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        <title>Customer Stories | Blog</title>
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            <title><![CDATA[Inter’s Data Security Journey: Protecting 33 Petabytes with Zscaler ]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/inter-s-data-security-journey-protecting-33-petabytes-zscaler</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/inter-s-data-security-journey-protecting-33-petabytes-zscaler</guid>
            <pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:49:45 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[At Inter, data security is core to how we serve our 40 million global customers. As one of the leading digital-first financial institutions in the Americas and beyond, we offer a broad range of financial and non-financial products and services—from savings and investments to insurance, online shopping, and credit cards—all in one platform designed to provide a streamlined and secure customer experience.&nbsp;Data security is a critical component of our broader business strategy. We process more than 33 petabytes of customer and financial data across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as on premises. That scale demands a unified, pervasive approach to security.&nbsp;As we follow our ambitious growth path, our responsibility to protect customer data and comply with regional regulatory laws is paramount. Managing that much sensitive data demands a new level of control and visibility. When we embarked on our zero trust modernization journey, Zscaler became our guide, helping us define what good data security should look like: unified protection everywhere, from cloud to AI models.Fragmented tools in a high-risk environmentBefore adopting Zscaler, we relied on a collection of basic siloed on-premises point products: standard DLP, endpoint DLP, email DLP, and a disjointed, siloed DSPM solution. We knew that this approach could never scale to protect all the data in Inter’s complex infrastructure or satisfy regulatory scrutiny. One of the biggest gaps was our lack of visibility into how users were accessing and using data. Without knowing which applications or domains they were connecting to, we had no way to see where data was shared or exposed. At the time, policies were focused mostly on basic block-and-allow functions and slowed down productivity without truly reducing risk.A recent breach resulting in the theft of 1 billion reals (about USD $180 million) from Brazil’s financial system underscored the need for stronger data security resilience across our own ecosystem. To avoid such incidents, we needed scalable, context-aware adaptive controls capable of matching the speed and scale of our evolving digital footprint. It became clear that we had to evolve our entire data security strategy.&nbsp;Another major driver of improving our data security was cost avoidance in the form of regulatory penalties, legal fees, and the cost of investigation, remediation, and repair. Indirect costs include reputational damage that may lead to future revenue losses. From our experience, we have observed that breaches can result in as much as six months of lost revenue from potential new customers.&nbsp;The turning point: Project Data DomeTo determine precisely where we needed to close the gaps, we launched Project Data Dome with support from AWS and Deloitte. Over six months, every IT and security team audited datasets, workloads, and processes to map where sensitive information lived and how it was used.Data Dome confirmed that our siloed controls couldn’t scale with our business. We discovered that we had shadow data sprawl across IaaS, SaaS, endpoints, and GenAI. These insights spawned a new strategy built on unified, context-aware protection—one that demanded a fundamentally different approach. To protect data consistently and ensure compliance across multiple jurisdictions, we implemented the&nbsp;Zscaler Data Security platform, which unifies&nbsp;Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) and Data Loss Protection (DLP). We chose Zscaler because it is the only vendor that offers comprehensive protection across all our environments—cloud, SaaS, on premises, endpoint, email, web, and AI for both data-at-rest and data-in-motion.Unified data security across every channelBefore deploying Zscaler Data Security, we were already using&nbsp;Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and&nbsp;Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) to provide employees and contractors with secure zero trust access to apps and the internet, so expanding our platform to include data protection was a logical next step.Zscaler’s integrated capabilities—including web and email DLP, endpoint DLP, inline SSL/TLS inspection, and multimode CASB—are managed through a single, unified pane of glass. Now we have visibility into all structured and unstructured data across every channel under one consistent policy framework. We no longer spend weeks manually configuring policies for each region. With Zscaler, we can define and enforce policy instantly across multiple geographies.&nbsp;Zscaler DSPM provides something we were missing previously—complete visibility into where sensitive information resides, how it moves, and who has access to it. Before DSPM, finding sensitive data across our clouds was nearly impossible. By providing 100% visibility across clouds, SaaS, databases, virtual machines, and private GenAI apps, Zscaler DSPM has also changed how we work. It classifies sensitive data, identifies misconfigurations and unauthorized excessive privileges, and alerts us in real time when exposure occurs, so we can react and close the gaps before any harm is done. As a result, we’ve reduced detection and containment time dramatically—from days to minutes.&nbsp;Outcomes: Efficiency, compliance, and confidenceSince adopting Zscaler Data Security with DSPM, we’ve achieved:Faster M&A integration: With a holistic view into the data security posture of acquired organizations, remediating protection gaps is faster and more streamlined.&nbsp;Compliance confidence: Unified, auditable policies meet regulatory requirements across Brazil, the U.S., Argentina, and Europe.Analyst efficiency: Managing 33 petabytes of data manually used to be a daunting task. Now, policy updates and enforcement can be accomplished with a single click, which makes our teams more efficient, increases job satisfaction, and contributes to employee retention.Securing the next wave: AI and data lineageAt Inter, AI is integral to innovation. Our SuperApp, for example, utilizes 135 AI models. Our developers use these tools every day to build new products and services, so protecting the data behind them is critical.&nbsp;Our AI environment is evolving constantly at a rapid pace. We have multiple private LLMs deployed, and that number changes nearly every week. Zscaler AI-SPM gives us more visibility into those internal models, which are deployed on Claude through Amazon Bedrock. Together, DSPM and AI-SPM reduce risk of exposure by providing deep scanning into sensitive data usage in AI models to prevent oversharing, accidental exposure, and potential compliance violations.Looking ahead, Zscaler is empowering us to achieve our vision of ensuring that the data ingested by our AI models is reliable, traceable, and up to date. Since cloud development environments often collect and store outdated and irrelevant data, working toward a true data lineage solution will enable us to understand where data originates, how it changes, and whether it remains trustworthy. This is key to building accurate, unbiased AI systems. Data lineage will also help our development team prevent data poisoning in AI models by uncovering potentially malicious or corrupted inputs.This joint collaboration with Zscaler is important not just for compliance, but also for business intelligence and for integrating safe and accurate AI models into our products and services. Zscaler doesn’t just give us tools—it helps us invent what’s next for data security.Data security as a growth enablerProtecting 33 petabytes of data is no small task, but it’s essential to our business strategy, helping us to sustain customer trust, drive continuous innovation, and expand confidently into new markets.&nbsp;Our mission is to make sure all new products and features—especially those using AI and machine learning—align with privacy and security standards from day one. Zscaler is a key part of that strategy. The security guardrails it provides enable us to move faster, bring new products to customers safely, and deliver secure connectivity to assets for our global users.Together, we’re building a digital ecosystem where innovation and security work hand in hand. When customers see that their data is safe, they stay longer, invest more, and bring others with them. That confidence is the true return on our investment in security.&nbsp;Learn more about Inter’s broader Zscaler journey by reading the&nbsp;case study.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Orlandino Neves (Cyber Security Executive Manager, Inter)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Rethinking Cybersecurity in Education: A Vision for Secure Learning with Zero Trust]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/rethinking-cybersecurity-education-vision-secure-learning-zero-trust</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/rethinking-cybersecurity-education-vision-secure-learning-zero-trust</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2025 21:28:34 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[There’s a saying I use often in various contexts: “You don’t have to be the fastest gazelle in the herd; you just don’t want to be the slowest.” Unfortunately, when it comes to cybersecurity, many schools are still at the back of the pack.They’re underfunded, understaffed, and increasingly dependent on technology to keep classrooms running. In 2024 alone, K-12 districts across the U.S.&nbsp;reported hundreds of ransomware and data theft incidents, affecting millions of students and costing schools millions of dollars in recovery expenses. A ransomware attack doesn’t just lock up IT systems. It stops learning in its tracks, puts sensitive student and community data at risk, and even impacts day-to-day operations and physical safety.At the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU), we see this every day. And we believe the solution isn’t more hardware or one-off fixes; it’s a new zero trust model that makes advanced security accessible, affordable, and scalable for every district in the state. As a Zscaler customer, we are pursuing that model with a cloud-based approach grounded in Zscaler’s zero trust principles and designed for education’s realities.&nbsp;undefined&nbsp;Three challenges facing educationAcross the country, school systems are grappling with the three key cybersecurity challenges that threaten learning and operational continuity.1. Limited resources for a growing threatMost schools don’t have the staff or budget to build and maintain enterprise-grade defenses. Small IT teams often juggle classroom support, network management, and cybersecurity, leaving gaps that attackers are quick to exploit. When a breach happens, recovery can take weeks, diverting time, energy, and resources away from the classroom.2. A treasure trove of sensitive dataSchools store a massive amount of personal information about students, teachers, and even community members. This highly prized data, combined with ineffective legacy security controls, makes K-12 an appealing target for cybercriminals. A single compromise can expose thousands of identities and create harmful ripple effects that can negatively impact victims for years.3. Growing dependence on the cloudTeaching and learning now happen through cloud apps, mobile devices, and remote connections. When those systems go down, learning grinds to a halt. The shift to digital classrooms has outpaced most districts’ ability to secure them, leaving critical vulnerabilities and compliance gaps in their wake.These challenges can’t be solved with incremental updates. They require a fundamental rethinking of how schools approach cybersecurity.Why legacy security gets a failing gradeTraditional defenses, such as firewalls, content filters, and network segmentation, were designed for an era when schools could protect everything inside a perimeter. But in education today, there is no perimeter. Students and teachers connect from everywhere. Data flows between devices, apps, and networks in ways that old systems were never meant to handle.Legacy tools can’t see into encrypted traffic or keep up with modern threats. They rely on static rules and infrequent updates, leaving months of exposure to new vulnerabilities. It’s like locking the front door of a school but leaving the windows open.A modern zero trust approach flips that model. It verifies every connection, every user, and every transaction, assuming nothing and checking everything. In a school environment, that means validating a student logging in from home, a teacher accessing lesson plans from a laptop, or an administrator connecting to financial data from the district office. It also gives IT teams continuous visibility into every connection, allowing them to spot issues before they interrupt teaching, not after the damage is done.It’s the difference between trusting people once they’re inside and having a trusted escort by their side at every step.A vision for a safer educational cloudAt the CCIU, our goal is to help schools move toward stronger, simpler, and more sustainable security. As one of Pennsylvania’s regional education service agencies, we’re uniquely positioned to model what scalable, affordable cybersecurity can look like for publicly funded institutions across the state.The CCIU provides internet and technology services to dozens of school districts and local governments across Pennsylvania. That role gives us a front-row view into the challenges schools face and the opportunity to design solutions that protect learning at scale.Our vision is a private, secure cloud environment based on Zscaler’s zero trust architecture that protects every student, teacher, and staff member, wherever they connect, while freeing schools from the costs and complexity of maintaining legacy infrastructure. Think of it as a statewide safety net: a shared, cloud-based layer of protection that brings the kind of security large enterprises rely on to districts that could never afford to build it alone.The CCIU has firsthand experience deploying Zscaler’s technology across our own network and for the districts we serve. That experience has shown us how a modern, cloud-based approach can simplify security management, improve visibility, and provide consistent protection without the need for complex on-site infrastructure.This isn’t just about blocking threats. It’s about creating a foundation for safer innovation, where schools can confidently adopt emerging tools like Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), enable collaboration across campuses, and comply with the federal&nbsp;Children’s Internet Protection Act and other regulations that protect children from harmful content — without adding administrative burden.&nbsp;undefined&nbsp;Real-world lessonsIn our work with schools across Pennsylvania, we’ve seen how today’s challenges play out in everyday operations:AI and data misuse: Students are exploring new tools, and sometimes that curiosity crosses lines. We’ve seen essays written entirely by GenAI or prompts engineered to mimic a student’s own writing style. Without visibility, schools struggle to maintain academic integrity and protect personal data.Circumventing filters: Students are endlessly resourceful. Some use proxy sites or translation tools to bypass content filters, unaware that they are exposing the network to risk. These behaviors highlight the need for modern guardrails that protect students while preserving open learning environments.Expanding digital footprints: Connected devices, from HVAC systems to lighting controls to door locks, are now part of a school’s network. Without proper segmentation and monitoring, they can become unexpected entry points for attackers.These examples are reminders that technology alone isn’t enough. It’s how we design, manage, and share security resources that determines whether schools stay protected. Yesterday’s tools can’t defend today’s classrooms. The future of security in the education sector isn’t about adding more boxes to on-premises data centers. It’s about smarter, cloud-based systems that evolve as fast as the threats they defend against.Looking aheadThe path forward depends on collaboration among districts, technology providers, and policymakers to make cybersecurity a shared responsibility. When we align around that goal, we can give every school access to enterprise-level protection without enterprise-level costs.At the CCIU, we’ve seen how Zscaler’s zero trust platform makes that kind of collaboration possible. It enables districts of all sizes to benefit from the same level of protection once reserved for large enterprises, without adding complexity or strain to local IT teams.That’s the vision we’re pursuing at the CCIU: a secure, cloud-based environment where every connection is verified and every user is protected. Schools can then focus on what matters most: teaching and learning.Because in the end, protecting learning isn’t just a technology issue. It’s about safeguarding opportunity, and that’s something every community can rally behind.By working together, schools and technology partners can create safer, more connected learning environments. Learn how Zscaler is supporting that mission at&nbsp;Zscaler’s Education page.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Bryan Ruzenski (Director of External Technology Services, CCIU)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Three Lessons Learned While Upgrading from Legacy Security to Zero Trust]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/three-lessons-learned-while-upgrading-legacy-security-zero-trust</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/three-lessons-learned-while-upgrading-legacy-security-zero-trust</guid>
            <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 18:01:29 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Forging a new path with zero trust&nbsp;At Oxfordshire County Council, our existing network and security infrastructure was nearing end-of-life, and we were at a crossroads. Should we stick with the old way of managing security, and just upgrade to newer versions of, essentially, the same legacy solutions? Or should we embark on a zero trust digital transformation?We chose to completely rethink our IT environment, leveraging the&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange to simplify our infrastructure, support our cloud-first ambitions, and strengthen our security posture. Today, we are a cloud-first organization operating without the burden of wide area networks (WANs), data centers, legacy security appliances, or multiple point solutions. We enjoy greater agility and simplified security administration without compromising our edge.Letting go of the old ways and embracing zero trust architecture was an invaluable learning experience. Here are three pieces of advice I’d share with any technology professional considering the switch to zero trust.Going all in on zero trustWhen we deployed the Zero Trust Exchange, we migrated 5,900 users across 144 sites in just one night. I wanted us to be all in on the Zscaler platform, not lingering in a hinterland between legacy security architecture and zero trust architecture.Why did I have the confidence to make such an all-or-nothing move involving thousands of users across Oxfordshire County? For roughly six months prior to our official migration date, my IT Innovation & Digital Service Team prioritized testing every aspect of the planned migration with a control group of test users.Oxfordshire County Council is supported by five smaller district councils, so we selected Cherwell District Council (one of the five) as a test group. Working with 450 users across seven sites in Cherwell, we managed a smaller version of the larger migration we eventually wanted to achieve county-wide. We took Cherwell off the traditional WAN environment, removed the legacy security appliances like firewalls and VPNs, and deployed the Zscaler platform.&nbsp;We intentionally took this methodical approach to allow exploration of any possible user objections or challenges. At the end of the test deployment, we were armed with proof of concept as well as a matrix of potential deployment challenges that we might encounter as we embarked on the long overdue modernization of our infrastructure. We also had documented solutions for the challenges unique to our old ways of managing security.A realistic test user group will look different across organizations, as will the time frame you are comfortable with. You’ll need to determine what makes sense in your environment, but before you make the switch to zero trust, make testing the process a priority.Change can be hard, even for those leading it&nbsp;One of the most surprising aspects of our zero trust evolution was the inertia I experienced with some of my technical colleagues.&nbsp;After fielding more objections to WAN-free architecture than I was prepared for, I realized radical change can be daunting for anyone—even us technical professionals. Change is a certainty in our industry, but we're still human. And humans find comfort in the familiar. It’s easy to get stuck in the old way of doing things because change can make people uncomfortable. That old idiom “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” comes to mind.The outliers on my team struggled with the idea of using the internet as our corporate network, along with ditching data centers and IP addresses to connect users to resources. Zscaler training and education services helped the entire IT team visualize and better understand the changes. Additionally, the team was part of our test user group and experienced the power of the Zscaler platform firsthand. Any technical colleagues who were initially unsure quickly reached their “a-ha" moments.&nbsp;Don’t be deterred if there are team members who initially object to removing the legacy architecture they’ve gotten accustomed to managing. Take the time to openly discuss concerns with your technical colleagues, and let the Zscaler support team help you educate them about the way forward.&nbsp;If you trust your partner, you can trust the process&nbsp;The most profound lesson I learned on our zero trust journey is that zero trust doesn’t include an absence of trust in the process or your chosen partner.Firstly, I had to trust in my own vision for zero trust security architecture in a WAN-free environment at Oxfordshire County Council. I can’t tell you the number of times others said to me, “You won’t be able to do that!” I’m quite strong-willed, so proving that caution wrong kept me motivated to succeed. I created a technology roadmap that would guide us to holistic zero trust, and I didn’t hold back on advocating for that better way forward.Secondly, I had to trust Zscaler as our partner to help us put our plan into action. From the Zscaler platform down to the individual experts guiding us through deployment and implementation, every aspect of our zero trust transformation with Zscaler has been outstanding. Zscaler collaborates with their customers, establishing a true partnership. Our customer success team helps us make sure we are using the platform optimally, and advises on features we could be using more strategically.As we continue our zero trust evolution, Zscaler will remain a trusted partner. If you are considering partners to support your zero trust goals, Zscaler has definitely earned my recommendation. If you’ve made the switch to Zscaler already, keep collaborating with your customer care team, even after deployment, to make sure you are fully leveraging the platform.&nbsp;&nbsp;Greater confidence with Zscaler&nbsp;Since making the switch to zero trust, we haven’t looked back. In fact, the only thing I might change about our experience if given the chance would be to make the switch sooner. In a world with increasing cybersecurity threats, Zscaler has given us greater confidence and a stronger security posture.&nbsp;What are you waiting for?Check out the&nbsp;full case study to learn more about how Zscaler has transformed security architecture at Oxfordshire County Council.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Stewart Griffiths (Principal Technical Architect, Oxfordshire County Council)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[How Six Security Leaders Use Deception to Turn the Tables on Attackers]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-6-security-leaders-use-deception</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-6-security-leaders-use-deception</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:59:38 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[In today’s digital landscape, attackers who bypass existing controls are harder to spot and more dangerous than ever. Traditional defenses, signature-based tools, and reactive alerting too often allow bad actors to stay undetected in environments for longer – Mandiant’s M-Trends 2025 report shows a 10% increase in dwell time from the year before, for example.&nbsp;How can security leaders put the burden of success back on attackers? Deploy convincing fake targets attackers can't resist, and catch them the moment they take the bait.&nbsp;What Is Deception Technology and Why Security Leaders Need ItDeception technology (often called honeypots and decoys) is about active defense. Unlike traditional security controls that monitor for known bad behavior or signatures, deception creates an irresistible landscape for attackers by deploying realistic decoys (files, users, servers, credentials, applications, etc.) across your environment. These decoys look and behave just like real assets but are monitored traps designed to lure, identify, and intercept attackers the moment they try to move or escalate privileges.Why is deception technology critical for today’s enterprises?GenAI and Identity-Driven Attacks: Adversaries are increasingly leveraging GenAI and stolen credentials to evade detection, blending into trusted environments.Bypassing Traditional Defenses with Stolen Identities: Once a legitimate identity is compromised, attackers can move laterally, access SaaS apps, and target sensitive data, all while looking legitimate.Traditional Security Blindness: Nearly 80% of modern attacks are identity-driven, and a staggering 91% don’t generate alerts with legacy tools.With&nbsp;Zscaler Deception, security teams are changing the rules of the game, catching adversaries in the act, before they can reach critical data. Deception disrupts the attacker’s playbook by laying a digital minefield everywhere attackers might try to go, diverting them away from real assets and alerting defenders instantly. And, it does so without overwhelming SOC teams with false positives.Let’s explore why more leaders are integrating Zscaler Deception into their zero trust strategies, and how customers like Godrej, Novelis, Cushman & Wakefield, MGM Resorts International, Persistent, and FICO are using deception to detect, expose, and stop modern attacks.undefinedundefinedCushman & Wakefield, MGM Resorts, Persistent, and FICO: Diverse Industries, One Clear Choice to Outsmart Sophisticated AttackersThe success stories don’t stop there. Many more visionary security leaders are turning to Zscaler Deception to expose hidden threats and empower their security teams to outsmart advanced attackers.Cushman & Wakefield: For this global real estate leader, identity compromise is a persistent threat. The SecOps team relies on Zscaler Deception to catch sophisticated identity-driven attacks:“The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange plays a critical role in keeping threats at bay by minimizing the attack surface. In case of a compromised user or insider threat, Zscaler Deception can intercept those attacks to stop hidden adversaries.”- Eric Hart, CISOLearn more about Cushman & Wakefield’s journey with Zscaler Deception&nbsp;MGM Resorts International: With entertainment properties worldwide, MGM faces constant and targeted attacks. Their secret weapon? Making fake assets irresistible:“As an attacker, when you've compromised an environment, you're hunting for opportunity, and everything is fake. It's what Deception technology does… every attempt they give, that's triggering an alert for your group to respond to.”&nbsp;-&nbsp;Stephen Harrison, CISOLearn more about MGM’s journey with Zscaler DeceptionPersistent: As a global digital engineering powerhouse, Persistent set out to detect and stop sophisticated threats moving laterally inside the environment. With Zscaler Deception in place, Persistent deployed decoys throughout the enterprise, ensuring that adversaries are caught quickly, allowing the SOC team to act decisively while avoiding alert fatigue.“Zscaler Deception has detected more than 80 notable attacks over a 90-day period, including 31 high-risk attacks. It has proven its value in a short time.”- Debashis Singh, CIOLearn more about Persistent’s journey with Zscaler Deception&nbsp;FICO: This world leader in analytics and risk uses Zscaler Deception both inside and outside the company’s environment, customizing decoys for internal threat intelligence and external intelligence gathering.“We’ve deployed customized decoys internally and externally to gather threat intelligence and keep attackers away from our core assets. It’s been an exciting and effective way to further protect our environment, and it gives us a proactive edge in staying ahead of potential threats.”- Ben Nelson, Chief Cyber Security OfficerLearn more about FICO’s journey with Zscaler DeceptionDecoys Can Shift the Advantage: Common Themes From Six Security InnovatorsAcross a spectrum of industries - manufacturing, high-tech, real estate, hospitality, and financial services - these customer stories reveal key insights:Early Detection Before Damage: Deception delivers pre-breach warnings, allowing teams to take action before attackers infiltrate critical infrastructure.Unrivaled Visibility and Context: Customers consistently report greater visibility into network activity and attacker TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) compared to legacy tools.Reduced Alert Fatigue: With near-zero false positives, Zscaler Deception enables security teams to quickly prioritize and respond to real threats.Seamless, Scalable Deployment: As a cloud-native part of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, Deception deploys quickly&nbsp;(some decoy types offer one-click deployment)&nbsp;and integrates smoothly with SIEM, SOAR, and existing security operations workflows.Protecting GenAI and Modern Attack Surfaces: Decoys detect attacks on the GenAI infrastructure, SaaS, cloud environments, and identity systems where attackers are increasingly focused.Above all, these organizations highlight a shared benefit: shifting the advantage back to the defender. By populating their environments with convincing traps, they force attackers to reveal themselves and take the uncertainty out of threat detection.Today’s attackers are resourceful, patient, and persistent, but organizations can be proactive, too. By integrating Zscaler Deception into their zero trust strategy, customers like Godrej, Novelis, Persistent, Cushman & Wakefield, MGM Resorts, and FICO are resetting the rules of engagement and catching adversaries before they can cause harm.As these leaders demonstrate, when attackers can’t distinguish real assets from traps, defenders regain control. The result: better protection, fewer breaches, and a future where the advantage stays with you.&nbsp;Ready to learn more about how to take your threat management program to the next level?Request a demo to see first-hand how&nbsp;Zscaler Deception can help you expose hidden threats, intercept attackers, and give your security team the visibility and control they need to stay one step ahead.