COVID-19 has slowed the adoption of many technologies, as budgets require organizations to reconsider business priorities. However, a new poll from Deloitte shows that for organizations shifting to a security-centric business model, zero trust may be even more of a priority than before. In fact, 35.2% of professionals at organizations adopting zero trust say the pandemic has not changed the speed with which their organizations adopt the framework and 37.4% say the pandemic has sped-up their organizations’ zero trust adoption efforts.

Zero trust is a security model based on the principle of maintaining strict access controls and not trusting anyone by default, even those already inside the network perimeter.

With a greater emphasis on digitizing the business and embracing remote work, organizations are turning to a zero trust model to stay secure. Professionals say zero trust adoption is often driven by the framework’s ability to help manage cyber risks including workforce risks like remote work and insider threats (35.7%) and third party risk (24.8%).

Another interesting finding of the comprehensive report (and one that is a challenge for organizations worldwide) is that when asked "Which has posed the greatest challenge to your organization’s adoption of Zero Trust?" 28.3% of respondents noted lack of skilled professionals and another 28.1 noted lack of needed budget.