Obviously, there’s no guarantee that your files will be unlocked even after you make the payment. In most cases, it’s a slippery slope, with ransomware gangs preying on the less tech-savvy and demanding increasing sums of money. All it takes is a single malicious file download to spread the infection throughout your hard drive.

This is a serious problem for companies, especially if an unsuspecting employee downloads ransomware on to their computer. There’s a risk of the entire network being held hostage, which could effectively grind business to a halt. But obviously that’s also a problem for individuals—no one is safe from ransomware.

Therein comes the phrase “ZERO TRUST” which has been a buzzword for some time. According to Crowdstrike, Zero Trust is a security framework requiring all users, whether in or outside the organization’s network, to be authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated before being granted or keeping access to applications and data.

The principle of zero trust and expenditures toward getting organizational policies, procedures, and infrastructure closer to delivering it, is gaining acceptance as constituting a fundamental component of information security programs.

Chief Information Security Officer (CISOs) and others responsible for security have clearly shifted from a “defend the fort” approach to one in which they recognize that despite their valiant efforts to protect information and information systems, they must assume that their respective organizations have suffered cyber-breaches about which they are unaware.

As a result, cybersecurity programs must be crafted and implemented not only to defend against lateral movement through data systems by so called “authorized users” but also to treat users on internal networks as if they were no more trustworthy than users accessing via Internet-based connections emanating from halfway around the work.

Today, cybersecurity professionals must deem all traffic – including traffic for communications occurring solely on internal networks under their purview – as potentially dangerous.