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Amir Moin (Zscaler)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[How Three CISOs Transformed Their Exposure Management Programs]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-3-cisos-transformed-exposure-management-programs</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-3-cisos-transformed-exposure-management-programs</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2025 15:23:47 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[In an era of increased security breaches and regulatory scrutiny, CISOs and security teams grapple with the pressing questions: Are we reducing risk fast enough, and can we prove it? For Cushman & Wakefield, AdventHealth, and LifeLabs, upleveling their vulnerability management programs was a key component of being able to provide a resounding “yes” to those challenging questions.Despite being at different points on their exposure management journey, each was able to leverage Zscaler’s&nbsp;Exposure Management solutions to redefine how their organizations identify, prioritize, and remediate the security gaps that matter most.undefinedundefinedundefinedA Common Theme: Security Leaders Are Rethinking Exposure Management with ZscalerAcross these stories, security leaders agree: operational efficiency and risk reduction can be unlocked by moving from a mindset of “patch everything” toward one focused on fixing the biggest problems. Zscaler Exposure Management solutions deliver this powerful outcome by unifying siloed technologies, business context, and process automation to get:Context-rich insights... not just more dataAutomation that works for you… not the other way aroundBusiness-aligned risk scoring... not theoryBoard-ready reporting on-demand... no spreadsheets or pivot tables requiredFor any security leader wondering how to do more with less and prove security value at every level, these organizations are clear proof: It’s possible, and it’s happening today.Don’t just take our word for it. Mike Melo shares “We can take in all these inputs, contextualize the prioritization, and get a holistic view that is actionable that also takes into account our mitigating controls.”Is your exposure management unlocking a true risk reduction? Or is it just keeping your team busy playing whack-a-mole? The answer could define your next year in cybersecurity leadership.Ready to Modernize Your Exposure Management Program?Request a demo to see first-hand how Zscaler&nbsp;Exposure Management can help you understand all your assets, recognize coverage gaps, determine which exposures put you at the greatest risk, and orchestrate a more efficient remediation process.&nbsp;]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Stephanie Best (Director, Product Marketing)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Siemens Healthineers Drives Innovation and Mitigates Healthcare Cyber Risk with AI and Zscaler]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/siemens-healthineers-drives-innovation-and-mitigates-healthcare-cyber-risk</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/siemens-healthineers-drives-innovation-and-mitigates-healthcare-cyber-risk</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 22:34:15 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Our purpose at Siemens Healthineers is to pioneer healthcare breakthroughs for everyone, everywhere and do so in a sustainable way. Because technology is continually evolving, it is crucial that we incorporate new technologies into our business processes and make sure that users understand and adopt the innovations that drive our success.We are a global provider of healthcare equipment, solutions and services, with activities in more than 180 countries and direct representation in more than 70. As a leading medical technology company, we are committed to improving access to healthcare for underserved communities worldwide and strive to overcome the most threatening diseases. The company is principally active in the areas of imaging, diagnostics, cancer care, and minimally invasive therapies, augmented by digital technology and AI.IT drives businessSiemens Healthineers is operating in a dynamic market, and, as such, IT has become an important enabler of our business. The spin-off from Siemens gave us the opportunity to revisit our IT landscape. To us, the&nbsp;Zscaler platform offered great potential in providing secure and faster access to applications across our organization during the transition period, with minimal IT hardware and infrastructure requirements. Deploying the Zscaler platform enabled our users to be productive sooner and collaborate across these entities for a seamless transition.Siemens Healthineers acquired the U.S.-based cancer specialist Varian to advance our healthcare breakthroughs, particularly in the area of digitized end-to-end oncology care. To realize the vast potential of our combined capabilities, we integrated the two companies’ IT systems quickly after the completion of the M&A. Zscaler played one of the key roles in this process. With Zscaler, we didn't have to wait for that integration to be completed in order to provide secure access to resources or to start blocking cyberthreats. From the start, the&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange helped users in R&D, sales, and service access key applications in days rather than months. In fact, our IT group became a business driver, playing a pivotal role in realizing the company’s business strategies.&nbsp;More than 20 years of AI expertiseTransforming data into knowledge for better care has been a core element of Siemens Healthineers since the 1990s, with machine learning and AI at the forefront of our innovations. We currently have 1,100 patent families, with 550 in deep learning and more than 80 AI-powered offerings.&nbsp;Our unique combination of strengths sets us apart and enables us to actively shape the transformation of healthcare, in particular in these areas:Patient twinning:&nbsp;We expand precision medicine with utmost personalization of diagnosis, therapy selection, aftercare, and managing health. This helps us understand the patient as completely as possible.Precision therapy:&nbsp;We address the most prevalent diseases with intelligent, image-guided treatment.Digital data and AI:&nbsp;We drive digitalization by leveraging digital, data, and AI and by advancing providers’ operations with technology-enabled services.&nbsp;Cybersecurity helps our business react fasterJust as the use of AI applies to our healthcare solutions and practices, it also applies to our approach to cybersecurity. Escalating cybersecurity threats are a constant concern for the healthcare sector because they can disrupt operations, compromise patient data, and potentially endanger lives. We understand how important robust cybersecurity measures are to protect our business, empower innovation, and support our users.&nbsp;The Zscaler platform’s cutting-edge AI threat protection capabilities are a major part of our digital transformation. The AI-powered Zscaler platform detects threats, identifies malware, and warns of anomalies in our traffic. These capabilities, along with its zero trust architecture, help&nbsp;ensure secure access to our inhouse and third-party applications for our internal users, regardless of where they work.Safeguarding patient data and well-beingProtecting highly confidential patient information is another top priority. Stringent security measures prevent breaches and preserve patient privacy by following regional healthcare laws and regulations, such as HIPAA in the U.S. and GDPR in Europe.By partnering with Zscaler, we have implemented a multi-faceted, agile cybersecurity strategy consisting of the cloud-native Zero Trust Exchange platform, which grants secure access to applications and data according to user identity and context.How Zscaler fortifies our cybersecurity infrastructureOur partnership with Zscaler has delivered significant benefits in multiple areas. Zscaler enables secure and efficient remote work, enhancing collaboration and productivity for our teams. Zscaler also simplifies network management and streamlines IT operations. Furthermore, the platform’s zero trust methodology and AI-driven security strengthen our overall cybersecurity posture and lower risk.Siemens Healthineers relies on these Zscaler solutions:Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA): We use ZIA to secure internet access for users, no matter where they are or what device they are using, by routing traffic through the Zscaler cloud security platformZscaler Private Access (ZPA): With ZPA, we provide our users with secure access to internal applications without exposing them to the public internet, improving our security and reducing the attack surfaceStronger security and lower riskThanks to Zscaler, we have successfully mitigated security threats for our 70,000 licensed users. In just three months, we have blocked 2.55 billion policy violations and stopped 141 million threats. With Zscaler’s solutions, we significantly reduce security risks and protect patient data, operational technology, and intellectual property.Continuous innovation builds our futureLooking ahead, Siemens Healthineers has many more applications for Zscaler and its advanced AI technology. When we deploy Zscaler in an always-on fashion, it will be continually active, eliminating manual security management by users so they can focus on patient care and business initiatives.&nbsp;A healthy partnership for us and our patientsThe partnership between Siemens Healthineers and Zscaler defines proactive and innovative cybersecurity in healthcare.&nbsp;Zscaler’s cutting-edge AI capabilities empower us to anticipate, adapt to, and neutralize emerging threats in real time. By staying ahead of the evolving threat landscape, we safeguard our users so they can do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.&nbsp;Learn moreFollow the Siemens Healthineers cybersecurity transformation journey with Zscaler in this informative video,&nbsp;“Understanding Corporate Risks and Leveraging AI to Mitigate Cyberthreats.”]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Dr. Stefan Henkel (CIO, Siemens Healthineers)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Zuora Harnesses Zscaler’s AI-Powered Cybersecurity to Advance AI Innovation]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/zuora-harnesses-zscaler-s-ai-powered-cybersecurity-advance-ai-innovation</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/zuora-harnesses-zscaler-s-ai-powered-cybersecurity-advance-ai-innovation</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:46:34 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[At Zuora, we provide SaaS companies with SaaS monetization solutions that enable them to drive growth and profitability while providing a superior customer experience that expands reach and accelerates retention. We are big believers in using GenAI and agentic AI to continually innovate and improve our platform to meet the needs of today’s dynamic and evolving digital business environment. We use AI throughout our product portfolio—from our built-in self-service help feature to automated billing and payment collection to customizable paywalls for media and publishing companies.&nbsp;While we are making huge gains by leveraging AI to power automation and intelligence in our products, we’re also well aware of the risks. That’s where our adoption of the&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform&nbsp;comes into play. In just four months, we successfully transitioned from our legacy castle-and-moat infrastructure to an AI-powered zero trust architecture that provides&nbsp;agility and comprehensive security at scale. Beyond that, the Zscaler platform helps us directly address the AI security concerns we struggled with previously. It is exactly what we need to drive our business forward.Navigating GenAI risks with Zscaler at the helmWe encourage our users to use GenAI applications to increase their productivity and support their creativity. At the same time, we are mindful of the potential for data loss through inadvertent over-sharing; attacks that bypass security controls; delivery of hidden malware in AI traffic, and various forms of abuse, such as tampering with AI models and shadow GenAI.&nbsp;A big challenge in securing GenAI apps is their use of the WebSockets protocol for real-time data streaming and communication between clients and servers. While this technology encrypts traffic to protect data, it also can be leveraged by attackers to deliver hidden malware.&nbsp;The question that was keeping us up at night was: How to tackle these issues and break through the blind spots? The answer came to us early on in our zero trust journey when we deployed&nbsp;Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA). Its&nbsp;AI-specific technology provides us with the deep level of visibility and control we needed. ZIA covers all the bases by:Inspecting encrypted WebSockets and TLS/SSL traffic for exploits and data exfiltration in real time while applying robust protections.Preventing data loss by&nbsp;disabling cut, paste, upload, and download activities and blocking data loss across all AI interactions.Logging and scrutinizing every user prompt used online and within AI applicationsEnforcing policies that provide access only to authorized GenAI tools.Educating users on AI best practices.On the radar: agentic AI securityThe next phase of our transformation journey will focus on securing applications that use AI agents. Unlike GenAI, these autonomous agents operate with minimal human input or intervention. They collect data from different sources, perform complex tasks, and make independent decisions, often collaborating with other AI agents.&nbsp;Just as we are dedicated to creating an exceptional online subscriber journey for our customers, we are equally passionate about providing our employees with an optimized experience to enhance productivity and job satisfaction. We currently have about 150 SaaS applications, and about half use AI agents. Instead of enabling and managing a collection of siloed AI agents, I envision a “super-agent” that works with specified AI agents in a coordinated ecosystem. This would enable employees to go to a single location to access their own personal AI assistant to help them get their work done more rapidly and efficiently.However, before we make this a reality, we need to ensure that this ecosystem is fully secured. Like GenAI, AI agents come with their own set of risks and vulnerabilities. Along with abuse, malware injection, and data loss, AI agents can also be weaponized for malicious purposes by adversaries, such as deliberately issuing disinformation and making unauthorized decisions with potentially harmful consequences.Staying ahead of the innovation game with ZscalerFortunately, we have already established a resilient and secure environment by implementing Zscaler, with its ability to provide direct, secure connectivity between users, applications, and devices and its real-time traffic inspection and policy enforcement.&nbsp;To further build out our zero trust footprint with agentic AI security in mind, we look forward to exploring&nbsp;Zscaler Breach Predictor. It proactively aggregates and analyzes different sources of security data to gain real-time actionable insights into attacks so that we can make more informed decisions. By preemptively blocking adversarial attack paths and generating breach probability metrics, it can help us prioritize and mitigate agentic AI risk.Zscaler has already delivered on its “art of the possible” approach with its recent rollout of AI-specific technologies. We look forward to continuing to securely and confidently innovating by taking full advantage of cutting-edge AI tools while adhering to transparent and ethical use of this technology.To learn more about how our zero trust journey ties into our usage of GenAI and agentic AI, read the Zuora case study.&nbsp;]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Karthik Chakkarapani (Zscaler)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Celebrating Excellence: The 2025 Zenny Award Winners]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/celebrating-excellence-2025-zenny-award-winners</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/celebrating-excellence-2025-zenny-award-winners</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 19:08:07 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Each year at Zenith Live, we come together to celebrate leadership, innovation, and collaboration in building a more secure and connected digital world. Zscaler customers continuously push the boundaries of what’s possible, leaning into their organizational goals and adapting to an ever-evolving digital landscape. They’re not just aligning with the Zero Trust mindset; they’re embodying it.&nbsp;This year, we decided to go one step further by publicly recognizing the remarkable achievements of our customers. The Zenny awards highlight those who have embraced forward-thinking strategies, navigated complex challenges, empowered their teams, and driven meaningful transformation in their industries. Recognizing these exceptional leaders is particularly meaningful for us as we consistently see firsthand the impact of their work–not only on their organizations, but on the broader communities they touch.From the pool of outstanding nominations, we selected two winners in each of the six categories to spotlight distinct contributions to security innovation, business impact, and continuous improvement.It was a privilege to give all 12 of these change agents their time in the spotlight at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas alongside colleagues and industry peers, but I’d like to share just a few of their inspiring stories here as powerful examples of what’s possible when vision meets execution.Realizing the Impact of Leadership and InnovationFrom healthcare to telecommunications, and manufacturing to finance, this year’s Zenny Award winners have demonstrated key traits: thought leadership in innovative security strategies, real business advancements powered by Zero Trust technology, and a culture of collaboration that has driven change in ways we have rarely seen.For example, Ryan Winn, CISO at Advent Health, won one of the&nbsp;Innovator awards, in part for completing a groundbreaking security transformation by rolling out Zero Trust for users, digital experience monitoring, and data protection to 125,000 users in just four months! Under his leadership, Advent Health is now focusing on deploying Unified Vulnerability Management and the Branch Connector to provide strong security foundations for “the hospital of the future".&nbsp;&nbsp;Vice President of Cyber Security at Honeywell, Joe Kadisak, relentlessly focused on accelerating business outcomes and was a winner in the&nbsp;Strategist category. Joe championed a comprehensive Zero Trust strategy that replaced legacy VPNs and firewalls, improving operational efficiencies and specifically enabling Honeywell’s bold growth strategy through mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. His work demonstrates how secure transformations can directly enable an enterprise’s business objectives.&nbsp;&nbsp;One of the&nbsp;Collaborator awards went to Kimberly Clark CISO Robert Smith and Security Analyst Patti Ziehl. Robert and Patti worked hand-in-hand with Zscaler to provide valuable feedback that has enhanced product development and elevated end-user experiences, ensuring employees stay secure and productive across the globe. Their partnership serves as a model for what collaboration between organizations and vendors can achieve.Last, a leader who has redefined what it means to modernize an organization’s security ecosystem and a winner in our&nbsp;Transformer category. Stephen Harrison, Senior Vice President and CISO at MGM Resorts International, spearheaded a comprehensive overhaul of the company’s security framework. His team implemented advanced solutions such as Zscaler DLP and deception technologies, enhancing data protection across the enterprise. Stephen’s efforts also improved mobile device efficiency by over 50%, a game-changer in an industry where mobility and consumer experience are paramount. A true architect of transformation.Recognizing Excellence Across IndustriesFor us, the Zenny Awards are not only about celebrating achievements; it’s about our shared commitment to making secure transformation a catalyst for bold business change, and the examples above are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the efforts our customers have made towards that goal.As we look to the future, we are energized by the stories we hear from our customers about the positive business outcomes Zero Trust is delivering. We remain committed to partnering with all of you, driving innovation to help you protect and grow your organizations. The next transformation is likely already underway within your workplace, and we can’t wait to celebrate that at next year’s Zennys!Here are all the winners of the 2025 Zenny Awards:&nbsp; www.zscaler.com/zenny-awards&nbsp;The Innovators&nbsp;&nbsp;- Ryan Winn, CISO at AdventHealth&nbsp;&nbsp;- DJ Goldsworthy, Global Security Technology Officer at Aflac&nbsp;&nbsp;The Strategists&nbsp;&nbsp;- Joe Kadisak, VP Cyber Security at Honeywell&nbsp;&nbsp;- Robert Duran, Global Manager of Networks & Systems Engineering at Glenair&nbsp;&nbsp;The Transformers&nbsp;&nbsp;- Stephen Harrison, SVP & CISO at MGM Resorts International&nbsp;&nbsp;- Mike Jones, Vice President of Cyber Platform Services at Nationwide&nbsp;&nbsp;The Collaborators&nbsp;&nbsp;- Hanan Szwarcbord, CSO, and Jonathan Martin, Senior Manager of Security Engineering at Micron&nbsp;&nbsp;- Robert Smith, CISO, and Patti Ziehl, Security Analyst at Kimberly-Clark&nbsp;&nbsp;The Visionaries&nbsp;&nbsp;- Jeff Simon, CIO at T-Mobile&nbsp;&nbsp;- Ajish George, Managing Director of Cyber Security Architecture & Fusion Engineering at State Street&nbsp;&nbsp;Advocates of the Year&nbsp;&nbsp;- Mark Gill, Sr Director of Infrastructure & Services at Zuora&nbsp;&nbsp;- Alex Philips, CIO at NOV&nbsp;&nbsp;]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Joyce Kim  (Zscaler)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Maverick Transportation Puts Zero Trust Cellular in High Gear ]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/maverick-transportation-puts-zero-trust-cellular-high-gear</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/maverick-transportation-puts-zero-trust-cellular-high-gear</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2025 21:23:36 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Founded in 1980 and proudly family owned,&nbsp;Maverick Transportation built our reputation on safety, technology, and innovation. We specialize in exceptional flatbed, glass, and marine transportation services, serving customers across the central and eastern United States with a fleet of over 1,500 trucks and a dedicated team of over 2,000 employees.Our people are the backbone of our business—from professional drivers on the road to headquarters team in Little Rock, Arkansas, to securement specialists and semi-truck technicians at shipping offices and contracted customer sites. We rely on Zscaler to provide our teams with access to the internet, SaaS, and private apps they need while protecting our business from ever-present and evolving cyberthreats. Our multi-year Zscaler journey has optimized the distributed work experience for our users, protected our business, and simplified IT operations.&nbsp;Now we’re taking the next step with Zscaler Cellular.Empowering our workforce with seamless, secure access&nbsp;We began our zero trust journey in 2021 to empower secure work-from-anywhere for our employees. Before Zscaler, most of our corporate staff relied on thin clients and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), while about 20% had Windows laptops and used a remote access VPN client when off site. As our distributed workforce relied more heavily on voice and video to collaborate, the VDI user experience degraded. With our business dependent on more demanding applications, we wanted to modernize our endpoint strategy, retire our VDI and VPN, and adopt zero trust networking best practices.&nbsp;With&nbsp;Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), our corporate staff have fast, secure, and reliable access to our private apps from anywhere. The user experience dramatically improved and we retired our VDI environment and VPN clients for laptops. The zero trust network access (ZTNA) model significantly reduced our attack surface and minimized the risk of lateral movement within our network.Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) allows our IT team to proactively monitor and resolve performance issues across apps, networks, and devices—before they impact users.&nbsp;Zscaler Deception actively defends and fortifies our endpoints against advanced threats, with early detection of ransomware and credential abuse. Integrating our identity provider and endpoint protection solutions with Zscaler not only removes friction—it makes security smarter.&nbsp;We also replaced our legacy web filtering solution with&nbsp;Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) for cloud native, AI-powered protection for our web and SaaS apps. Employees enjoy fast, reliable, and safe access from their laptops or tablets to the apps and digital resources they need. With our Zscaler investments we were also able to consolidate down from multiple mobile device management (MDM) software platforms to manage company-provided and company-managed devices, which also means IT has fewer products to buy and manage.Our zero trust journey with Zscaler lowered cyber risk, strengthened business continuity, and gives us a future-ready infrastructure that empowers our team to deliver excellence every mile of the way.&nbsp;Zero trust security for cellular-connected IoT and mobile devicesWe were introduced to the&nbsp;Zscaler Cellular Service at last year’s Zenith Live, where we learned we could extend Zscaler’s zero trust security model to cellular networks. This innovation immediately caught our attention because it solved a long-standing challenge: how to effectively secure IoT and mobile devices at our clients’ and customers’ properties we operate in where we have no control of the networking options provided or the operating environment without adding software agents or using remote access VPNs.Zscaler ZPA had allowed us to retire our traditional VPN solution for our corporate laptops, but we still needed a VPN solution for certain locations with shared use mobile hardware where users couldn’t connect using an otherwise secured corporate network. Our managed employees, for example, work on site at customer locations and use a shared tablet kiosk for logging hours and work. They need access to Maverick systems, but connecting to a customer’s Wi-Fi meant additional network and cybersecurity policies.The traditional VPN we used for these tablets was being provided by an MDM platform we were looking to replace for further consolidation, and the MDM products’ VPN implementation was both problematic to ensure ongoing reliability for connectivity and was not for the zero-trust security operating model. We attempted to use ZPA for these shared devices, but because the access was enabled through identity-based authentication, employees had to conduct two-factor authentication every time they wanted to use the device and then log in again separately to the applications they were using.&nbsp;In essence, we saw The Zscaler Cellular Service as an opportunity to create device-bound authentication through Zscaler. This became our test case, and after equipping kiosks with Zscaler Cellular, our zero trust policies are enforced through the&nbsp;Zscaler Cellular Edge. The lines are gone, the employee experience is better, our business is still protected, and we don’t need a software agent or VPN on the device.Because we had high expectations for Zscaler Cellular, we purposely chose to test its efficacy at locations with historically poor connectivity. After all, the majority of our customers operate out of plants or other industrial sites with environmental factors that degrade connectivity. It would&nbsp;have to work in these locations, otherwise we wouldn’t have confidence in a broader rollout.&nbsp;Zscaler Cellular selects from multiple nearby carriers, which is beneficial in these industrial areas with poor signal penetration. Zscaler Cellular keeps devices connected to the best available cellular service, addressing any concern around connectivity.Looking ahead: Securing Maverick’s fleet vehicles and employee devicesAfter a successful pilot, we have confidence that Zscaler Cellular can work across challenging connectivity environments. We are excited to explore future business cases for zero trust cellular at Maverick.&nbsp;As a company committed to safety, integrity, and employee well-being, our fleet vehicles and trailers are equipped with in-cab telematics units, trailer and load sensors, and driver safety cameras. These IoT devices and sensors require always-on, secure cellular connectivity. We see the potential to use Zscaler Cellular to enforce our zero trust policies, protect against IoT attacks, and deliver a more resilient mobile connection. Resiliency is especially important for an organization like ours, as drivers need consistent and reliable connectivity while on the move.Another potential use case for Zscaler Cellular is to deliver a better, more secure experience for our district service managers. These employees travel nationwide to conduct truck and trailer maintenance reviews and perform maintenance servicing tasks. In several markets, we handle last-mile deliveries, where drivers are provided with company-issued cell phones for both our company and our contracted customers. In these use cases, we could use Zscaler Cellular to assure that drivers have reliable cell connectivity and our zero trust security policies are enforced wherever they go.&nbsp;We also see the potential to use Zscaler Cellular to make living on the road better for our drivers. It’s a demanding job and drivers can be away from home for a week or more. Maverick drivers have the opportunity to be provided a subsidized cellular hotspot device and service plan to make it easier to stay connected with family and friends. Zscaler Cellular could mean enhanced security, faster service, and better network coverage for our drivers—they could stream videos, games, or video chat from the comfort of their sleeper cabs, all without compromising our high standard for security.***For Maverick, our Zscaler zero trust journey has enhanced our employees’ digital experience as they access the internet, SaaS, and private apps, strengthened the security of mobile and IoT devices, and simplified IT operations. We’re just getting started with Zscaler Cellular and we’re excited to experiment and innovate.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Brian Shelby (Director of IT Infrastructure and Cybersecurity)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Enterprises Embracing Zero Trust Everywhere ]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/enterprises-embracing-zero-trust-everywhere</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/enterprises-embracing-zero-trust-everywhere</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2025 20:47:37 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Digital transformation is a complex but essential journey for organizations striving to remain relevant in today’s hyper-connected, hyper-competitive world. At Zscaler’s recent Global IT Leadership Summit in Mumbai, CXOs from across industries shared their insights on how Zscaler solutions have helped drive positive changes within their businesses.A modern Zero Trust architecture lays the foundations for success; traditional architectures simply cannot deal with an AI-powered world. Users, apps, and workloads are everywhere, and we need solutions that simplify networks, secure data, and reduce costs while allowing customers to focus on advancing business goals.Zscaler is also allowing companies to grasp new opportunities by securing AI. Both public and private AI applications put data at risk; Zscaler's inline Zero trust architecture applies effective guardrails to ensure safe use of public AI and protect private AI from malicious attacks.Some of our customers were generous enough to share their experience of Zero Trust and AI onstage with the audience. I’d like to share some highlights.&nbsp;Redefining Modern Banking with Zero Trust at ICICI BankAnand Venkataraman, Head of Technology Infrastructure and Enterprise Architecture at ICICI Bank, shared how the bank’s “café-like” branches—designed to be deployed rapidly in any environment in response to changing customer needs—are powered by Zscaler’s Zero Trust architecture. This model ensures that every access request is verified and continuously monitored, safeguarding both the bank’s infrastructure and its customer experience.“Stability creates inertia and change creates discomfort, yet change drives progress,” said Mr. Venkataraman, highlighting one of the greatest challenges organizations have. With Zero Trust at its core, ICICI Bank is able to maintain its momentum in a highly competitive industry without compromising on security or customer experience.Digital Agility at Scale: Infosys’s TransformationOne of the most impressive deployments of Zero Trust I’ve seen comes from Infosys. The company’s CISO, Vijayeendra Purohit, shared the inspiring story of how Infosys transformed its security infrastructure by deploying Zscaler’s Zero Trust platform to over 300,000 employees globally in just two and a half months. This rapid transition was made possible by Infosys's “digital first, cloud first, and AI first” strategy, which prepared the organization for flexible and secure remote work even before the pandemic.Empowering Growth and Innovation at HDFC ErgoSriram Naganathan, President & CTO of HDFC ERGO emphasized the critical role of change management in driving digital transformation. As one of India’s leading insurers, HDFC ERGO’s ability to reimagine processes and bring people along is essential to staying competitive. Mr. Naganathan highlighted how digital offices have enabled HDFC ERGO to expand into tier 3 and 4 cities without relying on traditional brick-and-mortar branches.A key part of this transformation has been the deployment of Zscaler's AI-powered Zero Trust platform, which ensures employees, partners, and field agents can securely access systems from anywhere with just a broadband connection and a laptop.Turning Cybersecurity into a Strategic Asset at IIFLIn the financial services sector, cybersecurity is often seen as a cost center. However, Ameya Sathye, VP and Group Head of Cyber Security at IIFL, demonstrated how Zscaler’s Risk360 platform turned cybersecurity into a quantifiable strategic asset. By integrating Zscaler Internet Access and Zscaler Private Access technologies with other security tools, Mr. Sathye significantly reduced IIFL’s risk score.The ROI of security lies in risk reduction. As Mr. Sathye emphasized, “The ROI comes when there is a value. The value comes when there is a reduction in risk for enterprises.” This shift in perspective shows that cybersecurity can be not only a protective measure, but a strategic enabler of growth.Leading the Future of Digital TransformationI’m grateful to all the CXOs who shared their invaluable insights and to those who took time out of busy schedules to attend. The stories shared onstage should remind us all that digital transformation is about more than just adopting new technology—it’s about reshaping processes, empowering people, and fostering a culture of continuous change. The deployment of Zscaler's Zero Trust solutions across industries—from insurance to banking, and from cybersecurity to IT consulting—has proven to be a critical enabler of this transformation.The shift to a Zero Trust architecture isn’t just a digital or technology transformation—it’s a business transformation. It’s about aligning security with an organization’s growth and innovation strategies. It’s about accommodating an AI-enabled future, with all of the security and compliance concerns that entails. The future of business success depends on the ability to adapt, secure, and scale at the pace of change.If you’re ready to take the next step in your transformation journey, Zscaler is here to help guide your organization with the right Zero Trust solutions.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Jay Chaudhry (CEO and Founder of Zscaler)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Securing Future Growth: How FICO Embraces the Cloud with Confidence]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/securing-future-growth-how-fico-embraces-cloud-confidence</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/securing-future-growth-how-fico-embraces-cloud-confidence</guid>
