Zscaler transforming business with the power of zero trust and AI

Zenith Live ‘24: Where Zero Trust Meets AI, is currently being held in Las Vegas, USA.

Jay Chaudhry, Chairman and Founder, Zscaler, spoke about transforming business with the power of zero trust and AI. He said transformation begins with change. Legacy network and security requires an opportunity to reimage networking and security. I first did a startup. I did three more startups. In 2007-08, we saw iPhone getting launched. Apps were everywhere, as were the users. We built any-to-any zero trust communications using business policies, etc. Internet replaced private networks. Everything is invisible, and there are no public PCs.

We are empowering businesses to be more transparent. Today, Zscaler over 40% of Fortune 500 companies. We have over 40 million users secured. We are eliminating cost and complexity. We can increase the business agility. We can reduce business risks. We have seen the arrival of GenAI. It is impacting everything!

We have some top VPN vulnerabilities reported by CISA. We also have AI-generated phishing campaigns. It is getting easier, and we need to become even more smarter. There are four steps to rob a bank. Find all bank branches, two, break in, three, find cash, four, getaway. In cyber space, the attack space is every public IP. AI can identify your attack surface. They steal data, and disrupt operations.

We can fight AI with AI. We can have zero trust to disrupt the four attack stages. We need to make sure we can remove inertia. We need to look at new approaches. We came up with zero trust exchange platform for any-to-any zero trust communications. We are taking adaptive access to the next level. 

Zero trust protects against ransomware attacks. Lot of our R&D effort is in this area. We have innovative zero trust IoT/OT use cases. For critical infrastructure, we provide privileged access to ship engines over satellite. For agile warehouse, there is warehouse scanner to inventory management app. 

We are now working on new innovations. We are working on zero trust SIMs and building use cases. Eg., train monitoring system. Another is charging station. For zero trust B2B for customers, suppliers, and partners, we have recommended not extending network to partners. This minimizes third party and supply chain risks. 

Sunil Potti, GM and VP of Cloud Security at Google Cloud, was invited. He said the new endpoint is already used by billions. Zscaler is a leader in zero trust. There is no need for legacy VPNs, and no additional browser software. We have advanced security for managed and unmanaged devices. We are super excited about the journey together. There is more talk about AI today. 

Chaudhry said we have many other innovative use cases. We have zero trust B2B2C. A large bank came to us. We provide zero trust access to banking app from your mobile phone. We believe consolidation and customization are necessary. Consolidate to a few security platforms. It gives you different layers of security. 

Buying apps and security from the same vendor is never wise. It is like a fox guarding the hen house. Zscaler platform consolidates the point products, and simplifies IT. 

We are now investing in key technology areas. Every day, we 400 billion+ transactions. New cyber innovations include attack surface management, identity protection, etc. We are protecting AI models. We are taking prompt security to new heights. 

Gene Sun, CISO, FedEx, said FedEx connects the world with commerce. We are now securing a massive digital network. We have over 500+ million daily package tracking requests. FedEx replaced legacy network solutions with zero trust architecture. We have a zero trust exchange. We have also transitioned global VPN to Zscaler. 

Key to success include, integrated with reliable, always-on identity provider, leveraged Zscaler as a partner, etc. We have elevated security, increased productivity, and reduced cost and complexity. The employee and user experience is getting much better since then.  We need to make security kings the heroes of our organization.

Chaudhry said we have unified data protection across all areas. One is securing GenAI. We can manage which user groups can use GenAI apps. We also have new data protection investments. 

We are also focusing on zero trust networking. Our goal is to simplify networking, and get more traffic on the cloud. Our dream is that every branch becomes like Starbucks. We have provided user to app segmentation. We have workload to workload segmentation. We are bringing zero trust inside the branch and the factory, and also the campus. 

Frank McAloon, VP, Digital Workplace & Security Delivery, CBS Health, said we have 300K purpose-driven colleagues. We serve 120+ million customers. We started this journey with Zscaler to secure outbound Internet, modernize legacy workspace, increase the overall visibility, etc. 

We have secured user Internet access (ZIA). We have optimized digital experience (ZDX). We provide secure private access. We have accelerated deployment to 120k+ endpoints in two months. ZDX unlocks new capabilities, such as enhancing visibility into client performance. Zscaler's unified platform consolidates multiple security products across the organization. 

Growing threats

Syam Nair, CTO, Zscaler, stated that security threats are growing. Adversaries are moving quickly. Attackers are innovating with AI. We have to win the game by staying ahead of the attackers. 

Today, we have lack of context for risk assessment. Context comes from Zscaler platform and third parties. We are driving automation throughout the system. The data fabric enhances vulnerability management. Eg., an employee connects on SaaS customer database. Precise AI outcomes are derived from pristine data. See all traffic inline. We can connect, and aggregate data via 150+ connectors. 

We have the world's data fabric for security. Risk360 is one example. It provides one dashboard view of your organization's risks. They can change over time. You need to take proactive action.

Data correlation and enrichment can improve the asset hygiene. We can automate with conext. We can have contextualizing actions.

Jay Chaudhry said we have copilots. Every product will have copilots in future. We will have cloud resilience and data privacy. We are supporting global organizations and customers. We are the most accredited cloud security platform. Zscaler architecture can deliver data sovereignty. We can deliver secure and reliable data to and from China.

ZDX and AI are being used for proactive monitoring. We can have full end-to-end visibility. We are ensuring continuity across all failure scenarios. Zscaler resilience audit is there. We also provide unprecedented cloud resilience and business continuity.

Right partners

Sankha Nagchowdhury, Senior VP of Digital Technology Operations, ServiceNow, said we need to have the right partners, and help protect both employees and customers. We are transforming security and networking with Zscaler. We have managed to eliminate lot of tools. We are moving to zero trust. We need security mindset and AI from the very beginning. We have to protect users, workloads, and improve digital experiences.

Chaudhry said we are taking GTMs to the next level to ensure your success. We have partnerships with you, from CXO level, getting solution deployed, hold teams accountable, etc. Zscale NPS is >70. while average SaaS NPS is 30. We have focused on secure digital transformation. 

We are empowering your business to be more competitive. We are securing, simplifying, and powering your networks. Transformation will lead to disruptive changes. Growth mindset propels you forward. Simplicity of the design will help you. Learning gives the confidence and conviction to embrace change.