The Modern Threat Landscape: Many Threats, Finite Resources
CISOs today face an onslaught of cyber threat, as illustrated below:
All of these threats are concerning, but not all pose equal risk to your core business. Ransomware and credential-based breaches (often initiated via phishing) can shut down operations or lead to massive data loss, making them top priorities. In contrast, threats like SQL injection or XSS are serious but tend to be localized to specific applications and are mitigated through secure coding and web firewalls. Likewise, DoS attacks and DNS spoofing, while disruptive, have specialized countermeasures and typically don’t enable the deep network control that ransomware or stolen credentials do. With finite resources, security leaders must prioritize defenses that neutralize the most devastating scenarios. This is where Zero Networks’ zero trust segmentation solution comes in – they are purpose-built to contain breaches and cut off attackers’ favorite pathways before widespread damage is done.
Ransomware: A Catastrophic Threat that Must Be Contained
Ransomware is every CISO’s nightmare for good reason. A single successful ransomware attack can halt an organization’s operations and result in hefty financial losses. These attacks often start with an innocuous click on a phishing email, then rapidly spread encryption malware across the network. The key to mitigating ransomware isn’t just blocking the initial infection – it’s containing the spread. This is exactly what Zero Networks’ micro segmentation is designed to do. By automatically dividing the network into isolated segments and enforcing strict, least-privilege access rules, Zero Networks essentially strands the ransomware on the machine it first hit. Even if a device is compromised, it cannot freely connect to other systems; every lateral move is blocked by default. The ransomware can’t hop to file servers, can’t encrypt network shares, and can’t reach critical databases – drastically limiting its impact.
Defeat Ransomware in Real Time with Microsegmentation
This segmentation approach blocks ransomware and lateral movement attacks by containing them at the source. In practical terms, that means if an attacker drops ransomware via a phishing email on an employee’s laptop, Zero Networks’ policies will prevent that infected machine from reaching out to anything it’s not explicitly authorized to contact. The malware is stuck trying to spread in a digital quarantine zone. Instead of an organization scrambling to contain an outbreak affecting dozens or hundreds of systems, the damage is confined to one device – a far easier scenario to manage. This ability to contain and choke off ransomware before it propagates provides a critical defensive edge. It turns a potentially business-ending event into a minor IT incident.
Just as importantly, microsegmentation buys precious time for detection and response. Even if a new or old CVE (zero-day exploit) is used to deliver ransomware (one that slips past traditional defenses because it’s never been seen before), the inability of the malware to move laterally means incident responders can swoop in and eradicate it before it spreads.
In short, robust internal segmentation acts as a firebreak: it prevents a single spark (initial compromise) from turning into a wildfire across your network. For strategic decision-makers, this approach offers confidence that even a breach won’t automatically become a worst-case scenario. It’s a proactive containment strategy, aligning with a broader zero trust philosophy of “assume breach, and limit its blast radius.”
Lateral Movement via Compromised Credentials: Cutting Off Attackers’ Paths
While ransomware grabs headlines, many breaches quietly unfold through another route: stolen or misused credentials. In fact, compromised credentials are the most common path for initiating a security breach. Phishing emails and other social engineering tricks frequently hand attackers valid login credentials, essentially giving them the keys to move about your network. Once an attacker logs in as a seemingly legitimate user (especially an administrator), they can roam your systems at will, unless you have strong internal restrictions in place. This is where Zero Networks’ Identity Segmentation and related controls make all the difference.
Restrict Privileged Logons by Default
Identity Segmentation takes the age-old principle of least privilege and turbocharges it with automation and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Zero Networks’ platform automatically learns normal login patterns for each admin and service account, then shuts off any access that isn’t explicitly needed. All admin logons are blocked by default and only enabled on a just-in-time basis after MFA verification.
In practice, this means even if an attacker steals an IT administrator’s password, simply knowing the password isn’t enough – without the second authentication factor, the attacker is locked out. And even if they somehow phish the admin’s one-time MFA code, Identity Segmentation still restricts where that admin account can go. The account won’t work on systems it was never approved to access. The end result is that lateral movement becomes virtually impossible, even with stolen credentials.
Block Golden Ticket Attacks
Zero Networks’ MFA-powered identity enforcement doesn’t just stop basic credential misuse; it even thwarts the more advanced techniques attackers use to impersonate trusted accounts. Security teams are painfully aware of attacks like Pass-the-Ticket or Golden Ticket, where attackers forge authentication tickets to act as any user in the domain. With Identity Segmentation, those tricks are neutralized – an attacker presenting a “golden ticket” still wouldn’t satisfy the real-time MFA requirement or device-specific allowances, so they hit a wall. In fact, multi-factor segmentation can block those Active Directory attack techniques outright. Even if credentials are stolen, multi-factor segmentation prevents lateral movement and blocks attacks like Pass the Ticket, Golden Ticket, and Kerberoasting. This is a game-changer: it means your crown jewels (like finance systems or domain controllers) are inaccessible to an adversary who is already inside your network with a stolen login.
Build Layered Defense with RPC Firewall
Layered on top of this is Zero Networks’ innovative RPC Firewall, which adds an additional shield against lateral movement and unauthorized actions. Many attackers will attempt to exploit Windows remote procedure calls to move from machine to machine, often leveraging those ubiquitous services to execute code remotely or extract data. The RPC Firewall, developed by Zero Networks’ research team, is a tool that detects and blocks innumerable lateral movement techniques that operate over RPC.
In effect, RPC Firewall is an unexpected roadblock for intruders. As Sagie Dulce of Zero Networks puts it: Even if a hacker has compromised an admin account and tries to use legitimate Windows tools to spread, the RPC Firewall can stop the unauthorized action in its tracks. This includes thwarting certain Man-in-the-Middle attempts and remote code execution exploits that leverage these services.
The combined result of these measures is a network where an attacker might get in, but they cannot easily move or escalate privileges. Their stolen passwords are of little use beyond the initial foothold, and their playbook of internal tricks meets dead-ends at every turn. This approach embodies a prevention-first mindset: rather than solely relying on detecting malicious activity after it happens, Zero Networks cuts off the typical routes attackers use to expand their reach. By neutralizing lateral movement, the platform ensures that a single compromised account doesn’t turn into an enterprise-wide incident. For a CISO, this means dramatically lowering the risk that an initial breach (via phishing, a zero-day exploit, or insider misuse) will snowball into a full-blown crisis. It’s like having automatic fire doors in a building – a small blaze might occur, but it won’t burn down the whole structure.
Strategic Takeaways: How Zero Neutralizes Top Cyber Threats
The threat landscape will always be crowded – from headline-grabbing ransomware to the subtler dangers of credential theft, and everything in between. The strategic challenge is deciding where to focus. Zero Networks advocates focusing on mitigating the threats that pose the gravest risk to your organization’s mission: those that can cause widespread disruption or remain undetected until it’s too late. By implementing identity segmentation, microsegmentation, and zero trust access controls, you address the lion’s share of that risk head-on. Ransomware gets neutralized before it can spread. Stolen credentials are rendered useless for anything beyond the one account they came from. Uninvited visitors – whether hackers or malware – find themselves blocked at every turn, unable to pry open new footholds.
Meanwhile, secondary threats like DoS or web application attacks are inherently reduced as well: a segmented, tightly controlled network simply has far fewer openings and far more scrutiny on abuse. In short, you’re dramatically shrinking your attack surface and containing what’s left so that no single breach can catastrophically harm the business. Request a demo to see for yourself how Zero Networks mitigates critical cyber threats – without extensive resources.