Category: #INDUSTRY RESEARCH

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2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge (SSE)

Security service edge is a dynamic market that consolidates multiple access-related point offerings into a single cloud-centric converged offering. This Magic Quadrant will help buyers evaluate key vendors ideally in the context of a SASE strategy.

Market Definition/Description

Gartner defines security service edge (SSE) as an offering that secures access to the web, cloud services and private applications regardless of the location of the user, the device they are using or where that application is hosted. SSE protects users from malicious and inappropriate content on the web and provides enhanced security and visibility for the SaaS and private applications accessed by end users.

Security service edge provides a primarily cloud-delivered solution to control access from end users and devices to applications, as well as websites and the internet. It provides a range of security capabilities, including adaptive access based on identity and context, malware protection, data security and threat prevention, as well as the associated analytics and visibility. It enables more direct connectivity for hybrid users by reducing latency and providing the potential for improved user experience. Capabilities that are integrated across multiple traffic types and destinations allow a more seamless experience for both users and administrators while maintaining a consistent security stance.

Mandatory Features

The mandatory features of this market include:

– Management and data planes that are primarily cloud-delivered
– Identity-aware forward proxy with decryption and protection capabilities
– In-line protection of data in SaaS and private apps
– Out of band protection of data in SaaS apps via API integration
– Adaptive and granular access control supporting both devices with an SSE agent (or similar traffic steering method) and devices with no local SSE software or configurations
– Integration with external identity providers

    Common Features

    The common features of this market include:

    – Single integrated console supporting all features and functions of the platform
    – Ability to apply controls consistently across multiple network and application destinations
    – Support for managing and securing traffic from all common endpoints (such as Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices)
    – Integration with key enterprise technologies such as security information and event management (SIEM), extended detection and response (XDR), SD-WAN and other adjacent technologies
    – Support for published and documented APIs that are accessible to the customer and that allow automation of common tasks and integration with other security platforms
    – Curated, managed and risk-scored catalogs of SaaS applications
    – Control of traffic on all ports and protocols
    – Remote browser isolation (RBI) to enhance security across all network destinations and channels
    – SaaS security posture management for visibility and remediation of SaaS configurations and visibility into SaaS plug-in applications
    – Continuous adaptive access controls across all channels based on initial connection status and any change in state during connection
    – Read, write and act upon labels from common data classification platforms
    – Embedded user entity behavior analytics (UEBA) to provide automated detection and response for anomalous and risky device and user behaviors
    – Ability to apply advanced data protection capabilities

    Read the full report: https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-2L1V48AF&ct=250521&st=sb

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    2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SASE Platforms

    The SASE platform market is evolving as more vendors enter the market and offerings mature. Still, there is differentiation in vendor capabilities and strategies. I&O leaders responsible for networking and cybersecurity should use this research to help determine the right vendor for their needs.

    Strategic Planning Assumption

    By 2028, 70% of SD-WAN purchases will be part of a single-vendor SASE Platform offering, up from 25% in 2025.

    By 2028, 50% of new SASE deployments will be based on a single-vendor SASE Platform offering, up from 30% in 2025.

    Market Definition/Description

    Gartner defines single-vendor secure access service edge (SASE) offerings as those that deliver multiple converged-network and security-as-a-service capabilities, such as software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN), secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), network firewalling and zero trust network access (ZTNA). These offerings use a cloud-centric architecture and are delivered by one vendor.

    SASE securely connects users and devices with applications. It supports branch office, remote worker and on-premises general internet security, private application access and cloud service consumption use cases.