            <pubDate>Mon, 31 Mar 2025 18:54:22 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Securing a global enterprise like&nbsp;FICO, widely known for its credit scoring system, is no small task. This is especially true for FICO, as our offerings extend beyond the consumer.A large part of our business is providing enterprises with analytics software and services that create hyper-personalized experiences for their customers. As we continue to innovate and push the capabilities of applied intelligence (“the original AI,” as I like to call it), FICO’s journey to the cloud and zero trust has been crucial to maintaining a leading edge in the highly competitive financial services market.Since 2017, we’ve embarked on a transformative journey to secure FICO’s operations in the cloud, rethinking traditional network security, eliminating outdated infrastructure like VPNs, and embracing cutting-edge zero trust architecture and AI-powered tools. This evolution has enabled us to not only protect sensitive workloads, but also enhance performance and agility across our entire organization.Here are the key strategies we’ve implemented and lessons learned along the way.Embarking on our journey to the cloudWe began our move to the public cloud in 2017, starting with corporate workloads. As with many companies, moving to the cloud was essential for securing back-office applications and protecting users. Amazon Web Services (AWS) became our cloud platform of choice for production workloads, and this prompted the first step in our transformation: securing our internal systems by building a zero trust architecture.We started by deploying&nbsp;Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), part of the&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform, to secure our employees’ interactions with the internet as well as SaaS services and applications they use every day. ZIA changed the game in securing how we work.ZIA gave us AI-powered protection—URL filtering, full TLS/SSL traffic inspection, and other services to stop ransomware, phishing, zero-day malware, and other threats—for all our users, devices, and SaaS applications across all our locations.&nbsp;We paired ZIA with&nbsp;Zscaler CASB technology. CASB enables us to securely manage the SaaS and IaaS services we rely on and allows us to apply consistent protection for data in motion across the cloud. It also offers us visibility into risky and unsanctioned shadow IT application usage. This powerful combination gave us a solid foundation for the rest of our security journey.Eliminating traditional VPNs and simplifying accessThe next key milestone was the rollout of&nbsp;Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). It provides fast, secure, and reliable private application access for all our users, from any device or location, while establishing zero trust connectivity for workloads. ZPA minimizes security risks and mitigates lateral threat movement through AI-powered user-to-app segmentation and context-aware policies.At FICO, ZPA helped us eliminate our entire legacy VPN infrastructure—something many companies dream of but struggle to achieve. ZPA made accessing applications and workloads so much easier, faster, and more reliable for our employees while, at the same time, allowing us to strengthen our security posture.What started as a security-driven project quickly caught our IT department’s attention when they saw how much Zscaler also simplified the operational side. With ZIA, CASB, and ZPA in place, we introduced&nbsp;Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX), which helps us boost productivity by monitoring our users’ digital experience. It optimizes experiences across all locations, devices, and apps by enabling IT to rapidly detect and resolve application, network, and device issues. ZDX uses AI to pinpoint root causes and make recommendations for resolution. It has also helped us collaborate more effectively by sharing insights and data across our IT operations, support, and security teams.Looking back, I wish we had implemented ZDX sooner. If you're on a similar cloud journey, my advice would be to prioritize ZDX as soon as possible in your deployment.Deception technology—A deeper layer of defenseIn the last year and a half, we’ve added&nbsp;Zscaler Deception to our security stack to detect and intercept sophisticated threats that bypass most traditional defenses. The members of my red team, who are always on the lookout for vulnerabilities and avenues for potential attacks, absolutely love it. We’ve deployed customized decoys internally and externally to gather threat intelligence and keep attackers away from our core assets. It’s been an exciting and effective way to further protect our environment, and it gives us a proactive edge in staying ahead of potential threats.Securing production workloads in the cloudWhen it comes to protecting production workloads in the cloud, we’ve already made significant progress. With a 68-year technology legacy, we still have applications that are not well-suited for the cloud, so we will be using data centers for a while. But a lot of our production workloads are already in the cloud, so we have adopted Zscaler Cloud Connectors to securely connect many of our AWS accounts to Zscaler services, extending the same security controls provided by ZIA and ZPA to our workloads. Since FICO is also a cloud services provider, Cloud Connectors are essential as we continue delivering services to our customers through the cloud.Our segmentation approach focuses on dividing workloads by zone and AWS account. Right now, this strategy works well for us, but we’re moving toward more granular segmentation as we fully implement Cloud Connectors. We expect to gain even more control over how we manage workloads as we continue expanding our cloud footprint.Our future begins with our secure cloudFICO’s move to the cloud has been a transformative journey, and we’ve come a long way in securing and optimizing our systems. From securing corporate interactions to adopting deception technology and using Cloud Connectors, each step has strengthened our cloud infrastructure.We were proud to recognize Zscaler as Supplier of the Year at our annual FICO World User Conference. This was our way of acknowledging Zscaler’s tremendous support and the positive impact its tools have had as we navigate this transition and continue to grow and innovate for our customers.It’s an exciting time to be at FICO, and I look forward to what comes next as we continue to evolve our Zscaler zero trust architecture. Watch us go!&nbsp;See my full&nbsp;Zenith Live 2024 keynote.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Ben Nelson (Zscaler)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[3 Lessons Learned about the Indispensable Chemistry Between Zero Trust and Innovation]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/3-lessons-learned-about-indispensable-chemistry-between-zero-trust-and</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/3-lessons-learned-about-indispensable-chemistry-between-zero-trust-and</guid>
            <pubDate>Mon, 28 Oct 2024 20:31:50 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Securing innovation with indispensable chemistryIn a world where organizations are fueled by innovation, security is often seen as the gatekeeper that hampers creativity and productivity in order to maintain control. But at Indorama Ventures (IVL), we see things differently. Just as chemistry is indispensable to creating the materials that power modern life, zero trust security has become indispensable to innovation in our digital operations.As a global leader in the chemical industry, Indorama’s reach spans 35 countries and 26,000 employees. Our products—critical in everything from textiles to packaging—are the result of years of refining processes and technologies. But the same philosophy that fuels our success also exists in how we approach digital transformation. Partnering with Zscaler, we embarked on a journey to implement zero trust security, not just to protect our global operations, but to enable secure innovation across all fronts.&nbsp;Indorama Ventures: chemistry and connectivity in action&nbsp;For us at Indorama ventures, the need for secure, reliable access to data and applications wasn’t just about protecting information—it was about enabling our teams to work seamlessly across borders. Our operations rely on a complex supply chain and continuous communication between manufacturing sites, suppliers, and customers. And to maintain this delicate balance, our IT infrastructure had to be equally robust.We chose Zscaler because it offered more than just a security solution—it gave us the opportunity to align our goals of security and innovation. By deploying Zscaler for Users, we ensured that our global teams could securely access critical applications like SAP and SuccessFactors from anywhere, without the complexity of traditional VPNs.The result? Indorama’s operations became more flexible, connected, and future-proof, and our security framework became indispensable to our success. We also measured 15-20% improvement in network reliability and connectivity speeds and generated significant TCO savings As a result, we learned three key lessons.&nbsp;Lesson 1: Zero Trust is a continuous journey—keep evolving in securityOne of the most important lessons we learned is that zero trust isn’t a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution. Like the chemistry behind our products, security must evolve to meet changing needs and threats. Implementing a zero trust architecture with Zscaler allowed us to continuously innovate with the knowledge that our systems could adapt to future challenges.Zero trust requires ongoing adjustments—updating policies, reviewing security postures, and ensuring teams stay informed on the latest threats. Taking an ever-evolving, proactive approach allowed us to innovate before problems arose, helping us to avoid costly reactive measures and achieve smooth transitions—even during global disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic.To ensure a successful journey, we recommend comprehensive hands-on training at the outset and a strong focus on change management around global policy settings during the initial deployment. This approach helps to avoid disruptions and ensures a smooth transition.Lesson 2: Security and innovation—the perfect chemical bondAt Indorama Ventures, we quickly realized that security and innovation aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they’re two sides of the same coin. Zscaler empowered our teams to work efficiently across the globe, accessing applications securely, without disruptions. This seamless access decreased latency and freed up our people to focus on innovation, knowing their work was protected by a strong security framework.&nbsp;By eliminating VPNs and firewalls (which aren’t designed for a modern world with remote work and cloud apps), we were able to speed up operations, improve productivity, and enable innovation. Security didn’t slow us down—it became an invisible yet indispensable part of our innovation strategy, enabling our workforce to push boundaries. Today security is a foundation, not an afterthough.Lesson 3: Early adoption pays off—stay ahead of the threat curve&nbsp;Perhaps the most valuable lesson we learned was the importance of staying ahead. By adopting Zscaler’s zero trust architecture early on, we were able to preempt evolving threats and keep our operations secure. This proactive stance allowed us to maintain business continuity when the unexpected struck, and it has proven to be a critical advantage in navigating today’s unpredictable landscape. Investing in zero trust early ensured that we could scale securely as our global operations grew.&nbsp;Chemistry meets zero trust—what’s next for IndoramaOur zero trust journey with Zscaler has shown us that security is not a barrier to innovation, but rather an enabler. As we look to the future, we plan to extend this indispensable chemistry between security and innovation even further. Next on our agenda is exploring Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) to improve visibility into user experiences and application performance, ensuring our workforce remains agile and connected.&nbsp;We’re also considering Zscaler for Workloads as we migrate more systems to the cloud. And as we expand, our zero trust framework will evolve, ensuring our operations remain secure, adaptable, and ready for the future.&nbsp;For us at Indorama, the connection between chemistry and security has become clear: just as our products are indispensable to modern life, zero trust is indispensable to our continued innovation.&nbsp;]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Zia Akhtar (Zscaler)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Racing to the Supermarket]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/racing-to-the-supermarket</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/racing-to-the-supermarket</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 08:32:30 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[What my Shopping Trips have in Common with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team&nbsp;This year I had the opportunity to visit the incredible Finnish round of the World Rally Championship at the beginning of August. As a racing car enthusiast, I had always wanted to see&nbsp; the ‘Rally of the 1000 lakes’, as it used to be called, with its various stages through the beautiful Finnish woods. It is the fastest rally on the calendar&nbsp; made all the more amazing as the speeds are achieved with trees just meters away.&nbsp; This is a real test of a driver’s skills and it includes a series of jumps where cars get airborne for up to 60–70 meters.Being at a rally you are only ever able to get a glimpse of the action as a visitor. Unlike the TV experience, where you are able to follow the whole course and see the start and finish, being present on site means that you have to put your focus on various spectacular stages. You have to be a real motorsports fan, because ultimately you park your car and then have to walk through the woods to reach just one of the many stages wind through the trees. Only if you are well organized or know the roads very well can you go and see multiple stages in one day - even then you can only get to see a small portion of a specific stage but you can get close to the action and then you really appreciate the speed and skill of the drivers as well as how amazing the cars themselves are.It was also worthwhile to take the chance to not only go and experience the rally but to meet some of the folks at the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team factory: The brains behind the highly sophisticated rally cars that have won the WRC multiple times in a row now.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Personal passion for racing carsIn order for a manufacturer to take part in the WRC it has to base its rally car on a production road car. That means each racing team has to homologate a certain number of cars that are then purchased by the public, and the manufacturers use those cars as a foundation for their rally car. Toyota’s starting point is a Yaris, which is a very common car that is popular for reliability, a compact form factor and economic driving.The manufacturer has built kind of a crazy version of the Yaris that they sold as a limited edition globally. I put my name down on the waiting list a few years ago for one of these cars and was lucky enough to receive my personal hand-built ‘Rally’ car version 18 months later. From the outside it looks almost identical to an ordinary Yaris&nbsp; but when you take it to the supermarket you realize quickly that it is something that‘s been designed with rallying in mind and far from ordinary.&nbsp;According to TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT), when they announced they would return to the WRC in 2015, the concept of building a rally-inspired sports car was part of the plan. The vision was to take technical knowledge and experience from the highest level of international competition and apply them to a new road car that is also suitable for competition driving.&nbsp;Fast and secure data transferWhat I have learnt by talking to the TGR-WRT IT team during my factory visit in Finland is the impact that feeding racing performance data from various parts of the car, mainly engine performance and suspension, back to HQ as fast as possible to optimise the car for the next stage. As the racing takes place globally from Europe to Kenya, Chile or Japan in harsh and very remote locations, the transmission of sensitive data recorded by the car‘s data logger has to take place in a secure and reliable way. Each branch office or remote location of the rally's stops has to relay information back to the engineers in the Finnish headquarters of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team.The TGR-WRT IT department deemed that reduced complexity and the requirement for utmost data integrity to be an important criteria of success when they decided to switch to the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform as a security solution a few years ago. Their incumbent IT environment at that time was based on VPNs and firewalls, which added complexity and did not offer the desired speed and flexibility relevant for sharing testing or racing data as fast as possible. The switch to a cloud based solution provided the IT team with the required performance in remote locations and security based on Zero Trust principles.&nbsp;As speed is not only a top priority for racing but as well for the back end IT processes, the simplification of the IT environment with a cloud-based Zero Trust approach not only enables fast and secure access for users, applications, and workloads, but also connects all remote locations seamlessly in a robust way via the Branch Connector. This allows the team to work from anywhere, even under extreme conditions.FinishMy car just looks like a Yaris, but is really the slightly sanitized, road-going version of a rally car tested and optimized under extreme conditions. In the factory in Finland it could be turned into a full fledged racing car easily within a week. Reduction of IT infrastructure complexity and secure and fast access to data is a real innovation driver!]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Paul Hennin (VP EMEA, Marketing)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Lessons Learned, Four Zscaler Deployments Later]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/lessons-learned-four-zscaler-deployments-later</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/lessons-learned-four-zscaler-deployments-later</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 03 Sep 2024 20:25:33 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[When I joined Capitec in April 2022 as CTO, the first thing I wanted to find out was whether there was a zero trust strategy in place. Capitec is the second largest bank in South Africa, and like financial institutions the world over, it’s a potential target for attackers. To compound our challenges, our country’s infrastructure problems are mounting, with outages scheduled each day to try to take the pressure off the oversubscribed electricity grid and poor connectivity in rural areas. I was confident that a zero trust architecture with the right vendor would at least help address our security concerns.I found that, indeed, there was a zero trust project already underway at Capitec with a Zscaler competitor. The project had been dragging on for two years, but there had been no production deployment. With an open mind, I gave the competing solution a chance—but in due time, significant issues started to crop up. It soon became apparent to me that there were reasons why the project had gone on for so long.Having successfully completed three Zscaler deployments in prior roles, I had a good basis for comparison. With all the issues and hang-ups we experienced at Capitec, I couldn’t see this other solution ever making it into production. It was time to pull the plug and move our zero trust migration to Zscaler.&nbsp;Drawing on my past experience, I set the time frame at three months to get Zscaler up and running. Maybe that sounds optimistic, but Zscaler is a premium product. And what you get with a mature product is a more efficient process, making it easy to self-solve issues as you go.&nbsp;What to expect and advice for Zscaler deploymentsThat’s not to say there isn’t a learning curve when transitioning to a zero trust architecture. You and your teams need to be aware of the effort it takes. In theory, when you go through a zero trust migration, everything should just work. But that’s not always the reality. Sometimes you break stuff, but that’s all part of the process. The difference with Zscaler is that it makes it really easy to find out where you might have gone awry so you can fix those issues quickly and keep up the momentum. Here’s my advice for those beginning their zero trust migration:1: Move quicklyOne of the great things about Zscaler is that you can achieve real velocity. With the other solution, when something stopped working, it would take a month or more before we could even identify the issue. We would work on it for a while, and then it would break again.&nbsp;We never had that problem with Zscaler. If anything went wrong, we could see immediately where the roadblocks were. Because of this, we were able to deploy Zscaler enterprise-wide very quickly.&nbsp;We gradually phased in our Zscaler deployment, first to groups of 500 people and then, one day later, to groups of 1,000 people. To stay on track, I recommend meeting with your team every day to talk about the problems that come up and develop a plan on how to resolve them.&nbsp;2: Start with simple policiesMy second piece of advice is this: Don’t break your user experience by locking everything down. You need to consider both cyber risk and user productivity. You may be tempted to enforce an isolation for all websites, but that completely throttles users from getting their jobs done. The end result of overprotection is that sites load more slowly—and that makes for a poor user experience. Instead, start with pragmatic global policies, and then use Zscaler’s risk insights to fine-tune those policies.For example, we started off with the default policy of making the internet read-only. That eliminated the risk of data loss without breaking the user experience, and it helped us speed up the rollout process. After setting the global default policies, we started tweaking things. For instance, we opened up LinkedIn so users could create posts. In time, you can adjust the default policies on an individual basis. When it comes to setting policies, Zscaler is granular and flexible.3: Take advantage of the ZIA dashboardWith the ZIA dashboard, you’re getting a powerful data and analytics platform that will help you run your business. As a senior cyber professional, you’ll be amazed at what you can see in the dashboard from a risk perspective. It’s great to be able to see where we began with Zscaler compared to where we are now.Looking at our company risk score on the insights report, we found that we’ve cut our risk by 50%. I’ve used other security products that are supposed to tell you what your organization’s risk is, but the actionable insights they give you are not that meaningful. Zscaler shows us insights that truly help us get a handle on risk. I don’t know how anyone can manage a financial services company without the insights from Zscaler.For example, we have 16,000 people in our organization. We don’t have the time or the energy to go through 16,000 internet logs. Zscaler shows us specifically which 20 out of those 16,000 people have a high risk score, so our focus is on those 20 people—now that’s meaningful.4: Establish a cross-functional teamI’d recommend establishing cross-functional teams from security, networking, IT, and others. If you keep them separate, teams will struggle to work together and the whole deployment will falter. To ensure the project succeeds, make sure your deployment team has all the disciplines under its belt and is guided by a single leader.Also, don’t be afraid to lean on Zscaler for support. The account and support people I have met from Zscaler are incredibly helpful, and their feedback on incidents is truly impressive. It shows that Zscaler sets a high bar. And they are highly responsive, so consider them part of your temporary deployment team.5: Deploy the most recent versionIn my experience, the cadence and delivery of features and enhancements in Zscaler are consistently excellent. I’ve seen a lot of improvements in the product since I first used it. Our general policy is to always adopt the most recent versions.Lastly, celebrate&nbsp;When you get zero trust right, it’s a big day in your company’s history. Granted, you’ll continue hardening your infrastructure for a long, long time, but the day you get that basic zero trust architecture in place, you’ll see a massive drop in risk. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange will change the risk posture of your organization forever. That’s something to celebrate.&nbsp;And, lest we forget, my projection for time-to-deployment was spot-on. In three months, zero trust was enabled. Plus, Zscaler even set up a local point of presence expressly for Capitec in Cape Town to facilitate faster connectivity. It doesn’t get any better than that!Learn more about Capitec’s implementation of the&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange by reading the&nbsp;case study.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Andrew Baker (CTO, Capitec)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Three Ways Zero Trust Architecture Made Our Organization Better Beyond Security]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/three-ways-zero-trust-architecture-made-our-organization-better-beyond</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/three-ways-zero-trust-architecture-made-our-organization-better-beyond</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 03 Sep 2024 20:25:08 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The best approach for secure digital transformation&nbsp;At the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, our most critical work happens on-location in local communities across the UK, not in a central office behind servers, firewalls, and VPNs.&nbsp;We wanted to reduce business risk, enhance our cybersecurity readiness, and empower a workforce as geographically diverse as the communities we serve. To accomplish this, we displaced a traditional perimeter-based security model in favor of the cloud native, comprehensive&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange.Our zero trust roadmap included some essential benchmarks: become less reliant on legacy appliances, reduce our attack surface, protect users and private applications across any location, improve operational efficiency, and save money.Attained more than we bargained for with the Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeFor us, the Zscaler platform ticks all those boxes in remarkable ways:✅ Eliminates 100% of our legacy security appliances✅ Prevents roughly 61.36M policy violations and 418K security threats every year✅ Gives us 50,000 extra hours of productivity across our workforce annually✅&nbsp; Saves £500,000 a year in operating costsZscaler has been instrumental to our digital transformation. These results we’ve achieved around security, however, were just the beginning of more profound changes for the DLUHC. Embracing holistic zero trust security has made our organization fundamentally better in ways that transcend security posture.&nbsp;I like to say that we got more than we bargained for with the Zero Trust Exchange.&nbsp;Zero trust infrastructure enhances sustainability effortsAs a ministerial department, we play a role in working towards the UK government’s environmental sustainability plan. We design initiatives in housing, urban regeneration, and infrastructure that help enhance biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and ensure resource efficiency.Embracing zero trust has allowed us to move the needle on these objectives—especially around resource efficiency—at an operational level, as well. I mentioned earlier that deploying the Zero Trust Exchange allowed us to eliminate 100% of our legacy security appliances.&nbsp;Zscaler has also empowered us to make the move to fully unified communications.&nbsp;Online connectivity is so secure and reliable now that we’ve been able to remove nearly every desk phone from our hardware estate, relying instead on digital resources like Microsoft Teams.&nbsp;No longer purchasing or maintaining physical equipment in large volumes reduces our carbon footprint. Displacing roughly&nbsp;three managed providers with the Zscaler platform has reduced our electricity consumption by more than 68,000 kWh per year (187 kWh each day).