When it comes to cybersecurity analysis, context is critical. A vast amount of information is available to help security systems make automated decisions and to allow analysts to quickly triage security events. This can boost defenses and improve the efficiency of security teams. Recognizing this, cybersecurity vendors are now integrating new elements of data context directly into their products.

Context becomes even more crucial in organizations pursuing a secure access service edge (SASE) approach to networking. SASE recognizes that users no longer all sit in a central office but instead work in a variety of places, including at an office, from home or while traveling. SASE solutions combine a set of cloud-based security services to apply dynamic policies to individuals based on the specific circumstances of each event. The more context available to a SASE system, the better the decisions it can make.

The network edge has evolved drastically in recent years. The pandemic, of course, fast-forwarded everyone’s plans for moving distributed services out to the cloud. As a result, the edge has exploded, and it’s no longer the traditional perimeter of campus and data center networks. The new edge is wherever devices are.

Cybersecurity philosophies have changed significantly over time to adapt to the changing needs of the organizations they serve. In the early days of cybersecurity, we focused on building boundaries between the “inside” and the “outside.” Users and devices that we trusted were placed inside network perimeters and granted largely unfettered access to systems and data within that environment. Those on the outside were untrusted and blocked from accessing sensitive resources. While that approach served us well for decades, it fails to meet the needs of increasingly mobile and cloud-focused organizations as well as increasingly sophisticated and covert threats and malware. The evolution of the perimeter of the network has made it difficult to draw lines between “inside” and “outside” effectively.

Zero-trust architecture (ZTA) represents a philosophical shift in cybersecurity planning that seeks to address this limitation by making trust decisions based on the identity of a user or device, rather than the location.

The COVID-19 pandemic suddenly transformed the way that we all work. Businesses around the world found themselves rapidly shifting to a remote work environment that required agile reconfiguration of systems and shifts in security policy. Cybersecurity teams scrambled to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data entrusted to their care while accommodating unprecedented remote work requirements.

Now that organizations have settled into these new work routines, it’s time to take a look at how these changes will shape future trends in the way that we work and how security teams can build controls that both facilitate remote work and foster a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity.

Let’s look at four major cybersecurity trends that will endure beyond the pandemic.

Endpoint security management has been a significant challenge for years, and the recent shift to remote work by many organizations in response to the coronavirus pandemic has only made the situation more complex. Today, IT and security professionals have even more to manage as users access sensitive data and conduct critical business activities from home.

The timing is good, then, for the emergence of secure access service edge: a new category of solutions designed to protect users — and their data — wherever each is located. Several security vendors have introduced solutions built around SASE (pronounced “sassy”), an architectural framework that places the edge wherever an organization’s devices and cloud services meet.