    Must-Have Capabilities

    The must-have capabilities for this market include the following functionalities, primarily delivered as a cloud service:

    • Secure web access via proxy
    • In-line SaaS visibility and access controls
    • Identity-, context- and policy-based secure remote access to private applications
    • A branch appliance that supports dynamic traffic steering out of multiple physical, locally attached WAN interfaces, with steering based on applications (not just IPs/ports)
    • Firewalling to secure traffic bidirectionally across networks
    • Centralized management that covers all of the above capabilities of the offering (with both GUI and API) enabling visibility, troubleshooting, reporting and enables granular configuration and policy changes

    Standard Capabilities

    The standard capabilities for this market include:

    • Unified management delivered by a single console covering all capabilities of the offering (with GUI and API) enabling visibility, troubleshooting, reporting, and enabling granular configuration and policy changes
    • The ability to secure end-user browsing via RBI or a secure enterprise browser
    • Sensitive data visibility and control

    Optional Capabilities

    The optional capabilities for this market include:

    Advanced network functionality, including enhanced internet, private backbone transport, content delivery networks, external DNS services, cloud onramps (simplified and automated integration with public cloud networking services), or advanced branch networking features

    Security capabilities, such as network sandboxing, DNS protection, SaaS security posture management (SSPM), API-based access to SaaS for data context and configuration information, application layer visibility and protection, and continuous adaptive risk scoring.

    Read the report: https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-2LEQDK91&ct=250708&st=sb

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    The Forrester Wave™: Zero Trust Platforms, Q3 2025

    Unified Platforms Streamline Zero Trust Adoption

    Forrester introduced the Zero Trust Model of information security almost two decades ago. Since its inception, Zero Trust has moved from being a concept to a legitimized security approach, resulting in its global acceptance and the practical application of its principles across multiple industries — private and public. Some security pros, however, were reluctant to adopt Zero Trust due to limited knowledge or lack of organizational alignment, or they were stymied by their existing infrastructures and mounting technical debt. These challenges were never about accepting the concept of Zero Trust; they were about gaining organizational buy-in, effectively and efficiently operationalizing it with existing and emerging technologies, and making the strategic (and mental) shift to embrace a different way of doing things. Over time, the vendor community recognized that Zero Trust was the de facto security model of the future, built Zero Trust features into their products, and, subsequently, integrated those discrete products and capabilities into platforms.

    Zero Trust platform customers using this evaluation to inform a purchase decision should consider:

    1. The need to balance best-of-breed tools with platform solutions. Balancing best-of-breed tools and platform solutions is key to an effective security stack. Best-of-breed tools offer specialized capabilities, while platforms provide integration and centralized management. Overreliance on either can cause issues — complexity and cost from best-of-breed tools or vendor lock-in and, potentially, reduced innovation from platforms. The ideal approach uses platforms for core controls, enhanced by best-of-breed tools to address specific risks, to support a more resilient Zero Trust architecture.

    2. The criticality of data correlation for effective security orchestration. Zero Trust platforms enable better insights through streamlined management and visibility to support better data correlation across multiple security functions. But this depends on the breadth and depth of the platform’s native and third-party integrations for a holistic view of core security technologies within the stack. Key integrations and interoperability lead to successful deployments. These can have a profound impact on security tasks, including policy creation and optimization, threat detection, remediation, and improved incident response accuracy.

    3. The difference between AI-enhanced and AI-driven value. Most Zero Trust platforms now offer AI-powered capabilities across the security stack. However, the line between marketing and meaningful innovation is often blurred. AI-enhanced platforms improve existing controls, helping analysts detect threats faster or optimize policies. AI-driven platforms go further. They proactively orchestrate policy changes, manage access, and verify identities in real time, often with minimal human input. Organizations must identify the right fit for their individual Zero Trust journey by considering current skill sets, risk tolerance, and operational maturity.

    Evaluation Summary

    The Forrester Wave™ evaluation highlights Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders (see Figures 1 and 2). We intend this evaluation to be a starting point only and encourage clients to view product evaluations and adapt the findings based on their priorities using Forrester’s interactive provider comparison experience.

    Read the report: https://reprint.forrester.com/reports/the-forrester-wavetm-zero-trust-platforms-q3-2025-43d86381/index.html

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    CISO Perspectives and Progress in Deploying Zero Trust

    The principles of Zero Trust have been around for over a decade. Yet recently, the term and its implementation have garnered a lot more attention for enterprises protecting their IT systems. With the advancement of digital transformation, the shift of the workforce during the pandemic, and the announcement of the US executive order on cybersecurity, Zero Trust has taken a front seat as a promise for protecting enterprises.