&nbsp;To put that into perspective, the UK’s independent energy regulator Ofgem estimates that the typical UK household consumes 2,700 kWh of electricity each year. Our energy reduction could offset around 25 households annually.Enhancing user experience and focus with zero trustWhen we replaced our previous VPN services with the Zero Trust Exchange, we did so to significantly reduce the attack surface and better protect data and applications. With Zscaler, we’ve not only secured access to our private applications and processes, but also improved the user experience.The old VPN was a universal source of frustration for staff. Connecting from remote locations was a clunky, time-consuming process with the potential for multiple failure points along the way. Time spent trying and failing to connect for remote work was ultimately time withheld from the life-changing programs our workforce aims to deliver.We no longer have to stress over that balancing act. As shared earlier, we calculated that Zscaler technology saves our workforce a collective 50,000 hours of staff time each year—time that can now be focused on improving communities across the UK.Since making the switch to zero trust, we’ve also seen a more than 50% reduction in the number of support desk requests. The intuitive Zscaler interface ensures successful, secure connections with every attempt. Users who can work independently and effectively, with protected time for the most essential projects, become a workforce that is empowered and motivated to deliver mission-focused results.Check out the full case study to learn more about the DLUHC digital transformation with Zscaler.]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Dave Baldwin (CTO, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[The Present and Future of Zero Trust Segmentation at Gray Television]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/present-and-future-zero-trust-segmentation-gray-television</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/present-and-future-zero-trust-segmentation-gray-television</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jul 2024 18:46:53 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Gray Television has embarked on a transformative digital journey to modernize and secure its network infrastructure, and I'm excited to share our experiences and insights from this process. Our story is one of growth, challenges, and innovative solutions that have reshaped our network infrastructure and security landscape, thanks to our relationship with our trusted partner Zscaler.Navigating complexitiesBased in Atlanta, Georgia, Gray Television operates in 114 markets across 38 states. We aim for employees at all locations to be productive and secure, but rapid growth through M&As has led to a complex network infrastructure that got in our way.Our acquisitions left us with a fragmented network comprising several WANs and dozens of VPN solutions, making management, monitoring, and policy implementation extremely challenging. Each new acquisition added layers of complexity, and the disparate systems didn't always play well together. By early 2021, we realized the need for a radical change to simplify our network and enhance security.&nbsp;Defining our goals: boosting resilience while decreasing riskZero trust segmentation was at the core of our strategy. As part of our new security strategy, we developed a roadmap centered on network segmentation through zero trust that would address users, workloads, branches, and internet of things (IoT)/operational technology (OT) devices.&nbsp;Because zero trust assumes that every network interaction is potentially malicious, it would enable us to implement stringent access controls that significantly reduce the risk of data breaches. Another critical aspect of zero trust is continuous monitoring and analysis of network activity to help us gain deep insights into network traffic, identify potential threats, and help security teams respond swiftly to incidents.&nbsp;We set three primary goals for our digital transformation that revolved around the&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform:&nbsp;Network modernization: Transition away from legacy VPNs and reduce our reliance on traditional WANs. We needed a solution that could handle our sprawling network without the headaches that came with outdated systems.Simplification: Manage our network from a single pane of glass to streamline operations and achieve cost savings. Simplifying our network infrastructure would not only make it easier to manage, but also reduce the risk of configuration errors and security breaches.Consistent security policies: Implement uniform security policies across all platforms. Consistency in security policies is crucial for reducing cyber risk, protecting our data, and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.Phase One: Improving the user experience and reducing the attack surface with Zscaler Private AccessOur first step toward implementing a network segmentation strategy was deploying&nbsp;Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) to provide users with direct-to-application connectivity rather than bringing them into the network. ZPA was a game-changer, allowing us to eliminate our legacy VPNs, streamline our network, and reduce the attack surface.The shift to ZPA was seamless, and our remote employees could access the resources they needed to do their jobs without the cumbersome and risky connections. It also provided granular access controls, enabling us to define application and data accessibility parameters.Phase Two: Replacing costly SD-WAN with Zscaler Zero Trust SD-WANNext, we introduced Zscaler Zero Trust SD-WAN to replace our traditional WAN network-to-network connections with zero trust user-to-workload and device-to-workload sessions. This phase is still in progress, but we've already seen substantial benefits. Zero Trust SD-WAN has simplified our network management and reduced costs by using standard internet connections instead of expensive private line and MPLS connections.&nbsp;Zero Trust SD-WAN allows us to securely connect our branch offices to the internet and private applications, without the risk of lateral threat movement on the network. Additionally, by leveraging standard internet connections with Branch Connector, which enables Zero Trust SD-WAN, we cut costs dramatically without sacrificing performance or security.Moreover, the simplicity of Zero Trust SD-WAN made it easier for our IT team to monitor and control all branch connections from a single management console. This reduces the administrative overhead and makes it easier to enforce consistent security policies across the entire network.Phase Three: Future zero trust innovations and integrations&nbsp;Looking forward, we plan to further extend zero trust segmentation by securing devices such as IoT kiosks, computers, and servers through the Zero Trust Exchange platform.&nbsp;Integrating IoT devices into our zero trust network is particularly exciting. IoT devices are becoming increasingly common in our industry, and ensuring their security is a top priority. By connecting and securing these devices with the Zero Trust Exchange platform, we can apply the same rigorous security standards to them as we do to our other network components. This will help us protect against potential vulnerabilities and ensure our entire network is secure.We also plan to explore using&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Device Segmentation, which provides zero trust segmentation in LAN environments. This will be crucial for protecting our critical infrastructure and operational technology (OT) networks from ransomware and other advanced attacks. Creating a “segment of one” for each device will allow us to control access policies at a very granular level without any changes to switches and routing infrastructure, further enhancing our critical infrastructure security posture. The agentless approach will enable us to deploy this revolutionary technology in hours versus months.&nbsp;Tangible outcomes and benefitsI am proud of my team's ability to execute on our goals with the help of the Zscaler team. Not only did we meet our goals without a hitch, we also reaped these benefits:Cost savings: Utilizing the internet as the corporate network with Branch Connector has had a substantial financial impact, freeing up resources we can reinvest into other business areas.Reduced business risk: By implementing consistent security policies across all platforms, minimizing the attack surface, and preventing lateral movement we have improved our risk profile. We’re now more confident in our ability to protect our data and comply with regulatory requirements.Improved business agility and scalability: The cloud-based Zscaler architecture allows us to easily add new users, devices, and locations without the need for complex hardware installations or upgrades.&nbsp;Additionally, streamlined M&A processes have allowed us to integrate new acquisitions quickly and securely with ZPA and Zscaler SD-WAN. This flexibility has been crucial in ensuring that our network can keep up with our expanding business.&nbsp;Our journey with Zscaler has been nothing short of transformative. We now have a scalable, secure, and efficient network that supports our growth and operational needs. I encourage other organizations facing similar challenges to consider the Zero Trust Exchange platform. It has made a world of difference for us.As we look to the future, we are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. The continued evolution of our network infrastructure will enable us to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensure that our employees can work securely and efficiently from anywhere. We are committed to maintaining our zero trust principles and leveraging the latest Zscaler technologies to keep our network secure.I hope our story inspires you to embark on your own path to a more secure and efficient network infrastructure.Watch Brian Morris from Gray Television’s full Zenith Live ’24 presentation]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Brian Morris (VP, Chief Information Security Officer, Gray Television)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Six Ways Sanmina Maximized Its Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Investment ]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/six-ways-sanmina-maximized-its-zscaler-zero-trust-exchange-investment</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/six-ways-sanmina-maximized-its-zscaler-zero-trust-exchange-investment</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 09 Jul 2024 22:01:42 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Six Ways Sanmina Maximized Its Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Investment&nbsp;Several years back, my security team and I noticed that the four walls of legacy perimeter-based security were eroding. As a respected leader in the electronic manufacturing services (EMS) market, we wanted Sanmina employees to be as efficient, productive, and secure as possible, no matter where they work. When we started moving to the cloud and adopted advanced Industry 4.0 manufacturing practices, it soon became apparent that, in order to minimize cybersecurity risk and reduce complexity, we needed to re-architect our traditional infrastructure and implement zero trust.Headquartered in San Jose, California, and with locations across six continents, Sanmina is a Fortune 500 company and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of circuit boards and backplanes. Our customers span a broad spectrum of industries, such as medical, automotive, communications, and defense and aerospace. We are committed to exceeding customer expectations by delivering excellence in performance, flexibility, and technology.The rationale for transitioning from a legacy architecture to Zscaler zero trustWhen I joined Sanmina in 1999 as a technical support person, security measures were sorely lacking. After rising through the ranks, I was asked to take on the mission of establishing the security department, implementing more robust solutions, and training employees on cybersecurity practices. I witnessed the evolution of technology in the manufacturing sector and the emergence of zero trust practices and solutions — and there was no doubt in my mind that implementing zero trust was essential to our continued success and future growth. Enabling our distributed global workforce with rapid yet secure access to business-critical applications would be key to that success.&nbsp;On the internet access side, we had physical servers with a Squid caching proxy installed at each of our 60-plus plants to provide web filtering. Keeping these up to date was a massive problem, so we immediately jumped on board with the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ platform and deployed Zscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA™), enabling us to phase out those SWG servers across the globe.&nbsp;Our next challenge involved how we were providing remote access via VPNs. Before Zscaler, our employees, vendors, suppliers, and customers had their own accounts in our identity management system. They were each provided with the same VPN access that Sanmina employees were provided. This was an untenable solution. We worried about potential threats embedded in encrypted traffic, and performance was slow because traffic had to be routed through firewalls to the data center before users could access the resources they needed.&nbsp;The VPN concentrators also had many other issues. We had multiple physical appliances spread across the globe, and each required its own configurations, rules, patches, updates, and maintenance contracts. Any changes that we wanted to implement had to be applied manually to each appliance at every location. We realized we simply couldn’t implement a zero trust architecture using traditional VPN technology. We needed an access solution that was appropriate for a modern, perimeter-less infrastructure.After evaluating multiple options, we selected Zscaler Private Access™ (ZPA™). ZPA was the most resilient remote access choice available in the market, and we’d already had a great experience with deploying ZIA. It was an obvious choice because Zscaler’s 150+ global data centers enable users to take the shortest path to the applications they need to do their jobs as well as their internet destinations. We are proud to say that we have completely eliminated legacy VPNs and fully embraced ZPA for secure remote access to private applications.&nbsp;For those of you starting your Zscaler zero trust journey, here are six things I’ve learned that will streamline the transition from your legacy architecture:&nbsp;1. Communicate what you’re doing with employeesWhen we embarked on our journey with Zscaler, we knew we had to make it clear to our users that zero trust was an organizational solution, not just an IT solution. Beyond that, we needed to instill in them the notion that security is everyone’s responsibility.&nbsp;Communication and education needs to be initiated upfront. Employees need to know in advance what’s coming and why it’s going to make things better. Some companies just push new software on employees without explaining what it is, what it does, why they’re doing it, and how it will impact them. But explaining these changes to employees in advance makes the process go much more smoothly. When our employees realized that they would only have to re-authenticate every seven days instead of every 23 hours, they were thrilled and became much more open to accepting the change.&nbsp;I tell my peers at security events I attend, that my team was previously perceived as the department of “no,” and how we flipped that around and became the department of “know.”2. Recognize the mental hurdle&nbsp;Because Zscaler operates so differently from the way we did things in the past, it took a certain degree of faith in the technology to have a successful implementation. This required departments within IT to recognize that previously established processes were no longer viable and new processes had to be implemented. Due to the ease of management within Zscaler, these new processes were more efficient, productive, and streamlined.3. Use Zscaler for faster mergers and acquisitions (M&As) integrationM&As are an important aspect of Sanmina’s expansion strategy and profitability goals. Before ZPA, our M&A process was painfully slow. The lengthy first step was always getting the acquired company’s computers running our image and getting the proper network connections in place with our firewalls. Then, because we were reliant on VPN, we had to connect the new users directly to our corporate network, giving them unrestricted application access without knowing whether their security solutions were updated or robust enough to meet our specifications. As you can imagine, this presented huge risks.Now, with the Zscaler platform, we can have the new company become functionally operational on the first day and allow new employees to only access authorized applications rather than the entire network — and this substantially strengthens our M&A security posture.4. Take advantage of ZPA’s granular policiesWe enabled ZPA’s built-in posture checking early in the deployment process. We also implemented geolocation policies. For example, when employees leave China, we have their settings changed to automatically get routed to a different node. Then, when they’re back in China, they get rerouted back through China’s node. ZPA makes it easy to deploy such granular policies. As a result, we can maintain continued productivity and maximize the long-term benefits of our investment, regardless of where employees work.5. Let Security Operations handle the day-to-day administration&nbsp;One of the greatest benefits of the Zscaler platform is that we can turn the day-to-day administration over to our Security Operations teams. This is possible because of the platform’s user-friendly, intuitive interface. This allows our highly skilled security professionals to focus more on strategic goals than on tactical tasks. It’s a huge value to the company to be able to free up those resources for higher value projects.6. Keep executives in the loopAnother key component of the communication piece is informing executives about our risk posture. When we were introduced to Zscaler Risk360™, we immediately put it to work. Risk360 enables us to visualize risk across our entire environment and drill down into risk factors and even financial exposure details. The framework makes it easy for us to prepare reports for the board and management team so they can get insights into how we prioritize security issues and apply mitigation actions.The benefits of the Zscaler platform have been phenomenal. It has provided us with tremendous benefits that enable us to:Secure our workforce instantaneously across our over 60 global locationsLeverage a scalable, expandable platform that operates seamlessly in today’s perimeter-less worldApply security updates in just minutes instead of daysAchieve business goals rapidly with smoother and faster M&A processesEmpower users with high-performance application access and better digital experiences&nbsp;All of the above helps us accomplish our overall goal of mitigating risk across the enterprise so we can better serve our partners and customers.Continuing the Zscaler journey while realizing ROIWe’re excited about deepening our exploration of Zscaler’s capabilities. The recent integration of the AI-powered Avalor Data Fabric for Security with Risk360 will help us improve risk management by identifying vulnerabilities and proactively mitigating them before they become a problem. By aggregating data across our entire environment, the data fabric will provide rich context so that we gain an in-depth understanding of the actual risks presented by the vulnerabilities Risk360 discovers. As a manufacturing company, we are also interested in extending zero trust segmentation to our operational technology (OT) environment. Zscaler’s Airgap technology will help us protect east-west traffic in all the manufacturing plants within our critical OT infrastructure.&nbsp;Our return on investment with Zscaler has been multifaceted. The Zero Trust Exchange platform has increased our agility, improved our security posture, enhanced our employees’ productivity, reduced costs of operations across our global footprint, decreased complexity, and given us better visibility and control. Our journey with Zscaler has been completely positive from day one. All in all, it’s a win-win for our entire enterprise.&nbsp;Learn more about Sanmina’s journey to zero trust by reading the&nbsp;case study.&nbsp;]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Matt Ramberg (Vice President of Information Security, Sanmina Corporation)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[NYC Department of Education Builds the Pipeline for Future Cybersecurity Professionals ]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/nyc-department-education-builds-pipeline-future-cybersecurity-professionals</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/nyc-department-education-builds-pipeline-future-cybersecurity-professionals</guid>
            <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2024 18:24:56 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[NYC Department of Education Builds the Pipeline for Future Cybersecurity ProfessionalsThere’s been a lot of talk over the past few years about a shortage of skilled cybersecurity talent, but from where we sit at the NYC DOE Division of Information and Instructional Technology (DIIT), we see budding security pros all around us. As cybersecurity leaders of the DIIT, we work with 1,800 schools and approximately 1 million students across NYC to ensure secure internet access and offer innovative solutions in education technology.As part of our efforts to empower educators and students to thrive in our digital age, we partner with technology vendors and government agencies to train and mentor students for careers in cybersecurity. In 2022, the NYC DOE formalized these efforts to support career-connected learning opportunities so that all students in metropolitan New York can reach long-term economic security and job satisfaction. It’s been our privilege to foster the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Based on the progress we’ve made in such a short time, we can say with certainty that the future looks bright.Paving the way for the next generation of cybersecurity prosIn 50 years, the classroom hasn’t changed much. In most school districts, the focus is strictly on academics, and students are rarely given the chance to gain the skills they need to enter the workplace. At NYC DOE, we do things differently. While students are still in high school, we expose them to many different career pathways—including cybersecurity—and provide opportunities for hands-on experiences.There are four programs that comprise the NYC DOE’s career-connected learning initiative, each serving a specific segment of the student population:Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship (CRMYA)New York City’s Grades 9-14 Early College and Career Schools (P-TECH Schools)&nbsp;FutureReadyNYC (FRNYC)CUNY FellowsThe Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship (CRMYA) is a three-year internship program students can apply for in the eleventh grade. The DOE cybersecurity team hosted its first cohort of eight students, five assigned to the CISO team and three assigned to the CTO team. During this time, they work on cybersecurity initiatives such as network protection, endpoint protection, incident response, and data validation. Interns complete a curriculum for a minimum of three technical certifications in areas of their choice and build relationships with technology vendors like Zscaler. Upon graduating from the program, students receive assistance in job placement or higher education programs.P-TECH schools are part of the NYC DOE and are supported by the Career and Technical Education (CTE) team and the CUNY Early College Initiative. The six-year high-school program is designed for students who don’t have a clear path to college, often for financial reasons. CUNY works in conjunction with the NYC DOE to offer them free tuition for a two-year Associate degree once they are approved. So far, 100% of participants have been able to go to college. The grades 9–14 schools also work with industry partners to support students in exploring careers and attaining skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industries.CUNY Fellows is aimed at first- and second-year college students who have successfully completed their coursework. After they are screened through an interview and background check, they work up to 34 hours per week with our team on various assignments with specific completion timelines and have the opportunity to provide feedback on how they perceive their progress.Technology partnerships prepare students for future workThe students are incredibly eager to learn and apply their knowledge. Early on in the apprenticeship program, we had a handful of high school students join us for a six-week session. We brainstormed what they could achieve during that time and introduced them to the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange.When we saw that our apprentices were interested in learning more, we reached out to Brian Wong, a customer success manager at Zscaler, and asked him to help us define a curriculum for a Zscaler certification. At his suggestion, we enrolled our students in the Zscaler Academy Zero Trust Career Program. They earned certifications, developed practitioner-level skills in zero trust, and were given the opportunity to get advice and inspiration from cybersecurity professionals in Zscaler’s Career Development forum on Zenith Community—all at no cost. Brian even shared code that the students could use to practice their skills. Now, when interns come in for apprenticeship sessions with the NYC DOE security team, they learn how to work with various tools and sit in on calls with our vendors to troubleshoot and manage these products. Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) is one such example. Since we launched the program, we’ve had nine students earn a Zscaler certification that they can use in the workplace.&nbsp;Student successes signal the strength of training programsThese programs help students obtain real-world experience in the form of internships. They also earn college credits while exploring areas of interest to which they might otherwise not be exposed. We have one student working with us who had a healthcare background but was pursuing an IT degree. We noticed her passion for learning and eagerness to work, so we gave her an opportunity to work on content filtering and she ran with it. Now she's doing data loss prevention and is one of our best CUNY interns.In her own words, Franchesca Fargas Rios describes her journey:“Originally, I did not intend to go to college, but on a whim, I decided to enroll. Although I began my career in the medical field, my growing interest in technology and my aspiration to make a positive impact led me to pursue a career in technology. The CUNY program has played a crucial role in this transition, offering internships that provide real-world experience along with academic credits, which has allowed me to explore diverse areas. Despite my healthcare background, I chose to pursue an IT degree. My dedication and eagerness to learn were quickly recognized, leading to my involvement in projects related to content filtering and data loss prevention, areas where I have excelled as one of the top interns at CUNY.Balancing motherhood, full-time studies, and a full-time job has indeed been challenging. The unwavering support and encouragement from my supervisor have been pivotal. His guidance has not only supported my career aspirations in IT but also equipped me with the necessary resources to succeed. I am eagerly anticipating graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and Informatics. Furthermore, I am planning to pursue a Master’s in Cybersecurity and achieve several professional certifications. The hands-on training and real-life experiences provided by this program have been instrumental in defining my path in IT, a field I initially knew little about.”Another avenue for students to build practical technology skills is through the Career and Technical Education program, which acts as a catch-all for students who are undecided about their career path or college education. We had six students join us as interns this past semester. One, in particular, had no plans to go to college due to financial constraints. We helped him navigate a scholarship as part of a two-year associates program at CUNY. We’re proud to say that all six students have gone on to pursue education beyond high school.Ibrahim Sawadogo shares his success story:“Before being accepted into an internship role at NYCPS, DIIT Office of the CISO, I was part of the COOP Tech Program, my goal was to attain industry certifications, such as Cisco CCNA, CompTIA Network+. My career aspiration was to just get into technology. I had no intention of attending college to get a degree. While there, I had conversions with my supervisor/mentor, who encouraged me to apply for community college. I was a bit skeptical, as I did not want to accumulate any student loan debts. My supervisor shared some vital information, which then led me to enroll at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC).I was accepted into B.M.C.C., after being enrolled in college classes that summer of 2023. I also applied to the CUNY internship program. I was fortunate to be offered a position at the NYCPS as an identity and access management analyst. During my time as an intern, I was also able to gain two industry certifications (CompTIA Security and &nbsp;ISC2 Certified in Cyber Security).This program has given me hope as a young adult African-American male living in the inner city of New York. I am very thankful for this opportunity. I am scheduled to graduate with an Associates Applied Science (A.A.S) degree in Computer Networking Technology at the end of the spring 2025 semester. I then plan to pursue my Bachelor of Technology degree at New York City College of Technology. The mentorship, hands-on technical experience, and soft skills were game-changers as I am now able to look forward to a promising career in information security.”Personal and professional mentorship makes a lasting impactEverybody needs someone to believe in them. Through our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we create a sense of belonging and inspire students from all backgrounds—regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity—to carve out fulfilling careers as cybersecurity professionals. We also act as mentors to our students, equipping them with skills and support as they navigate life’s challenges. Ultimately, our goal is for students to understand that they too have a right to grow and thrive: in the technology sector and beyond.Demond Waters—CISO at NYC DOE, a graduate of this school system, and co-author of this blog—recently had a full circle moment when a young man stopped him at a conference and explained the reason he got into technology. The young man recalled seeing Demond come into his classroom, dressed like a student in sneakers and casual attire, to fix a computer. Without even knowing it, Demond inspired the young man to pursue a career in technology.We both know what it’s like to live and grow up in New York City. To be able to show our students that they can imagine a different future for themselves than what they might see day to day—that’s what motivates us to give back.Learn more about how NYC DOE deployed Zscaler zero trust at a massive scale, securing over one million students and staff members combined. Read the case study.&nbsp;]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Demond Waters ( Chief Information Security Officer )</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Cushman & Wakefield’s Roadmap for Consolidating and Simplifying Security with Zscaler]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/cushman-wakefield-s-roadmap-consolidating-and-simplifying-security-zscaler</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/cushman-wakefield-s-roadmap-consolidating-and-simplifying-security-zscaler</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:37:55 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Cushman & Wakefield’s Roadmap for Consolidating and Simplifying Security with Zscaler

