Zscaler leverages AI to strengthen zero trust security

In the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, integrating zero trust principles with generative artificial intelligence heralds a new era of data security and operational efficiency.

A cloud security company uses cutting-edge approaches to strengthen security frameworks in the era of generative AI.

“Zero trust is about giving a business access to what they need, when they need it,” said Deepen the Desai (pictured), Chief Security Officer of Zscaler Inc. “The key principles of zero trust security models… #1 is never trust, always verify. Number 2 is assuming a violation. Number 3 is where you check explicitly with the least privileged access.

Desai spoke to CUBE Research Dave Vellanteco-founder and chief analyst, and John Furrierexecutive analyst, “Supercloud 6: AI Innovation” event, in an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s live streaming studio. They discussed integrating zero trust principles with generative AI to improve cybersecurity, focusing on innovative strategies for threat detection, data classification, and improving security models.

Elevating Zero Trust with Generative AI

The key principles of Zero Trust security models remain unchanged in the AI ​​era, but acquire new dimensions of application and implementation, according to Desai. The introduction of generative AI into the cybersecurity landscape accelerates the adoption and implementation of zero trust architectures by enabling more nuanced and dynamic responses to threats.

“All these bad actors are going after your data. Once inside, once they move around, they try to steal data,” Desai said. “This is where generative AI helps with data classification and security models. »

By integrating AI-driven models for data classification and security, organizations can sift through large amounts of data to more effectively identify and mitigate potential breaches. This AI-enhanced approach not only streamlines security protocols, but also improves overall security posture by predicting breach scenarios and preventing lateral movement of threats within networks.

“This is one of the most important facets of Zero Trust: Your solution must allow you to prevent this lateral spread,” Desai said. “This is where user-application segmentation needs to be simplified with advanced technologies, such as Deceptionhelps reduce the impact of the security incident.

Pioneering advanced security with AI and integration

The essential role of data in AI-based security solutions is highlighted by its fundamental contribution to improving threat detection, analysis and response mechanisms. Zscaler leverages endpoint visibility, north-south and east-west traffic analysis, and data loss prevention to create comprehensive breach prediction models, according to Desai. These models, powered by AI generation, aim to predict potential security breaches, enabling preventative measures to protect sensitive information and infrastructure.

“This is exactly the direction we are going in. The goal here is to combine visibility across the chain and enrich it with intelligence,” Desai said. “The volume of data we are seeing is approaching 400 billion transactions per day. This generates 500 trillion signals daily, and all of this, combined with the intelligence generated by the team, is what we leverage to further refine these models to predict breach-type scenarios.

There is now an urgent need for ecosystem collaboration and API integration between security platforms to combat the complexity and rapid evolution of cyber threats. No single platform can comprehensively address all security needs, Desai explained. Rather, strength lies in the ability to seamlessly integrate with other solutions to provide a unified security posture. This approach not only reduces the attack surface but also improves the effectiveness of security measures across different vectors and domains.

“If you don’t integrate well with other platforms, then you’re not essentially a platform,” Desai said. “You have to know the space you’re playing in and you have to do it well, rather than trying to pretend you can do everything.”

Here’s the full video interview, part of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE Research’s coverage on the “Supercloud 6: AI Innovation” event:

Photo: SiliconANGLE