    Further analysis of the findings will allow CSA to help define guidance in access management, policy enforcement, Zero Trust scaling issues, and other challenges identified by practitioners in the survey. Through the survey and upcoming report, CSA is looking to learn where C-level executives are in terms of their Zero-Trust strategies, pain points, vendor needs, management requirements/oversight, technical considerations, legacy challenges, adoption rates, and stakeholder involvement. CSA is dedicated to educating the C-suite, board members, staff, and stakeholders on the benefits of Zero Trust.
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    Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) vừa thực hiện một khảo sát đối với các CISO về Zero Trust. Đối tượng khảo sát bao gồm 823 người, trong đó có 219 người là C-Level. Một số kết quả thú vị của khảo sát bao gồm:
    • 80% C-level xem Zero Trust là ưu tiên cho tổ chức của họ
    • 94% đang trong quá trình triển khai các chiến lược về Zero Trust
    • 77% đang tăng ngân sách dành cho Zero Trust trong 12 tháng tới

    Với khảo sát này, có thể thấy rằng Zero Trust ngày càng quan trọng với các tổ chức. Vì vậy, mình vẫn luôn động viên mọi người tìm hiểu thêm về Zero Trust nhưng phải hiểu đúng và hiểu sâu thì áp dụng mới thực sự hiệu quả được. Mình sẽ tiếp tục chuỗi Zero Trust Sharing for Community của mình từ 30/7 và sẽ tiếp tục đến đủ các miền của đất nước nhé. Còn trước mắt thì mọi người xem thêm báo cáo khảo sát chi tiết ở đây nhé: https://bit.ly/3yiblBF

    Trân trọng,
    Philip Hung Cao
    TekFarmer Dharmakāya #tekfarmer
    Cyber & Zero Trust Evangelist

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    Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report Vol.6

    Misconfigurations continue to be at the center of almost every known cloud security incident. However, if you look closely under the hood, many times it is the result of a few poorly written policies around identity and access management (IAM). IAM is the most critical and complex component that governs the authentication and authorization of every resource in a cloud environment. Put simply: IAM is the first line of defense in most cloud environments. In this report, Unit 42 researchers analyzed 680,000+ identities across 18,000 cloud accounts and over 200 different organizations to understand their configurations and usage patterns. The research reveals that nearly all cloud identities are overly permissive, and many grant permissions that are never used. Additionally, 53% of cloud accounts allow weak password usage and 44% allow password reuse. Unfortunately, malicious adversaries appear to know this as well. Unit 42 researchers have created an industry-first Cloud Threat Actor (CTA) Index, which charts the operations performed by actor groups that target cloud infrastructure. Importantly, researchers have also found that each of the CTA groups target cloud IAM credentials. Overall, the findings indicate that when it comes to IAM in the cloud, organizations struggle to put good governance in place, opening the door for malicious actors to have wider access to cloud environments..
    ——————————————————
    Khi nói đến bảo mật đám mây, danh tính là tuyến phòng thủ đầu tiên. Vì vậy, để hiểu các chính sách IAM ảnh hưởng đến bảo mật đám mây như thế nào, Unit 42 đã phân tích hơn 680.000 danh tính trên 18.000 tài khoản đám mây của hơn 200 tổ chức trên toàn cầu. Và kết quả thật đáng để chúng ta lưu tâm:

    – 99% người dùng, vai trò, dịch vụ và tài nguyên trên đám mây được cung cấp các quyền hạn quá mức cần thiết
    – 65% các sự cố về bảo mật/ANTT/ATTT đã biết trên đám mây là có cấu hình sai và chưa chuẩn
    – 53% các tài khoản đám mây cho phép sử dụng mật khẩu yếu và 44% cho phép tái sử dụng lại mật khẩu cũ

    Unit 42 cũng lần đầu tiên đưa ra Cloud Threat Actor Index của ngành và cho phép tra cứu các hoạt động thực hiện bởi các nhóm tấn công nhắm vào hạ tầng đám mây.

    Thân mời mọi người xem chi tiết báo cáo nhé: https://bit.ly/3vB1LIK

    Trân trọng,
    Philip Hung Cao
    TekFarmer Dharmakāya #tekfarmer
    Cyber & Zero Trust Evangelist

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