As a CISO leading the cybersecurity program at Cushman & Wakefield, one of the world's largest commercial real estate services firms, I can attest that it has been a truly transformative journey. When I joined the company over five years ago, I had clear priorities: improve SaaS application performance for our distributed, mostly mobile workforce, now more than 52,000 employees, simplify network architecture, and accelerate integration of mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

My vision was to evolve Cushman & Wakefield’s security approach from a legacy on-premises infrastructure to cloud-based security as a service. As we set our sights on a cloud-first and partner-first model, we aimed to shrink the size and number of our data centers. Our intent was to streamline our infrastructure and build a coordinated security ecosystem with an eye toward gaining operational efficiencies. Equally important was providing our globally dispersed users with faster, more secure access to the more than 200 SaaS applications they rely on every day. To achieve these goals, we turned to the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange—and it has proven to be the perfect fit for our strategic vision. Zscaler has been at the core of our success and continues to be at the center of our ongoing security transformation journey.
A phased approach to our Zscaler implementation

In 2019, we made a strategic decision to adopt SD-WAN to improve SaaS connectivity across our more than 400 branch offices. That’s when we adopted Zscaler. We selected Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), part of the Zero Trust Exchange, as our security solution because it interoperates seamlessly with the SD-WAN and enables secure local internet breakouts without the high costs and complexity of on-premises firewall appliances. The joint solution provided consistent protection and significantly better performance for our users on any device anywhere. Additionally, our security team had complete visibility over what was happening on the network and who was using which applications. This allowed us to manage bandwidth and prioritize traffic to business-critical applications and limit the impact of streaming and social media traffic.

