Micro-Segmentation Used by 83% of Cybersecurity Leaders

Four out of five cybersecurity leaders now use micro-segmentation to protect corporate networks, according to a new study by cybersecurity company Byos.

Micro-segmentation is the creation of zones in data centers and cloud environments. It allows workloads to be isolated from one another and secured individually.

Byos surveyed 100 cybersecurity leaders in the third quarter of 2021 about their use of micro-segmentation strategies. The company’s findings – published in the report State of Microsegmentation in Network Security – indicate that micro-segmentation is being widely employed in addition to traditional perimeter-based security.

Researchers found that 83% of cybersecurity leaders currently augment their corporate network’s security with some form of micro-segmentation. Of the 17% of cybersecurity leaders who aren’t using  micro-segmentation right now, nearly two-thirds (65%) say that they intend to use it at some point in the future. 

Over a third (35%) of cybersecurity professionals who have yet to implement micro-segmentation said that they currently lack the people necessary to enact the strategy. Almost as many said that they lacked the budget to implement micro-segmentation (29%), or that they didn’t have enough time to set micro-segmentation up (29%).

For those who have already made the shift to micro-segmentation, 88% of cybersecurity leaders said that they believe micro-segmentation is essential to achieving zero trust network security. Even more leaders – 92% – said that they believe micro-segmentation “is more practical and efficient than its alternatives.”

Explaining what features were important when choosing a micro-segmentation solution, 76% of cybersecurity leaders said real-time threat management. Secure remote access and a ransomware kill switch were listed as major draws by 67% and 62%, respectively. 

“When Gartner first identified micro-segmentation as a key emerging technology for information security in 2016, many security experts were unfamiliar with the concept, but here we are just five years later, and we see that it has been widely recognized as a crucial component of any security infrastructure,” said Matias Katz, Byos founder and CEO. 

“Today, there is little doubt that micro-segmentation is an important method for stopping attackers from moving laterally to other systems once they have compromised a network. Our solution takes the complexity out of micro-segmentation, making it easier for IT teams to implement.”