The Zero Trust approach in Ireland: an urgent appeal by Rob Allen

Rob Allen, an Irish cybersecurity expert and vice president of cybersecurity firm ThreatLocker, has urged the Irish government to follow the US lead. Allen proposes forcing all government entities to adopt the Zero Trust approach, considered the gold standard in terms of cybersecurity. His appeal, made June 27, calls for efforts to protect state agencies and potentially save billions.

The need for a Zero Trust approach

The Zero Trust approach was introduced in the United States by President Joe Biden in 2021, following a devastating attack on the Colonial Pipeline. The approach is to apply the principle of "least privilege" by eliminating implicit trust and establishing explicit trust instead. This allows only the necessary software to run on IT systems, blocking the execution of unwanted or malicious applications. Furthermore, the implementation of the principles of Zero Trust can prevent the transformation of allowed applications into cyber weapons through limits and restrictions.

Economic and security implications of the Zero Trust approach

According to Rob Allen, Ireland urgently needs to follow a similar approach to protect its state agencies from future attacks. Allen cites the 2021 Health Service Executive (HSE) attack, which cost around €144 million, to underscore the need to adopt the Zero Trust model. A recent report from IBM estimates that a data breach could cost up to $2.98 million in organizations of fewer than 500 employees. These costs could be minimized or avoided altogether if the Irish government adopts Zero Trust foundations.

ThreatLocker and european expansion

ThreatLocker, founded in 2017 by Danny Jenkins, Sami Jenkins and John Carolan, offers a powerful and versatile zero trust endpoint protection platform. The goal is to stop ransomware and other cyber attacks by controlling what software can run on their networks. ThreatLocker recently opened its EMEA office in Dublin, creating 120 new jobs in the sector and marking its first major step towards European expansion as the EU prepares to introduce the new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)". Rob Allen, with nearly two decades of experience in the IT industry, joined the ThreatLocker team in 2021 to help deploy the company's enterprise-grade security products across the EMEA region.