We’re continuing to modernize our branch offices but are moving to a café model, where users can securely connect to corporate resources without VPN or SD-WAN. Zscaler is making this change possible. Looking ahead, we also plan to implement Zscaler Private Access more broadly to provide secure access to private applications as we establish offices in new regions.
Following the user during the pandemic and beyond

At every stage of our implementation, we found that Zscaler delivered value in new ways. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant portion of our workforce was operating remotely. When the pandemic struck, we were well prepared. Zscaler Client Connector had already been deployed on all devices, so we maintained business continuity. When a leader asked me what my plan was for security at the time, I just shrugged my shoulders and informed him that we already had all our bases covered with Zscaler and Crowdstrike being the primary components. 
Zscaler integrations for a coordinated security ecosystem

After the positive experience we had with the Zscaler integration, we are impressed with how easy and seamless it is to integrate other tools in our security stack with Zscaler. Recently, we integrated Zscaler with CrowdStrike for an added layer of protection: Zscaler only allows devices that meet CrowdStrike’s Zero Trust Assessment (ZTA) score threshold to access sensitive applications. By sharing real-time threat intelligence, data alerts, and device health information, the Zscaler-CrowdStrike integration has reduced the number of security events.&nbsp;

As we move forward with building out our zero trust architecture and creating a unified security ecosystem, we plan to leverage Zscaler’s open API more fully to maximize our other security investments. We’re looking at ways to broaden threat intelligence sharing, gain more visibility, and engage automation to a greater degree. At the top of my to-do list are integrating with CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale, its next-generation SIEM and log management tool, and with Mimecast, the cloud-based email security and management system used by all our employees..
Future focus: expanding Zscaler capabilities

Risk management
I also look forward to evaluating the new AI-powered capabilities like&nbsp;Zscaler Risk360 to gain visibility into risk in all areas of our environment. Once it’s in place, Zscaler Risk360’s visualization framework will generate risk posture profiles using real data in our environment combined with global security research from Zscaler ThreatLabz. The ability to quickly identify and respond to critical vulnerabilities will enhance our proactive protection, enable us to communicate security priorities in a quantifiable way, and help us build a data-driven case as we advocate for additional resources.

M&A integration
Over the years, most of our growth has been fueled by M&As. We plan on leveraging Zscaler to integrate acquired companies and enable these new users to have access to business-critical applications in days rather than months. 

Combating data loss and insider threats
We are also on a mission to curb data loss overall and to combat insider threats, whether due to negligence or malicious motives. These challenging tasks are made easier with the multi-pronged defense made possible by the zero trust architecture we have in place and continue to build on.&nbsp;

By ensuring least privilege access and preventing lateral movement, we are limiting potential damage from abuse of insider access. The Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange plays a critical role in keeping these threats at bay by minimizing the attack surface—users connect only to a single application, not to the network.

As we continue on our zero trust journey, enhancing data protection in this age of generative AI engines like ChatGPT is a top priority. Zscaler’s inline TLS/SSL traffic inspection will be essential for preventing the leakage of sensitive data by identifying and blocking attempted unauthorized uploads to AI tools and across all our cloud apps.

Gaining deeper visibility into user activity is another focus area. While most of our employees are trusted, honest professionals, mistakes happen. By implementing deception tools such as honeypots and lures, our security team will receive alerts to help them detect anomalous insider behavior faster. This significantly reduces dwell time for any potential incidents.
A partnership for the long haul

As CISO, my aim is to continue delivering seamless access and robust security for our global staff as we grow our business and expand our presence and offer new services. The flexible, scalable Zero Trust Exchange aligns with this goal. Our partnership with Zscaler has been integral to Cushman & Wakefield’s cloud-first journey. Together, we’ve shifted from legacy networks to a unified, user-centric security model that enables productivity and protection anywhere.

I am confident that our journey toward a more secure and efficient future will continue successfully with Zscaler as our trusted partner. The results we have achieved thus far speak for themselves.&nbsp;

To learn more, read the case study. 
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Erik Hart (CISO, Cushman &amp; Wakefield)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[How Zscaler’s Powerful Integrations Help the State of Oklahoma Efficiently Do More with Less]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-zscaler-s-powerful-integrations-help-state-oklahoma-efficiently-do-more</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-zscaler-s-powerful-integrations-help-state-oklahoma-efficiently-do-more</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:11:39 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[How Zscaler’s Powerful Integrations Help the State of Oklahoma Efficiently Do More with Less

On any given day, our team of security professionals who comprise the OMES Oklahoma Cyber Command stay on top of up to 17 million potential threats ranging from phishing and credential compromise to ransomware and data breaches. Dedicated to securing the digital assets of the State of Oklahoma government, these members are also stewards of massive amounts of sensitive personal and healthcare data—from our more than 30,000 employees and the nearly 4 million state residents served by our more than 180 agencies.&nbsp;

Thanks to the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform, we are successfully managing this high volume of threats and safeguarding the vital data we have been entrusted with. One of the Zscaler superpowers we have come to rely on is its integration capabilities. By working in sync with other components of our security stack, Zscaler has taken us to the next level of our security maturity and zero trust transformation.
Keep pace by unifying security

We know that the spiraling volume of threats will always be a challenge, especially now that cybercriminals are beginning to leverage AI for malicious purposes. When new security challenges emerge, we need to be able to respond at lightning speed.

Amid all the change and complexity in the security and technology landscape, I’m finding that the solution is to simplify and unify our security infrastructure. One of the ways we have done that is by taking full advantage of Zscaler’s powerful integration capabilities. When you work with a single unified platform, it almost forces efficiency, and it certainly aids in the ongoing battle most state governments face of having to do more with less. 
Integrations provide a holistic view

One of the things that differentiates Zscaler from other solutions is its open application programming interface (API), which has made it easy to integrate with our existing security solutions. In our environment, we’ve found that Zscaler plays well with other core tools we rely on—namely CrowdStrike and Splunk—in how it shares threat intelligence data and coordinates protection and incident response. The ability to tie these security tools together increases telemetry and gives us the opportunity to stop lateral threats before they become bigger problems that could potentially affect our users and our citizens.
Zscaler-CrowdStrike integration curbs lateral threat movement

By sharing telemetry and threat intelligence data between the CrowdStrike platform and the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, access policies can automatically be adapted according to changing user context, device health, and newly detected threats, making investigation and response faster and more effective. For example, let’s say we know there’s an attack occurring—maybe the next SolarWinds or a user just installed a new, unauthorized app that has weakened the endpoint posture. With the&nbsp; Zscaler-CrowdStrike integration, CrowdStrike can detect the change and recalculate the Falcon Zero Trust Assessment (ZTA) score and share it with Zscaler. Based on the updated ZTA score, Zscaler policy control can automatically adapt to a stricter threshold to only allow access via a browser isolation session or even block the connection to protect against access to selected mission-critical applications. Furthermore, the sharing of telemetry and threat intelligence is key to expanded visibility of the threat landscape, from endpoint to applications. After all, it wouldn’t be efficient if one security system knows something is critically important and doesn’t share this with another security domain! 

As an inline security cloud, Zscaler can intercept any unknown zero-day payloads before they reach an endpoint and share the telemetry with CrowdStrike. This helps us quickly assess the existence of any such zero-day payload in the entire endpoint environment and provides the basis for automated cross-platform response workflow. This helps stop threats from moving laterally into critical systems, such as a database server housing financial information.
Zscaler-Splunk integration provides a centralized view&nbsp;

The Zscaler-Splunk integration gives us extensive analytics for in-depth visibility into usage, access, and the overall environment. The analytics correlate data, helping us perform proactive threat hunting and investigations by enabling us to identify abnormal patterns. Zscaler’s data logs correspond to the same schema as Splunk, so it makes correlation searches easy.

Zscaler logs are sent via a secure HTTPS push and delivered to Splunk’s HTTP Event Collector reliably and securely. Once in Splunk, the logs are normalized, which allows correlation across all data sources, providing end-to-end visibility. Splunk’s robust analytics include risk-based alerting (RBA) and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA).

The tight integration simplifies security operations by reducing the need for our team to constantly swivel from one security console to another to get the information they need. The Splunk analytics dashboard serves as the hub of this wheel of zero trust protection. It shows activity across the enterprise in real time, regardless of user location. As a result of the Zscaler-Splunk integration, our security operations team has experienced significant gains in speed and efficiency.

In the past, I would have needed three to five different solutions to accomplish what Zscaler and its integrations can do on their own. We would not be as far along our path to zero trust as we are now without a platform like the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange to help us out. It has exponentially improved our cybersecurity, and I’m proud to be a part of the amazing things that my team does every day to protect our employees and our citizens.&nbsp;

Read the case study to learn more about the State of Oklahoma’s Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange deployment. 
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Michael Toland (CISO, State of Oklahoma Office of Management &amp; Enterprise Services)</dc:creator>
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            <title><![CDATA[Must-Haves to Augment Your Zero Trust Architecture]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/must-haves-augment-your-zero-trust-architecture</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/must-haves-augment-your-zero-trust-architecture</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:01:02 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Must-Haves to Augment Your Zero Trust Architecture

With all the fluctuations in interest rates lately, working in the mortgage industry sometimes feels like a wild roller coaster ride. At Guaranteed Rate, we are navigating market volatility by constantly evolving and growing our business with new joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and additional financial service offerings beyond mortgage lending. With the expansion of our business, our IT environment has also changed, shifting from a traditional on-premises infrastructure with most employees working on-site to a cloud-first, remote work model.&nbsp;

Operating a large business in general is getting increasingly complex. There are more people, more applications, and multiple clouds to manage. We currently operate 13 different companies and 500 offices across all 50 states, which means there is a great deal to protect. Like other financial sector organizations, we’re hyper-vigilant about safeguarding sensitive data and meeting tough compliance requirements. And we’re well aware that the financial sector is increasingly targeted by threat actors whose methods of attack grow increasingly more sophisticated by the day. Bad actors are using AI for phishing emails, engaging in ransomware-as-a-service schemes, and divvying up and optimizing different parts of the attack chain to collaborate with each another.

As CISO at Guaranteed Rate, I’m responsible for managing information security, technology governance, risk and compliance, and business continuity. It’s a lot to handle, and one of the ways I have found success in my role is to reduce complexity wherever possible. That’s why I have adopted a zero trust strategy for Guaranteed Rate and focus on implementing platforms over point solutions. I also partner with market-leading companies that are innovators in their space. We rely on vendors with proven technology to ensure we don’t fall behind in our digital transformation—especially in the critical area of cybersecurity.&nbsp;

When it came time to make the shift to zero trust, we chose Zscaler as our trusted partner. The cloud-native, scalable Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange checked all the boxes: reduced security risk, a vastly improved user experience, lower costs, and far less complexity. With Zscaler, I can manage the policy I set across the entire enterprise from a single dashboard. I’m no longer dealing with multiple technologies from different vendors. This simplifies the environment from both an architectural and management standpoint and provides our company with consistent security across all users, devices, and locations. We’ve been really pleased with Zscaler and are in the process of expanding our implementation with products that I consider must-haves:
As part of our plan to strengthen our zero trust defenses, we’re leveraging Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) and Zscaler Risk360 which are part of the AI-powered Zscaler ​​Business Analytics portfolio.

&nbsp;
Zscaler Digital Experience

We use ZDX to monitor user experience, identify connectivity and application issues, and resolve support tickets faster. ZDX gives us real-time, high-level insight into the performance of network connections and applications on user devices. When our people inform us that their connections are slow, the help desk can pull objective data from ZDX to pinpoint the problem. Often, it’s the connection to their internet service provider.&nbsp;

ZDX helps us provide awareness and feedback to our users as to what they might be experiencing and why. It has also helped us to be more proactive from a support standpoint. For instance, if we’re getting an unusually high support call volume from a certain area of the country where users are having trouble accessing certain applications, ZDX helps us to identify the problem by seeing the patterns
Zscaler Risk360

Zscaler Risk360, a risk quantification and visualization framework, is an invaluable risk management tool. With the lean team we have, Risk360 helps us to prioritize our workload. Not all security challenges and their associated risks are equal. With Risk360, we can be more targeted in terms of where we spend our time so that we address the most important risks first.

Risk360 also helps create more transparency by giving us better awareness of where we might have potential blind spots. Through Zscaler Generative AI technology, Risk360 provides cybersecurity maturity assessments that leverage data from third parties to identify additional risk signals. 
Zscaler Business Insights

Another part of the Zscaler Business Analytics offering we plan to implement is the Zscaler Business Insights dashboard. This tool ingests SaaS licensing data and user activity from the Zero Trust Exchange to report on SaaS inventory, usage, and spend across a broad footprint of offices, users, and applications.&nbsp;

With our work environment changing dramatically in recent years from primarily onsite to mostly remote, this tool will enable us to visualize actual application usage at all our locations, including when the applications are being used by date and time, whether they are over capacity or under capacity, and opportunities for consolidation and cost savings.&nbsp;

The data in these dashboard visualization tools is also useful for reporting and compliance. There’s also a new financial risk model feature in Business Analytics that ties security risk to financial risk. This helps a company like ours be more efficient in how we allocate our resources to reduce risk.
Zscaler Deception

We are really impressed with Zscaler Deception after testing it out and are planning to fully deploy it in 2024. Deception technology proactively lures sophisticated threat actors with fake or decoy passwords, cookies, applications, servers, and users to divert them away from sensitive resources. When an attacker uses one of the deceptive assets, they are identified and intercepted. We want to put more “canary objects” out there as bait for attackers to see what they might catch.&nbsp;

I see this as a great way to add an extra layer of security against the most sophisticated threats without adding any operational overhead. Our team only gets notified if there are confirmed threats and breaches. We can also set up our zero trust access policies to dynamically cut off access to sensitive areas in real time if or when the canaries are used.

The bottom line is that, with Zscaler, our lean team can do more with less because the platform allows us to run our security program more efficiently. Zscaler requires only a fraction of a full-time resource to manage, and that’s a huge win. In my opinion, Zscaler is the one security technology stack to rule them all.

Read the case study to learn more about the Guaranteed Rate Zscaler deployment.
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Darin Hurd (CISO, Guaranteed Rate)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Immortalizing the Heroic Journeys of Zscaler Customer Advocates]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/immortalizing-heroic-journeys-zscaler-customer-advocates</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/immortalizing-heroic-journeys-zscaler-customer-advocates</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 21 Dec 2023 18:02:17 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

It’s our Zscaler IT Heroes—a series of colorful illustrated stories celebrating our customers as the “heroes” of their organizations’ digital transformation. An initiative of our Customer Advocacy program, these comic strip-style illustrations tell a story about each customer’s zero trust security journey in just three frames. Shared via Zscaler’s social media channels, each comic links to its respective case study that captures the organization’s evolution to the cloud, powered by Zscaler.

Written case studies are a standard element of many marketing programs, but I saw an opportunity to try something new by creating a uniquely rewarding experience for our customers.

We wanted to breathe life into our existing case studies with a fun and unique way to honor our customers, and offer their peers potential solutions, while showcasing their successes. These comics bring the customers’ voices to life, giving them the much deserved spotlight and demonstrating one of our core company values: customer obsession.

In addition to the thrill of seeing their illustrative narratives spread like wildfire across social media, each customer receives a digital file of their comic strip and physical framed version for their desks. This reinvents the traditional lucite desk award that people typically receive with a more meaningful recognition. Who could resist being the star in their own comic? Talk about a great conversation starter with your cube mate! Even better, recipients have told me that their kids are beyond impressed with the award—and we all know kids are the biggest critics of all.

