Zero Trust has seen an explosion in popularity TechRadar Skip to main content TechRadar is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's why you can trust us. Zero Trust has seen an explosion in popularity By Sead Fadilpašić published 17 August 2022 Use of Zero Trust is up 500% in four years (Image credit: Image Credit: Xtock / Shutterstock ) Audio player loading… Zero Trust, a security framework that requires all users and endpoints (opens in new tab) to be continuously authenticated and authorized, is growing increasingly popular as businesses look to stay secure. new research has found. A poll of 700 director-and-above security decision-makers across many industries by Okta found 97% of businesses now have a Zero Trust (opens in new tab) initiative or are planning on having one within the next 18 months. That's up by more than 500%, compared to 2018, when just 16% said the same. Planning and challenges While the popularity of the Zero Trust security framework seems to be going off the charts, not every region in the world shares the same enthusiasm. While 59% of North American businesses have a strategy set up, as well as 50% of those in the APAC region, just 36% of businesses in the EMEA region can say the same. European businesses will catch up to their North American counterparts soon enough though, as the investment in the region grows bigger (90% are increasing their budgets, compared to 83% in APAC and 77% in North America). Finding the right talent to implement and support Zero Trust seems to be the biggest challenge for businesses everywhere, with EMEA firms also being somewhat worried about budgeting. Read more> Why Zero Trust cybersecurity relies on people as much as tech (opens in new tab) > Zero Trust: designing an authorization model for enterprises (opens in new tab) > Our roundup of the best identity theft protection services and ID protection providers around (opens in new tab) Overall, for four in five (80%), identity is important to their Zero Trust security strategy. Another 19% call it "business critical", meaning that virtually all firms (99%) see identity as a major factor in their Zero Trust strategy. A quarter (26%) of CISOs and other C-Suite execs describe it as business-critical. Another key challenge for the implementation of Zero Trust is the balance between usability and security. While the shift towards security is more pronounced in APAC and North America, businesses in the EMEA region seem to be more balanced. "Companies are now leveraging pandemic-era investments in usability, and catching up on some security debt," said Ian Lowe, Head of Industry Solutions, EMEA at Okta. "But increasingly, they are also realizing that stronger security and better usability aren't necessarily at odds anymore. Passwordless technologies, as an example, simultaneously improve the user experience by making logging in frictionless, whilst also being more secure."These are the best authentication and single sign-on (SSO) apps (opens in new tab) out there Sead Fadilpašić Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he's written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He's also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications. See more Computing news Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to theTechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. MOST POPULARMOST SHARED1PC gamers are shunning high-end GPUs – spelling trouble for the Nvidia RTX 40902It looks like Fallout's spiritual successor is getting a PS5 remaster3Samsung's smaller micro-LED 4K TV might finally be on the way to battle OLED4A whole new breed of SSDs is about to break through5New Anker wireless earbuds offer a feature AirPods Pro can't – and for cheaper1A whole new breed of SSDs is about to break through25 reasons you should buy a cheap phone over an expensive one3Sorry Skyrim lovers, the RPG is now officially old4Even the awesome Sony A95K 4K TV can't escape QD-OLED's 'big' problem5I tested the Sonos Sub Mini with all 3 Sonos soundbars, and here's what I thought Technology Magazines (opens in new tab)● (opens in new tab)The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviewsFrom$12.99 (opens in new tab)View (opens in new tab)