Liat Shentser, VP of Solutions Consulting for EMEA at Zscaler, highlighted that at LEAP, the company showcased Zero Trust solutions, AI-driven security, and simplified cloud connectivity to enable secure digital transformation.
What were Zscaler’s key priorities at this year’s LEAP, and how does the event align with your vision for securing digital transformation in the region?
At this year’s LEAP, Zscaler’s primary focus was on expanding brand awareness and reinforcing our presence throughout the Middle East and Africa region, with a particular emphasis on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A crucial objective was to educate enterprises on the fundamental differences between outdated legacy security approaches and Zscaler’s cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform. This distinction is vital for organizations aiming to prioritize both robust security and seamless connectivity.
LEAP provided us an invaluable platform to engage with prospects, existing customers, potential partners, and government institutions. Through these interactions, we aimed to further disseminate our message and empower enterprises to achieve their security goals and simplify their operational processes. This aligns perfectly with our vision for securing digital transformation in the region, by fostering a deeper understanding of modern security paradigms and enabling organizations to confidently navigate the complexities of a cloud-centric world.
How has the Zscaler’s Edge Zero Trust Exchange platform redefined cybersecurity for organisations, and what unique advantages does it offer compared to traditional security models?
“Think back to the pre-COVID era, a time when the office was the central hub of work. Applications and essential tools resided within on-premises data centers, and security relied heavily on traditional firewalls and VPNs. Employees connected securely through these established systems, and remote access was achieved by extending the network via VPN.
However, these traditional security measures, primarily based on IP address technologies, constantly broadcast their presence, creating a visible attack surface. This ‘always on’ exposure made them inherently vulnerable; attackers could detect their presence, breach the network perimeter, move laterally, and exfiltrate sensitive data. Then, the pandemic accelerated the already ongoing digital transformation, drastically changing the work landscape. Employees began working from anywhere, using any device, and accessing any application. This shift necessitated a new approach to security.
Zscaler’s cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform was designed to address this new reality, securely connecting anyone to anything without placing them directly on the network. This represents a significant departure from legacy firewalls that simply passed traffic without deep inspection. Instead, all traffic is routed through Zscaler’s intelligent Exchange platform, where granular policies and rules are applied, inspecting, decrypting, and encrypting all data at scale. Based on these policies, connections are either granted, denied, or isolated through browser isolation, where users interact with pixels, preventing data exfiltration or unauthorized sharing.
This approach revolutionizes enterprise security, eliminating the need to invest in and maintain expensive on-premises IT infrastructure, and instead providing enhanced security, simplified operations, increased productivity, and significant cost savings. Zscaler empowers organizations to embrace the modern workforce and secure collaboration in a dynamic environment.”
How is Zscalar leveraging AI to enhance threat detection, response and automation within its security solutions? And what impact does it have on enterprises navigating the complex cyber threats?
Zscaler leverages its vast network of approximately 50 million users, generating around 500 billion daily transactions, to train its AI-powered security platform. This AI was instrumental in detecting similar threats, identifying behavioral anomalies, and monitoring end-user experiences to pinpoint the root causes of security or access issues. It is emphasized that unlike many vendors who simply used AI as a buzzword, Zscaler’s approach is focused on the “why” behind AI deployment, rather than solely the “how.” Zscaler significantly enhanced threat detection, response, and automation within its security solutions by utilising AI to analyse the extensive data gathered from end-users. This can profoundly impact enterprises navigating complex cyber threats, providing them with a more robust and effective defense mechanism.
As Saudi organisations accelerate their cloud and digital transformation journeys, how is Zscaler helping enterprises and government entities adopt a zero-trust architecture while ensuring compliance with local cybersecurity regulations?
As Saudi organizations accelerate their cloud and digital transformation journeys, Zscaler focuses on educating them about the core principles of Zero Trust architecture and its crucial role in mitigating vulnerabilities within these evolving environments.
Recognizing that digital and cloud transformation inherently shift data and applications away from on-premises data centers, Zscaler emphasizes the need to secure the increasingly complex interactions between users, devices, and applications across the internet. The sheer scale and complexity of connecting diverse entities, including IoT and OT devices, to numerous cloud destinations can overwhelm traditional security infrastructures, leading to significant overhead and complexity.
Zscaler simplifies this by offering a streamlined architecture, akin to the simplicity of connecting to public Wi-Fi, where security policies are applied at the edge, eliminating the need for complex on-premises hardware. This approach is particularly beneficial for organizations undergoing mergers and acquisitions, where integrating disparate security policies and user behaviors can be challenging.
Zscaler’s solution reduces integration times, facilitates secure access to private applications, and provides comprehensive visibility through its digital experience monitoring. This delivers peace of mind, simplifies operations, reduces costs, enhances user experience, and ensures security at scale, all while enabling compliance with local cybersecurity regulations.