Why CISOs Are Looking to Lateral Security to Mitigate Ransomware

Findings from two eye-opening surveys conducted by VMware show that ransomware remains a top concern for enterprises worldwide. As IT and security leaders and chief information security officers (CISOs) look for answers, many are turning to deeper deployment and investment in lateral security tools.

What is lateral security?  It leverages both access control and advanced threat prevention strategies and consists of a set of systematic, omnipresent tools deployed between the perimeter and endpoints. Key lateral security tools include:

• Network segmentation
• Micro-segmentation
• Advanced threat prevention capabilities such as intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS)
• Network sandboxes

Network traffic analysis/network detection and response (NTA/NDR

Ransomware By the Numbers

To understand the value of lateral security tools, it’s important to first assess the current state of ransomware. The number of attacks continues to grow unabated, with a 13% increase from 2020 to 2021—a larger increase than the previous five years combined.

This trend was echoed in a 2022 VMware survey of 200 IT and security leaders in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Approximately one-third of the survey respondents work for a company with 1,001 to 5,000 employees, one-third represent companies with 5,001 to 10,000 employees, and one-third represent companies with more than 10,000 employees.