"To make customer advocacy as effective as possible, we need a multi-pronged approach, from detailed success stories and engaging videos, to eye-catching creative campaigns like Zscaler’s IT Heroes series,” my manager Pavel Radda, VP, Global Communications, shared with me. “These vividly illustrated stories weave together the threads of imagination and zero trust innovation, capturing the essence of each customers’ secure digital transformation journey."&nbsp;
A Journey Well Traveled&nbsp;

Like many new ideas, the IT Heroes journey had many stops and starts from inception to finished product. It was such a unique concept, I had to make sure everyone was inspired enough by the vision to take a leap of faith and believe it would succeed. I thought through the plan and discussed it with various internal stakeholders to gauge their reaction– a litmus test, if you will. I also connected with our customer champions to get their perspectives on the award. Customers not only loved the comic strip idea, many shared that they would be honored to be recognized in this way.&nbsp;

Taking the time to involve the right people and bring in the right subject matter experts who made tweaks along the way made the final product so much better. It changed the trajectory and outcome entirely. By partnering with my brilliant peers at Zscaler, we created something really special.&nbsp;
The Gift That Keeps On Giving 

Once the initial IT Heroes program launched, the team and I were pleasantly surprised by the response.&nbsp;

“The IT Hero comics are some of the most creative pieces of social content we produce, easily in the top three for total engagement over the past six months,” said Jeff Anaya, Sr. Social Media Manager, Zscaler. “It's great, it's interesting, and it works.”

“Such an awesome project! I actually had someone randomly reach out on LinkedIn (before I shared it) saying how cool it is,” said Kristi Myllenbeck, Copywriter, Zscaler.

Customers who were featured in the IT Heroes series not only felt the love, but shared it back:&nbsp;


	“Thanks for this. We are indeed honored to have been selected as a recipient of this new award and to be recognised as a leading customer advocate.” – John Armenakas, Director, Partner Development & Success, Colt Technology Services&nbsp;
	“It has been great to work with you and the team and it is an honor to receive the award.” – Peeyush Patel, CISO, Careem
	“What a nice surprise! I have seen the post and the attention it already got. Thanks again.” – Armin Auth, Head of Enterprise Architecture, Hydro

From Comic Strip to Comic Series&nbsp;

One year and 12 comics later, the team is taking it up a notch by launching the new “Z Cloud Collective,” a digital comic book that encompasses all the customer IT Heroes triumphs to date, with many more to come. This project is the first of its kind on Zscaler.com, and I hope it opens the door for many more interactive elements across the web in the future.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Calling All IT Heroes

We are looking forward to recognizing so many more customer advocates in the future. If you've harnessed the power of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform to accelerate your organization’s zero trust journey, or you know someone else who has, submit your nomination today! 
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Josselyn Graham (Senior Director, Global Customer Advocacy)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How the Four Pillars of Zscaler Lead to Successful Customer Outcomes]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-four-pillars-zscaler-lead-successful-customer-outcomes</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-four-pillars-zscaler-lead-successful-customer-outcomes</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 08 Dec 2023 16:33:14 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Our customers have heard this mantra time and again: “Secure digital transformation requires a true zero trust architecture.” But what exactly does that mean for them on a practical level?&nbsp;

Those that have made the decision to adopt zero trust know that it has come a long way. It’s no longer an aspiration based on the concept “never trust, always verify.” Instead, zero trust has evolved into a solid technology framework that enables proactive defense and digital transformation as organizations embrace the cloud and hybrid work models.

As the zero trust platform provider of choice for 30% of the Fortune 2000, Zscaler has gained recognition as the leader in zero trust and, by extension, cloud security. Our cloud-native platform stands on four pillars supporting a comprehensive platform that secures, simplifies, and transforms businesses.

In my role as Director, Global Customer Advocacy, I am gratified to hear the success stories of Zscaler customers. It makes my day, and I’m happy to report that the positive outcomes keep on coming. Let’s look at these pillars through the eyes of our customers and discover why more than 7,700 organizations rely on Zscaler to strengthen their security posture and accelerate their digital transformation.

Pillar 1: Cyberthreat Protection

At the core of the first pillar is the assumption that traditional cybersecurity approaches are obsolete in today’s cloud-first world. The attack surface now extends to home offices, cloud applications, and public clouds, and there is an ever-increasing risk of lateral threat movement within highly interconnected hub-and-spoke networks protected by castle-and-moat security models.

The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange provides a holistic approach to securing users, workloads, IoT/OT devices, and B2B partners. Its advanced zero trust architecture minimizes the attack surface by hiding applications behind the Zscaler security cloud. This prevents lateral threat movement with direct-to-application connectivity that keeps entities off the network and stops attacks and breaches via full inline inspection of all traffic, including encrypted traffic, at scale.

When I met with John Pratezina, Senior Network Operations Administrator at Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC)—the organization that provides financial planning services for Australian Government employees and their families—he shared with me that his goal was to replace VPNs and firewalls with zero trust access. As a seasoned technology leader, he recognized that the old network perimeter model doesn’t work in a hybrid world and the traditional VPNs and firewalls were giving users terrible application performance. He and his team decided to adopt a zero trust architecture. They investigated multiple solutions, and ultimately chose the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange. “Zscaler provided the foundation for a holistic SSE ecosystem that included solutions for users, devices, and workloads,” says Pratezina.&nbsp;

The agency first deployed Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) for fast, direct, and secure connectivity to the internet and SaaS applications, followed by Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), which securely connects users to critical private business applications residing in CSC’s hybrid IT environment. This is enabling Pratezina and his team to tighten security in numerous ways.&nbsp;

“We’ve come across malicious websites that our old proxies were not only allowing, but also had not flagged,” remarks Pratezina. “Today, with Zscaler, we’re preventing an average of 7 million policy violations per month, including types our legacy solutions allowed through.”

Pillar Two: Data Protection

It only takes a few clicks for sensitive data to fall into the wrong hands—that’s why protecting data in the cloud requires a modern approach. Zscaler protects all users and devices wherever they are with fully integrated data protection across all channels, including unsanctioned applications, authorized applications, and devices.

With AI-powered discovery and classification, Zscaler continuously scans data in motion and at rest, including data residing in SaaS and private applications. Zscaler also discovers shadow IT and risky, unapproved third-party applications users have connected to, as well as any misconfigurations or compliance violations in sanctioned applications.

I had a fascinating conversation with Mike Towers, Chief Digital Trust officer at Takeda, a Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company with more than 60 office and research locations in 110 countries around the world. In an industry built on research, the company—the oldest pharmaceutical company in the world—must protect its proprietary technologies, applications, and intellectual property.

After struggling with a lot of “niche point solutions,” Towers turned to the Zero Trust Exchange and its Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) service. The company now leverages the Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) capabilities to make better security decisions based on data. Towers observes, “Zscaler’s comprehensive and unified approach to protecting data across all channels helps us transform and evolve our data protection program, ensuring sensitive data remains secure from accidental loss or malicious exfiltration."&nbsp;

Pillar Three: Zero Trust Connectivity

Traditionally, organizations backhauled traffic destined for cloud applications or the internet to on-premises data centers. Today, most have realized that this approach is inefficient and expensive. It results in loss of productivity due to latency and exposes the network, devices, and users to potential risk. Zscaler, on the other hand, provides zero trust connectivity and security that grant users anywhere in the world direct access to applications—and no more backhauling to a distant data center. This provides a seamless, faster, and more secure user experience.

When I sat down for an interview with Anthony Kennedy, Global IT Manager, Trade and Investment Queensland—the Australian government’s global business agency—I learned that he and his team had years ago adopted a cloud-first IT strategy. “The fact that Zscaler is cloud based made it particularly attractive for us,” he shares.&nbsp;

With staff and equipment spread across multiple countries and locations, the cloud-first strategy and distributed nature of the agency’s operations created security challenges Kennedy and his team were well aware of. They actively sought out a better way to protect the network and core systems.

The agency adopted Zscaler to monitor and manage all internet traffic across the organization. “With all incoming and outgoing traffic routed through Zscaler, getting a clear picture of what is going on is much easier, allowing better reporting for senior management as well as real-time notifications of any threats that are detected,” says Kennedy.

Pillar Four: Business Analytics

With the world’s largest security cloud processing more than 300 billion transactions per day, Zscaler provides unparalleled business analytics. One example of this analytics capability is digital experience monitoring. Fast, secure, reliable internet connectivity is critical for today’s hybrid workforces. Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) provides great visibility from endpoint to application, so internet performance issues can be quickly identified and resolved—often before users even notice them—using trillions of telemetry signals.

Ciena is a networking systems, services, and software company that delivers best-in-class networking technology through high-touch consultative relationships. The company is a great example of how Zscaler radically changed the user experience for the better. As Craig Williams, CIO at Ciena, tells me, when the pandemic hit, he made it a point to rethink the entire infrastructure, applications, systems, and support models to empower the growing company.&nbsp;

The company was transiting from phone meetings to video conferencing and needed to make some adjustments to the existing infrastructure to support that move. Williams and his team landed on a joint solution consisting of Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange and VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud. Removing MPLS backhauling reduced latency by 20% and dramatically improved the user experience for the company’s remote employees. Issue resolution was also accelerated by deploying the ZDX service. “Zscaler is the starting point for all user performance issues. We can quickly pinpoint the root cause 95% of the time, up from 25% previously,” he explains.

“After we implemented Zscaler, we saw 90%+ adoption of collaboration tools and slashed costs and support tickets by over 50%. Plus, our IT leaders now have a foundation that allows them to be continually focused on reinventing the company,” asserts Williams. “Our partnership with Zscaler has allowed us to start living out IT’s vision of being a competitive advantage for the business.”

Access more inspiring stories of organizations that have secured, simplified, and transformed their business with Zscaler: See our customer benefits infographic.
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Josselyn Graham (Senior Director, Global Customer Advocacy)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Cebu Pacific Air Secures Hybrid Work with Zero Trust]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/cebu-pacific-air-secures-hybrid-work-zero-trust</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/cebu-pacific-air-secures-hybrid-work-zero-trust</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 05 Dec 2023 22:46:01 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[At Cebu Pacific Air, we want to make flying accessible for everyone. We fly to more than 60 locations in the Philippines and overseas, and our flexible bookings, low fares, and global best safety practices have made us the leading airline in our country.&nbsp;

We want not only to make flying fun and affordable—we also want Cebu Pacific to be a good place to work. Part of that involves creating a positive and seamless digital experience for our staff, with technology that helps them do their jobs better. We have been on a multi-year cloud journey, and as we modernized our applications, we also wanted to provide staff with a better, more secure way to access their SaaS and private business applications.&nbsp;

A better employee experience

As at many organizations, our staff previously used a traditional VPN when they traveled or worked from home. But relying on VPN became increasingly frustrating for users. Applications were sluggish, and VPN connections often dropped. Complaints to our service desk were mounting.&nbsp;

We recognized that VPNs were a legacy technology that not only got in the way of employee satisfaction, but also lacked sufficient security controls as we accelerated our move to the cloud. VPNs are prone to cyberattacks because of the way they expand the attack surface, fail to stop compromise, and enable lateral threat movement. So, we knew it was time to embrace the principle of least-privileged access and the zero trust concept of “never trust, always verify” to ensure that our staff had easy and secure access to the applications they needed to do their jobs. We set out to find a comprehensive and integrated zero trust platform.&nbsp;

Strengthening security with zero trust

I’ve been leading IT strategy at Cebu Pacific for nearly eight years, and Glenn Amper, our Director of Information Security, has been spearheading cybersecurity for seven years. We share a philosophy of continuous improvement, and we’re always ready to consider new solutions. We both had previous experience with Zscaler. After evaluating other zero trust solutions, our testing proved that the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange was the most mature platform and the best fit for our organization.

Our executive management supported our business case to adopt Zscaler, with a clear recognition that if our IT environment is not secure and data is exposed, we risk damaging the trust we have earned with our customers.

Secure, seamless, and reliable access

We moved quickly to roll out the Zero Trust Exchange to provide a more effective and secure remote access and internet experience for our 3,900 staff, reducing risk for our business while enhancing productivity. That decision allowed our workforce to easily pivot to remote work during the pandemic and work seamlessly as we fully adopted a hybrid work model.

With Zscaler protecting access to our private and SaaS applications, our workforce never has to be concerned about data breaches or fraud. Sophisticated social engineering attempts fail, and the business is fully protected against insider threats.

An adaptable security strategy

Our zero trust journey began four years ago when we assessed our cybersecurity maturity as part of our cloud transformation initiative. Zscaler allowed us to close the remote access gap and deliver a better user experience at the same time. Since then, Zscaler has become the key pillar of our zero trust strategy. Integration with CrowdStrike endpoint detection and response (EDR) allows us to continuously assess device health to further mitigate risk. We are looking ahead to integrating Zscaler with data loss prevention and identity and access management solutions as we continue our zero trust journey.

Support our sustainability responsibilities

Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions is a big challenge for any airline, but Cebu Pacific has set a target to decarbonize by 2050. We’re powering more flights with sustainable aviation fuel, and the company will completely transition to the more sustainable Airbus neo aircraft by 2028.

IT also positively impacts our company’s sustainability goals. Fortunately, Zscaler’s cloud native, multitenant zero trust platform has helped us reduce our data center footprint by eliminating the need for hardware appliances, rack space, cooling systems, and all of the corresponding energy usage.&nbsp;

Check out the full case study to learn more about Cebu’s digital transformation with Zscaler.&nbsp;

&nbsp;
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Laureen Cansana (Laureen Cansana)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Business Agility and Optimization in the Face of Cyber Threats and SEC Regulations]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/business-agility-and-optimization-face-cyber-threats-and-sec-regulations</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/business-agility-and-optimization-face-cyber-threats-and-sec-regulations</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 03 Nov 2023 18:00:31 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Amid the many challenges of maintaining agile operations—distributed users and workloads, aging legacy security solutions, sophisticated threats, and rising costs and complexity—Sunbelt Rentals leads the way with peerless digital experience and risk management strategies, all built on the steadfast foundation of a zero trust architecture.

In my recent conversation with JP Saini, EVP, Chief Digital & Technology Officer at Sunbelt Rentals, we discussed his team's drivers, approach, and the fantastic results of their partnership with Zscaler.


]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Jay Chaudhry (CEO and Founder of Zscaler)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Zscaler Helps CEnet Transform Online Learning in Australia]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/zscaler-helps-cenet-transform-online-learning-australia</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/zscaler-helps-cenet-transform-online-learning-australia</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 31 Aug 2023 15:00:02 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[In the digital age, nothing is more crucial than securing the online learning environment for students. CEnet is a not-for-profit organization that provides shared network and internet connectivity services to schools in 17 Catholic dioceses in Australia, which includes providing a safer online environment for 330,000 students, teachers, and staff to use within their education communities.&nbsp; As part of this service, we are experiencing annual internet consumption growth of 20% to 25%.

The rapid growth of demand for online resources presented us with a significant challenge. We knew it was time to enhance our security to more effectively manage an increasingly sophisticated and complex cyberthreat landscape. At the same time, we also needed to expand our solution to encompass all connectivity passing through a school network or used in the delivery of education.

&nbsp;

Zscaler adapts to an evolving infrastructure

We were aware that, despite having filtering mechanisms in place, our level of visibility into potential threats was insufficient. We required a dynamic solution that would not only align with our current needs but also evolve with us, expanding and adapting as we grow.

It’s really important for us to leverage a solution that meets us where we are—both in terms of our legacy technology and our evolutionary roadmap for the future. We identified the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™  as an ideal fit. The cloud-native, multi-tenant architecture of the platform was a perfect match for our needs when we were a new organization. Now that we continue to transform and modernize our infrastructure, this adaptable solution evolves alongside us.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Zscaler’s partner ecosystem amplifies student safety

As we got comfortable with zero trust, we learned that no single product can accomplish everything you need. A big advantage of working with Zscaler is its extensive partner ecosystem, which helped us build a more streamlined and coordinated system.

The successful integration of Zscaler’s solutions with our existing technologies had an immediate and transformative impact on our operations. One of the standout successes was the integration of Zscaler Nanolog Streaming Service (NSS)&nbsp;with student safety and wellbeing solutions like Saasyan. With NSS, we can establish a real-time alert system that effectively monitors student welfare, flags indicators of potential harm, bullying, or inappropriate online activities. This alert system has been a significant step in ensuring the safety and welfare of students in our member dioceses.

This works really well for us. Zscaler does its job—proxying traffic and enforcing policy—while products such as Saasyan can provide student safety and well-being insights for school administration. The findings from the wellbeing solution feed right back into Zscaler, enabling us to determine policy.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Harnessing Zscaler’s multi-tenant advantage for shared services

The shared services we provide to our members operate in a partnership-based environment. In our setup, we don’t just keep an eye on membership levels; we actively focus on delivering quality services. The cornerstone of this approach is multi-tenancy.

Multi-tenant solutions allow role-based access control and administration delegation to various levels of the organization. This is critical for us- as it offers flexibility, enhances security, and aligns with our policy controls. We can’t have excessive permission levels or controls that are misaligned with access levels. Multi-tenancy is key for an organization like ours with a partnership and shared accountability model.

Zscaler’s multi-tenant advantage parallels our approach. Zscaler built its secure access service edge (SASE) solution from the ground up to be multi-tenant. Its multi-tenant architecture offers a balance of shared resources and private access and ensures smooth operation, updated security, and seamless communication between various security controls.

&nbsp;

Building trust and value through collaboration

Selecting the right technology solution is one part of the puzzle, but working collaboratively with a vendor based on mutual trust is an entirely different challenge. In Zscaler, we found a partner committed to understanding our mission and working alongside us to achieve our goals.

Zscaler’s dedication and expertise were evident throughout the integration process. The Zscaler team worked tirelessly to identify the best architecture for our specific needs and was instrumental in managing our service edge. The technical team definitely nails the details, but the fact that you can trust and rely on them is even more important. This collaborative approach allowed us to maximize our network and deliver outstanding value to our members.

Zscaler’s flexible service model has also presented significant economic advantages. It enables us to leverage economies of scale, conserve funds, and redirect our savings back into service delivery—a critical aspect of our not-for-profit operation.

&nbsp;

Looking forward: The future for CEnet and Zscaler

Our journey is far from over. CEnet is already eyeing ways to further harness Zscaler’s capabilities. With an increasing number of users working and learning remotely, we’re considering expanding our use of Zscaler to support our bring-your-own-device (BYOD) implementation. We’re looking to Zscaler Private Access™ (ZPA™) to maintain our security standards and bridge the gap between visibility and security. Where installing software on a personal device may not be feasible, ZPA Browser Access provides agentless zero trust access to private applications based on authentication and authorization.&nbsp;

We also plan to utilize Zscaler Digital Experience™ (ZDX™) to gain insights into our service performance and the user experience. We believe this will enable us to further optimize our services, ensuring we continue providing the best possible support for our members.

&nbsp;

Partnering for progress

Zscaler has a knack for meeting customers at their current point of technology maturity and then evolving alongside them—something that’s been instrumental for us. One of its strengths lies in seamless integration, effectively weaving its products into our existing systems. And for us at CEnet, where a multi-tenant environment is the norm, Zscaler’s architecture and capabilities have proven to be an ideal fit.&nbsp;

Our partnership with Zscaler has shown us what collaboration can truly accomplish. This isn’t just about fusing technologies or implementing consistent security protocols—it’s about working hand in hand to shape a more secure, digitally integrated future for Australian education.

