As hackers continue to find innovative ways to exploit vulnerabilities, online security needs a more modular and diverse approach. With the expansion and complexity of devices and processes connected to the internet (IoT) and the increasing number of access points for hackers, companies need to be more compliant than ever before.
In its 2022 Strategic Technology Prediction report, Gartner included cybersecurity mesh as one of its major tech trends yet again.
What is Cybersecurity Mesh?
An official definition is neither concrete nor straightforward for cybersecurity mesh. Instead, it refers to integrating security in a ‘horizontal’, distributed approach to a network, rather than a traditional ‘top-bottom’, all-encompassing approach.
Cybersecurity Mesh is a broader concept that involves a broader network of nodes than that of confidential computing which relates more to security around data processing.
More specifically, a Cybersecurity Mesh involves designing and implementing an IT security infrastructure that does not focus on building a single ‘perimeter’ around all devices or nodes of a network but instead creates smaller, individual perimeters around each access point.
The goal is to ensure that each access point’s security can be effectively managed from a centralized point of authority. In this way, the mesh can be viewed as centralization of your security policy, and distribution of that policy’s enforcement.
A Cybersecurity Mesh can establish a more robust, flexible and modular approach to a network’s security. By ensuring that each node has its own perimeter, it allows an IT network manager to better maintain and track different levels of access to various parts of a given network. This aims to prevent hackers from exploiting a given node’s weakness to access the broader network.
What role does this play in digital development?
A Cybersecurity Mesh approach involves a complete reconfiguration of the ‘walled cities’ approach traditional security protocols utilize, which password-protect perimeters to allow access to an entire network with permissions managed internally within the network.
Companies should ask their development team about establishing a cybersecurity mesh for their projects during the planning stage, ensuring steps are taken to mitigate cybersecurity threats on their networks.