Okta, CrowdStrike, Netskope, and Proofpoint to Secure Remote Work

Okta, Inc., CrowdStrike, Inc., Netskope, and Proofpoint, Inc. announced the companies are coordinating to help organizations implement an integrated, zero trust security strategy required to protect today’s dynamic and remote working environments.

COVID-19 has ignited a rapid shift to remote work, moving people and assets outside the confines of a traditional perimeter. This evolving threat landscape has increased the opportunities for targeted attacks, presenting security teams with a complex set of challenges rooted in disparate systems and data, a wider range of managed and unmanaged endpoints, and end-user access to hundreds of applications required for everyday work. According to Okta’s Businesses@Work (from Home) report, phishing attacks have increased more than 600% since the end of February and peripherally, the FBI issued a warning against these and other COVID-19 scams. Against this high-risk backdrop, security and IT teams are finding themselves urgently deploying stronger security solutions without the practical guidance needed for execution.

Okta, CrowdStrike, Netskope, and Proofpoint are enabling security and IT professionals with the knowledge and integrated product solutions they need to manage security for distributed work environments which are quickly becoming permanent due to the pandemic. Together, these technologies represent four best-of-breed solutions that form the core pillars of a modern, comprehensive security architecture. The companies will offer integrated solutions, advanced insights, and reference architectures, in addition to implementation best practices, accounting for end-user, device, network, and data security, demonstrating the fundamental components of a modern zero-trust approach.

“In the face of the changing way in which we work, it has become unequivocally critical to adopt the right long-term security strategies for a remote-first workforce,” said David Bradbury, Chief Security Officer, Okta. “Data, assets, and employees are only going to continue to shift further from the office perimeter, making it the responsibility of security leaders to know and be able to explain to their boards, who has access to what information, where it’s being stored, and how it’s being encrypted. By further enhancing our integrations with CrowdStrike, Netskope, and Proofpoint, organizations of any size can benefit from a complete understanding of how to implement a modern, identity-centric, zero-trust security ecosystem to meet their immediate needs accelerated by the pandemic, and arguably just as important, to future-proof for what’s ahead.”

“One of the unexpected outcomes of COVID-19 was that it served as a litmus test for where organizations stood in their digital transformation journey.  As ‘work from anywhere,’ becomes the norm, IT teams will look to minimize business interruptions and exposure to threats with cloud-native solutions that scale quickly in any environment,” said Amol Kulkarni, Chief Product Officer, CrowdStrike. “CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform was purpose-built in the cloud to allow customers to easily and remotely deploy, manage, and protect their workloads at scale irrespective of where their workforce is located. We are proud to partner with Okta, Proofpoint, and Netskope to assist IT teams in implementing a zero-trust strategy that uses the endpoint posture as a critical piece in enabling conditional access and moves beyond the network perimeter to secure dynamic work environments.”

“All of the flux and forced mobility as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic means that security teams are evolving and transforming rapidly to keep their sensitive data safe, while also trying to understand what the ‘new normal’ looks like for running their business outside of the traditional office and on-premises security perimeter,” said Lamont Orange, Chief Information Security Officer, Netskope. “Netskope’s security cloud platform provides unrivaled visibility and real-time data and threat protection when accessing cloud services, websites, and private apps from anywhere, on any device. And we’ve extended our value to customers through integrations with best-of-breed partners to protect endpoint devices and intelligently extend identity-based governance and compliance.” “People are the primary targets for attackers, especially as more users are working remotely,” said Ryan Kalember, Executive Vice President of Cybersecurity Strategy, Proofpoint. “Zero trust helps ensure the compromise of a single user doesn’t turn into a much bigger breach. Our people-centric approach delivers protection against today’s complex people-targeted attacks, defending against phishing, malware, and cloud account compromise. We mitigate the most critical security risks with deep visibility into highly targeted users, as well as provide vital awareness training to build user resilience.”