The end of the year often has us looking forward to the next and trying to gauge what is ‘On the Horizon’. In the tech world, this is especially important – as we do not want to be caught off guard or unaware of potential issues or threats that may be around the next corner.
When looking into 2021 tech trends, I came across an interesting term. That term is “Cyber Security Mesh”. Intrigued, I decided to look into it further and really had an ‘AHA!’ moment.
In the quite simplest of terms; Cyber Security Mesh is building security around the ‘user/device’ vs the network. In the IT world – the gold standard in protection is protecting everything behind the wall of the network. Everything within those walls is safe and secure but anything outside of it – if not directly connected to the network is vulnerable.
This way of thinking is riddled with potholes and potential pitfalls as more and more users use BYOD (Bring your own device) and are WFH (work from home) and conducting business on perhaps personal equipment that is not monitored or maintained by the the people that protect the company infrastructure.
Cyber Security Mesh will look to fix this problem in the future. This holistic approach involves protecting the end user/device outside of the walls of the network. There are currently some tools in place that address this such as cellphone monitoring tools (Mobile Device Management); cyber ‘nannies’, as well as using remote tools that are secured when accessing information inside of a company’s network. However, those tools may not be enough going forward. How do you protect the end user of your network if they have company data on their device but it is unmanaged and not attached to the network and it is compromised?
These are important questions that are being asked and IT providers are being tasked with answering. As hacking gets more sophisticated and more users are working OUTSIDE of the network and on BYOD – it is an interesting security challenge for sure. 2021 looks like the year that the mesh will be more fleshed out and start to be implemented in the fight against intrusions.
