According to CSO.com “Zero Trust is a security concept centered on the belief that organizations should not automatically trust anything inside or outside its perimeters and instead must verify anything and everything trying to connect to its systems before granting access.”
It goes on to say that the 2017 Annual Cybercrime Report from Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. Let’s face it: cybersecurity is big business. And industry analysts are being inundated with calls asking about Zero-Trust and the technologies for it are starting to go mainstream.
David Fudenberg, VLAB Chair of Alliances and Partnerships, is chairing the April 9 VLAB panel at Stanford on Zero-Trust Cybersecurity: Trust No One. He chatted with VLAB blogger Michelle McIntyre about why he stepped up to lead a panel and what he thinks about this white-hot cybersecurity trend.
Michelle: What is your day job?
David Fudenberg: I consult with startups in Silicon Valley and China in Product Development
Michelle: What was your first VLAB event and why did you decide to step up as an event chair?
David: I’ve chaired events in the past such as Open Data Center Networking. What attracts me to VLAB is the unique focus on both business and technology.
David Fudenberg
Michelle: Why did you pick the topic of Zero Trust Cybersecurity? Is this something that is available now or is it more “future tech?” What are its real-world implications?
David: Zero Trust is both here and not here. Everyone in the security space talks about this, few actually do it. In the last century, companies kept all their IP in their headquarters and protected it via a moat—a perimeter firewall. Yet over the last 10 years, most companies have part of their data in the cloud: be it AWZ, Azure, Google, etc. This has led to a need to deeply rethink the security paradigm.
Michelle: What is your philosophy of work and/or life?
David: Always look to challenge yourself!
The “Zero-Trust” panel at Stanford is being moderated by Randy Wood, vice president, public sector, Akamai Technologies, with senior executive panelists from Aporeto, Illumio, Dell Technologies Capital and VMWare. It’s at Stanford’s Hauck Auditorium. Buy tickets at vlab.org.
About the Author: Michelle McIntyre, a Silicon Valley PR consultant and IBM vet is VLAB’s blogger. She loves to write about how science and technology are changing the way we work and live. @FromMichelle on Twitter
Follow VLAB @VLAB on Twitter as well! See you April 9!