anymore. If you think hackers wouldn’t be bothered to target small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), think again.?

Whether a CISO is not an option at present or a role your are looking to fill - without one, IT teams have to assume this responsibility. They even have to adopt broader perspectives when securing the entire organisation.

Our tip of the month for July includes several tactics that security teams can implement that will immediately improve your security posture - without a CISO.

1. Enable MFA
2. Enable password rotation and limit privileges
3. Promote security awareness
4. Know your security posture
5. Secure all hardware and devices

These tactics may seem basic and to some extent obvious, and certainly, they do not replace the need for a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. But putting up preventive measures now is better than having no protection at all. These can be implemented without having a full-time CISO on board and should serve as the building blocks for a more robust cybersecurity strategy.

3. Quote of the Month

Jaye Tillson provides our July Quotes of the Month - it was too hard to choose just one. Director of Strategy at Axis, acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise company in 2023 and co-founder of the Zero Trust Forum , he has quickly become one of our favourite people to follow on LinkedIn. Going from client to 'the dark side' as Jaye puts it rings very true over at Edge7 Networks with so many of our own team joining Ronan & Rory in our shared love for SD-WAN all those years ago.

An early adopter of ZTNA in his previous role, Jaye's blog discusses his ZTNA journey starting at contract renewal, the best use of his time, requirements, reviewing the different products, what he wanted to avoid, my top priorities, and how he ultimately ended up at Axis.

Some other articles from Jaye that are worth the read -

4. Article of the Month

Are we sick of hearing about AI being the good, the bad and the ugly yet?

The EU's AI Act has been the latest regulatory advancement in the world of AI. The EU has been actively working on establishing comprehensive regulations to govern AI technologies and has been developing the AI Act for the last two years.

The Act recently underwent a vote in the European Parliament, garnering overwhelming support with 499 votes in favour, 28 against, and 93 abstentions.

This legislation is set to impose explicit obligations on foundational model providers like OpenAI and Google, in efforts to regulate the use of AI and limit the dangers of the new technology.

In fact, a recent Stanford study showed that most AI models including Google’s PaLM 2 and Open AI’s GPT-4 don’t comply with the EU AI Act.

Catch up on the EU's AI Act in the WSJ Tech News Briefing:

5. Video of the Month

When it comes to?cybersecurity, there are a lot of myths & buzzwords. In this whiteboard series from?NetScaler, they cut through the noise and guide you through a journey to help secure your application delivery with the right strategies & tools.

Take a look at Parts 1 & 2 below:

6. Interactive Content of the Month

Downloadable of the Month has been replaced by Interactive Content for July because we were just dying to include the HPE Aruba Networking Test Drives.

The best way to get to know a new platform is to try before you buy. Typically via a demo session followed by PoC. Aruba have created three test drives for their SASE platform where you can try their award-winning SSE, test industry-leading secure SD-WAN, or look at our full unified SASE solution in action.

Feel free to DIY via the link below, or get in touch with us to arrange your test drive session for SD-WAN, SSE or SASE.

7. Event of the Month

Don't you love when scheduling works out? This month's event is brought to you by....us!

This Thursday, August 3rd at 10:30 Edge7 Networks are hosting a half-hour cybersecurity session taking a look at every aspect you need to know about in order to protect your business against cyberattacks.?

With security being a key priority for businesses this year, new products and features are being created daily and what you?need?to buy is controlling the hype cycle.?

In this 30 minute session, we're going to cut the noise and focus on what you need to know to protect your business today. No sales slides, no product pitches.?

Learn about the key drivers that are shaping the Cybersecurity Landscape, and more importantly what that means for your business.?

• How can you put in place the mechanism’s that will future proof your organisation from ongoing cyber risk??
• What threats are relevant to the Small to Medium size business space??
• How you can look to make yourself resilient to these and other forms of attack??

Join us on Thursday, or register to get the recording to watch later:

Another month gone - catch us next month to round up August's best-bits and close out the summer as we head into the final months of 2023!

Thanks for reading ??