Cloud security provider Zscaler recently held its annual ZenithLive event under the bright lights of Las Vegas. The company is a pioneer in security services edge, moving from on-premises firewalls and his VPNs to zero trust where security is delivered via cloud proxies.
Before the pandemic, the company was experiencing strong growth, but business accelerated as the proxy architecture proved simpler and more effective for remote workers than traditional VPNs. Now that people are starting to go back to the office, I’ve been watching if companies go back to firewalls and his VPNs, but most companies seem to be stuck with the evolved cloud model.
At a recent event, Zscaler unveiled several security products and services, demonstrating its proactive approach of leveraging advanced technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to protect organizations from evolving cyberthreats.
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Zscaler Generative AI uses large volumes of curated data
The new product uses generative AI to improve threat detection, prevention and response, with a focus on protecting intellectual property and customer data. Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange (ZTE) provides a large amount of curated data. Combining this with Large Language Models (LLM) will enable the company to deliver accurate and reliable artificial intelligence.
Zscaler has developed a suite of products that enable organizations to use generative AI to predict and prevent breaches.
- Zscaler Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Securely record and retain generative AI queries and outputs. DLP ensures security within an organization’s environment and simplifies auditing.
- Total AI is a comprehensive risk scoring system that evaluates the risk profile and privacy policy of various AI applications. It helps organizations make informed decisions and manage the security implications of using AI apps.
- AI visualization and access control is a new service for monitoring AI app usage. With this tool, organizations can establish policies for different user groups to precisely control access to AI apps. The tool also enables cloud-based remote browser isolation, adding an additional layer of security by limiting potentially harmful actions.
Zscaler recently introduced several other generative AI-driven products, which are currently in preview. security autopilotFor example, tools that help AI engines continuously learn from changes in cloud-based policies and logs. It recommends policies, performs impact analysis, simplifies security operations, and ultimately improves security and prevents future breaches.
another tool, Zscaler Navigator, is a simplified natural language interface that provides customers with a user-friendly way to manage and operate Zscaler products. lastly, Multimodal DLP Integrate generative AI and multimodal capabilities by extending data protection to various media formats such as video and audio. Traditional DLP tools are typically limited to text and image-based data.
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New products for cloud platforms
Also at a recent trade show, Zscaler introduced four new additions to the ZTE platform. The service was developed to combat complex cyberattacks, provide a new way to securely connect branch offices, and simplify the management process for IT professionals.
Announcement:
- Zscaler Risk360 provides IT and security leaders with an actionable picture of potential threats based on over 100 data-centric factors, using signals from inside and outside the enterprise. The service provides a complete picture of financial risk and offers recommendations in a format suitable for high-level presentations. In addition, Risk360 highlights the most important security issues for businesses to address and provides detailed plans to investigate and remediate them. Risk360 moves Zscaler from the Security Operations Center (SOC) to the boardroom. However, there are already several risk scoring tools available to businesses today, most of which collect data only from external scans. Zscaler is adding internal data, theoretically adding one more risk vendor. The risk industry is very established, and Zscaler’s ability to penetrate this industry hinges on its ability to ‘see’ things that traditional vendors can’t see.
- Zero Trust Branch Connectivity This is another new product that simplifies branch connectivity with branch appliances. The device is designed to be plug-and-play, as you simply plug it in and it auto-configures from the cloud. This is not a full SD-WAN appliance that competes with Zscaler partners, but it provides basic connectivity and onboards geolocation to the Zscaler cloud, so think of it as SD-WAN Lite, or even Zero Trust WAN can do.
- Zscaler Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Solution Continuously monitor identity misconfigurations and permissions. This is very important as cybercriminals increasingly steal user credentials for unauthorized access. The Zscaler ITDR solution tracks the state of your identity attack surface and alerts you to new risks when configurations change. Additionally, certain types of attacks can be detected and prevented in the event of a breach.
- ZSLogin Streamline IT admin authentication. It provides an easy way to check all permissions and supports passwordless multi-factor authentication. The service also provides automatic management of her identity for administrators, making the process more efficient, less error prone and less vulnerable to phishing attacks.
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Conclusion: Moving from On-Premises to Cloud-Based
At the event, we had the opportunity to speak with several Zscaler customers about moving from on-premises, VPN, and firewall-based security to cloud-based proxy architectures. Most agreed that hybrid work, mobility, and the move to the cloud are driving the need for security evolution.
Most also said that the most difficult part of migrating to Zscaler was the operational changes it caused. Many of the new AI capabilities are designed to simplify operations and increase the level of visibility so security and IT teams can understand the performance implications of moving security to the cloud .
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