You can read the full case study here to learn more about our deployment.&nbsp;
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>David Jenkins (Infrastructure Manager )</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Exceptional Customer Experiences Begin at Home]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/exceptional-customer-experiences-begin-home</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/exceptional-customer-experiences-begin-home</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jul 2023 09:00:01 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[By Ash Surti, Executive Vice President, Technology & Security, Colt Technology Services

In 1992, a new telecommunications company in London served its first customer with pride. Thirty years later, Colt Technology Services has been on a journey of continuous modernization, always with the customer experience top of mind. Today, as an industry leader in digital infrastructure, with offices around the world, our focus hasn’t changed, but the environment has become more complex.&nbsp;

To deliver on our vision as the digital infrastructure company that the world’s leading businesses choose to connect with, we needed to free up time for our people to deliver the great customer experience we’re known for and to focus on projects that make a big impact. But technologically, we weren’t there. To improve our technology and connectivity, our team set out to simplify and automate access and enhance experience without compromising on security. We were able to accomplish our mission, thanks to the&nbsp;Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform.

Evolving to meet employee expectations

The constraints on business from the pandemic changed everyone’s working reality, and for us, the lasting effects are hybrid work and an increased emphasis on attracting and retaining top talent. Delivering a great employee experience is critical to our business, so anything we can do toward this goal is high on our priority list.

Employees' expectations also changed with the pandemic. Flexible work means offices are busier on Tuesdays through Thursdays and remote work is higher on Mondays and Fridays. While some of our people will always need to be on site, we’ve prioritized making it easy to access everything our people need: enabling that securely, and making the experience seamless from anywhere.&nbsp;

Two big areas of focus for us are, first, to make sure that joining a meeting and accessing information is just as seamless at home or from a remote site as it is in the office, and, second, to simplify access to the applications people need to do their jobs. As a recent example, we’ve started moving our corporate intranet from a platform that was only available in the office or via VPN to one based on Microsoft SharePoint, which our people can easily access remotely and enjoy a much-improved user experience.

Even though we have fully embraced a hybrid work model, we are well aware that remote work widens the attack surface, presenting risk and complexity for IT teams tasked with delivering a seamless, consistent experience across their digital infrastructure while retaining a robust and consistent security policy.

Delivering a great user experience

So, how do you deliver a strong digital experience while keeping customers as secure as they would be at the office? For us, a cloud-resident zero trust exchange approach strikes the right balance between security and experience—that’s where our partnership with Zscaler has been so advantageous.&nbsp;

Working with a market leader like Zscaler has enabled us to move quickly and be more agile. When we started on our zero trust exchange journey, the Zscaler team helped us identify a set of goals: to strengthen security, improve governance, deliver a better user experience, and reduce operational cost. Each of these will help us execute on our vision.

Deploying Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) was a huge win for us. Now, no matter where our employees work or what device or application they’re using, their experience won’t be interrupted, so they can stay productive. And our security team has real peace of mind because ZIA begins by verifying identity, device posture, and context. Our people can then connect securely directly to the internet to perform their roles safely.&nbsp;

Looking forward, we’re focused on improving the user experience, especially for employees who work outside the office. With Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), we can do away with the risk of VPNs altogether while also improving our security posture. We have different access needs for different functions in the business, and we are excited to be able to manage granular application and data access dynamically, with profiles that account for both user role and device risk.

Best practices for a successful deployment

With a successful ZIA deployment complete, we’ve taken a huge step forward on our journey of simplification and automation. Now, when we talk with customers about their digital transformation, we offer best practices based on our experience to help guide them along.


	Design carefully: There will be many challenges along the way (compliance regulations, cost factors, and user experience), so be sure to design with the entire process in mind.
	Invest in the proof of concept: Dedicate the time upfront to ironing out any wrinkles during the pilot so you are confident in the configuration.&nbsp;
	Research thoroughly: Digital transformation is a big transition in a complex landscape. Make sure you consider all possible use cases as you build your strategy.&nbsp;


A world-class Secure Access Service Edge solution
We’re proud to partner with Zscaler to continue delivering the highest standard in digital transformation service for our joint customers. Zscaler services alone are of huge benefit to the modern enterprise, but this benefit is multiplied when integrated with Colt’s SD WAN for a world-class Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution.&nbsp;

Colt SD WAN has led the market in innovation, recognized as a Strong Performer by the Forrester Wave report. With the benefits of flexibility in setup and scalability, customer portals to manage service in real time, and secure end-to-end connections, it’s a more intelligent way to build a wide area network (WAN).

Zscaler has provided the most trusted, effective, and highly-rated cloud security service for over a decade, so it’s the best option in the market for security services in the SASE model. Together, Colt and Zscaler enable business transformation for our customers by providing stable, high-performance network services tightly integrated with comprehensive, integrated zero trust security.

To learn more about Zscaler and Colt’s partnership, check out the joint press release.&nbsp;
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Ash Surti (Executive Vice President, Technology &amp; Security)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How to Prepare for a Successful Zscaler Deployment]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-prepare-successful-zscaler-deployment</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/how-prepare-successful-zscaler-deployment</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 13 Jun 2023 21:51:40 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[By David Petroski, Senior Infrastructure Architect, Southwest Gas
and Larry Rosenbusch, Network Services Manager, Southwest Gas

With pipelines delivering natural gas to over two million customers across Arizona, Nevada, and California, maintaining a safe and secure system is paramount for Southwest Gas Corporation (“Southwest Gas” or “Company”). With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company supported employees’ desire to work remotely, and quickly took the initiative to optimize security to support a hybrid workplace. A coordinated and integrated approach to security was necessary to support and secure this transitional dynamic, while ensuring ease of management across such a wide service area of remote users.

To reduce the technology footprint in the Company data center, a zero trust architecture cloud strategy was adopted, and it continues to play a key role in achieving measures from both a compliance and security perspective.&nbsp;

For those leading digital transformation initiatives in their organizations and seeking a smooth transition, we share the following strategies and tips.&nbsp;

Communicate the vision to gain user acceptance&nbsp;

One of the opportunities we identified was clearly communicating to our users how the transition process to zero trust would result in a new way of accessing cloud resources and administering security. We were provided an account executive at Zscaler who clearly articulated the benefits of transitioning our legacy infrastructure to zero trust. This helped us to address stakeholder questions and elaborate on how the new system would provide a more enhanced and secure user experience.

We communicated with stakeholders how Zscaler would replace the client VPN and our security stack to the cloud, minimizing network issues. This garnered support for the project from stakeholders from a productivity standpoint.

Document security controls ahead of time

To assist in a smooth transition, we documented our security controls in advance—and would recommend this measure to others. For example, by documenting data loss prevention (DLP) policies in advance, during deployment you can expeditiously migrate them to your zero trust architecture. The same methodology would apply to a cloud access security broker (CASB) and application segmentation security controls.

Understand your use cases

Prior to deployment, we suggest you garner a thorough understanding of all use cases. As our company transitioned to remote work during the pandemic, several “nice-to-have” processes were permuted to required business practice.&nbsp;

We recommend performing due diligence for all potential use cases and discerning how many of them your zero trust platform will accommodate. For our project, Zscaler accommodated the majority of our use cases.

Take a phased approach to deployment

Delineating the steps you’ll take in your deployment process should occur up front, during the “preparation phase” of the deployment. What follows is the “replacement phase,” as processes mirror a one-for-one replacement: setting up DLP rules, firewall, SSL decrypt, and items of similar nature. Our team chose to utilize Zscaler as a client access tool, and, only recently, has started migrating workloads to the cloud.

The third phase is the “integration phase” with other applications. We elected to integrate Zscaler with Duo for multi-factor authentication, with Splunk for analytics, and Microsoft Azure AD for identify protection and management.&nbsp;

With our integrations set up, we’re in the final “tuning phase” and anticipate deploying some of the additional technologies and features that Zscaler offers including segmentation within our servers, applications, and network layers, as well as deploy a role-based access enabling regulated access to applications and data paths by department.&nbsp;

Call on the professional services team when you need extra help

During the initial phases of our deployment, we met daily with our professional services team which contributed to a successful implementation.&nbsp;

Given our project's expedited time frame of two months, we were pleased with the results achieved utilizing Zscaler and the knowledge base their team provided throughout implementation.&nbsp;

To learn more, read the case study.
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>David Petroski (Senior Infrastructure Architect)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[In Their Own Words: Customers in the Spotlight at Zenith Live ’23]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/their-own-words-customers-spotlight-zenith-live-23</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/their-own-words-customers-spotlight-zenith-live-23</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 06 Jun 2023 18:18:42 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[One of my favorite aspects of Zenith Live, Zscaler’s flagship conference, is customer keynotes. Without fail, they are surprising, illuminating, and frequently humorous. They’re often delivered by executives I’ve previously worked with on IT and security challenges. They always articulate the realities and benefits of zero trust architecture to address daily pain points.

Given my position as EVP, Customer Experience and Transformation at Zscaler, I have a deep understanding of how customers make decisions, their concerns, and what drives them to succeed. My job requires –or rather, presents the opportunity for – laser-focus on the barriers between enterprise organizations and their secure digital transformation.

Companies are pursuing digital transformation en masse today because massive technological upheavals – from on-prem to cloud mass migrations to the rise of ransomware – have redefined how we work over a relatively short period. Centralized data centers are no longer the beating heart of business IT, and unethical hacking has reached unprecedented proportions.&nbsp;

Therefore, enabling digital transformation is itself a form of customer obsession. It is, in essence, enabling customers to respond to shifting IT and security pain points. Zscaler helps accomplish this by facilitating the successful transformation of applications, connectivity, and security through zero trust network architecture.&nbsp;

Among solutions providers who have adopted the customer-centric worldview, turning customers into advocates is the holy grail. But more than just saying nice things about our organization, their decision to speak to their esteemed peers about their experiences with our technology is a humbling and vital gesture I do not take for granted.

That’s why I am incredibly excited to hear from so many customers at Zenith Live ‘23, including those joining us for the following keynotes.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Securing the digital future with Hyatt Hotels

I will take the stage with Hyatt Hotels SVP & CISO Benjamin Vaughn to discuss how this family of brands – 1,150 hotels served by 130,000 employees spanning 70 countries across six continents – transformed into a cloud-first organization. Benjamin will cover how Hyatt makes use of security functions like SSL inspection and data loss prevention (DLP) to protect the organization, as well as share his philosophy on topics including cyber insurance, ensuring data security compliance at a global organization, and the hotel chain’s efforts to build a more representative cybersecurity department.

&nbsp;

A tale of two transformations with Liberty Mutual and S&P Global

Liberty Mutual VP & Sr. Director of Technology Digital Workforce Enablement Gary Sherman will be joined by colleague James Colson, BCISO, of global cybersecurity. Together they will speak alongside S&P Global’s EVP & Global CISO Swamy Kocherlakota and Global Head of Networking, Engineering, and Operations Guruprasad Ramamoorthy.&nbsp;

These experts will compare and contrast the transformation journeys of their two companies, emphasizing shared learnings and noting obstacles unique to each of their businesses’ circumstances. Our panel will cover highlights and offer advice on the bumps in the road that can accompany any digital transformation.

&nbsp;

Building better business outcomes, one step at a time, with CarMax

Whether you’re kicking off your journey or expanding the benefits you reap from zero trust architecture, this keynote will cover the journey to zero trust maturity at every step. CarMax EVP, Chief Information & Technology Officer Shamim Mohammad will be on stage sharing lessons learned along his company’s journey with Zscaler. Shamim will focus on the importance of not biting off more than you can chew, so you can seize their advice for modularizing the transformation journey where completing each step is a success in its own right.

&nbsp;

Zenith Live is all about the customer

The customer journeys I’ve highlighted above represent a small fraction of the total customer participation we’ve prioritized for Zenith Live ‘23. We will also be pleased to hear from representatives of Aflac, Takeda, Sunbelt Rentals, NOV, Fannie Mae, Charles Schwab, NetJets, and more.


Our core focus for the event is gathering users to hear their stories, learn from their experiences, and share our roadmap with them – which should, first and foremost, be a response to their feedback. Customer or not yet a customer, I hope you will register to join us in Las Vegas (12th-15th).
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Kavitha Mariappan (Executive Vice President, Customer Experience &amp; Transformation)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Time-Saving Tips and How Not to Frustrate Users When Deploying a Zero Trust Solution]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/time-saving-tips-and-how-not-frustrate-users-when-deploying-zero-trust</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/time-saving-tips-and-how-not-frustrate-users-when-deploying-zero-trust</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 14 Apr 2023 18:49:08 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[As a former site reliability engineer, it’s really important to me to provide a great user experience when deploying new technology. In my opinion, you have only one shot to get it right with a user, and, if you blow it, that will reflect poorly on technical teams when leadership asks them how they like the new changes. That’s not a good look for those of us who manage change, and, honestly, it’s something that can be avoided if done properly. I’d like to share some insights I’ve gleaned during our deployment of Zscaler at Cox Automotive.

Realize that zero trust is not turnkey

The first thing to realize is that getting to zero trust is a journey—it’s not a turnkey solution. You need to have all the right pieces in place before you start. Think about it as a sequence of operations. You want to have the right building blocks in place. First off, an identity management platform such as Azure ID or Okta is a must. A device management platform such as Microsoft Intune or Apple Jamf is also required. Once you have these building blocks, you can embark on your zero trust journey. I recommend starting small to get your feet wet. Begin with multiple pilots of each technology before you dive into a full-scale deployment.

Once you have enough users on your zero trust platform, then you can start getting the security operations center (SOC) team involved. They will start to see how they can start triaging and looking at events that can be operationalized within cybersecurity. Get the events flowing into a security information and event management (SIEM) tool and have the security incident response team do some testing in a sandbox environment.&nbsp;

At Cox Automotive, we are deploying in phases. We plan to get a Zscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA™) client installed on everyone’s machines and then move on to a VPN migration project to deploy Zscaler Private Access™ (ZPA™). From there, once the agents are installed on everyone’s devices, it will be easy to integrate other Zscaler capabilities into our architecture. It will be just a matter of flipping the “on” switch.

Prioritize communication

The last thing you want is to start breaking things or giving users a poor experience. Make sure you continuously monitor to verify that the technology is working optimally. Survey users to ensure the right settings are turned on for everyone.

It’s also important to communicate why you’re doing what you’re doing with all the new solutions and integrations. Develop communication plans and roadshows to introduce the technology to users, and explain the value they’ll get. We say to our users: “You’ll get improved connectivity and stability with your connection, plus greater security.”&nbsp;

Keep in mind the end goal, which, here at Cox Automotive, is to reach a point where we can say that any user is allowed to connect to our network and we don’t have to worry about what’s on their device or who they are. We’ll figure out what they need based on identity.&nbsp;

Create profiles to save yourself time

Our organization is actively involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and, as a result, we have many different types of users. Going into an M&A, a lot of upfront discovery and conversations need to happen before we can deploy successfully to new users.

When starting a new deployment, it’s important to really know your team members. Analyze their profiles. Figure out what they’re accessing, and narrow down their access to only what is required. Otherwise, you’ll be over-provisioning blanket access and creating a lot of work that will have to be cleaned up later on—not to mention unnecessarily expanding the potential attack surface.

For example, we’ve created a special profile for mobile hotspot users. It’s important to ensure you’re deploying a tunnel profile for them to avoid problems. If you have developers, create separate secure sockets layer (SSL) inspection policies for them, because SSL inspection is not for everyone. Come up with a corporate standard that all developers and users have to adhere to around SSL certificates. This will save a lot of time.

Document issues and empower people to help themselves

Another big time saver is creating an internal wiki to document issues that arise during the rollout. This will cut down on repeated service tickets, because often a user can read the wiki and solve the problem on their own. Along these same lines, I recommend creating a chat channel in Microsoft Teams or Slack where team members can quickly find support from each other if they get stuck.&nbsp;

For our development teams, we created a package of do-it-yourself instructions and let them deploy the technology themselves. We also created processes in ServiceNow where users can request applications.&nbsp;

Fine-tuning multiple technology integrations is always a work in progress. But, with the right processes in place, it can go a lot smoother. You want to put Zscaler first on the integration timeline because that opens the doors for a lot of access that can move things a lot quicker.

Our goal for this year is to get ZIA out to 30,000 US employees. With that many people to onboard, the total number of hours saved by having great documentation and user profiles, two-way communication will be truly significant. I hope these processes help you too!
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Jon Mahes (Senior Manager of Cybersecurity, Cox Automotive)</dc:creator>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[6 Lessons Learned for Businesses Looking to Modernize Security and Business]]></title>
            <link>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/6-lessons-learned-businesses-looking-modernize-security-and-business</link>
            <guid>https://www.zscaler.com/mx/blogs/customer-stories/6-lessons-learned-businesses-looking-modernize-security-and-business</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 01 Jul 2022 15:00:01 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Our business has come a long way since its humble beginnings in a tent and bingo hall in 1985. Today, Cache Creek Casino Resort is a premier Northern California casino-resort destination with world-class gaming, a highly rated hotel, nine restaurants, a 700-seat entertainment venue, and championship golf course. But to stay in business and thrive, we still need to keep improving and modernizing our business processes and customer offerings.

Modernizing cybersecurity and business go hand in hand. For us, the COVID-19 pandemic and a cyberattack that shut down operations catapulted security to the top of our modernization priority list. Overhauling remote access became especially critical as employees working off-site had to use extremely cumbersome, hardened laptops that crippled productivity.&nbsp;

To transform secure remote access, we wanted to leapfrog VPN technology, which opens the whole network to employees and has its own useability and administrative challenges. So, we turned instead to the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform, including Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) and Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA). By implementing the Zero Trust Exchange, we modernized key aspects of security and fast-tracked business modernization.&nbsp;

Below are a few lessons we learned along the way as we went from searching for a better remote access solution to embarking on a zero trust transformation.

1. Large enterprises and security teams aren’t the only ones who benefit from zero trust

Cache Creek Casino Resort has less than 800 employees, but the move toward a&nbsp;zero trust approach made sense even for a company of our size. The cloud and work-from-anywhere mobility have become requisites we need to embrace; the traditional security model is simply no longer adequate.&nbsp;

As at larger companies, protecting our organization from breaches and malicious cyberattacks is at the core of everything my group does. Taking a zero trust approach improves our ability to protect our data, applications, and employees. With ZPA, for instance, our users now connect directly to applications—versus the network—shrinking our attack surface exponentially and preventing lateral movement.&nbsp;

With the Zero Trust Exchange, we bolstered our security posture significantly, (see our case study), while reducing infrastructure costs and simplifying operations. But security isn’t the only area in which we’ve benefited. Other positive business and workplace outcomes include:


	Improved productivity. With a far superior user experience, our employees and contractors save a lot of time and hassle and can collaborate much more easily. They also have consistent, easy access to the applications and resources they need, no matter where they are or whether they use their laptop, tablet, or phone.
	Peace of mind. With least-privileged access and the added threat protection of the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, our business and IT leaders, cybersecurity teams, and end users sleep easier.
	Accelerated digital transformation. With renewed confidence in our security, we can speed up our business’ digital transformation and be more agile, efficient, and resilient.&nbsp;
	Better work-life balance. Located on the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation tribal lands, the resort is 30 minutes from the nearest population center. For the many employees who travel more than an hour each way, working with ease from home frees up more than two hours each day.&nbsp;


2. Zero trust access helps you hire the right talent

To keep improving our business, we need to hire the right people. Since the resort is off the beaten track, employees have traditionally hailed from a 60-mile radius, much of which is unpopulated. These are terrific, loyal people whose tenure at the company averages 15 years, but we knew we could use an infusion of new and different ideas. We also needed to build out previously understaffed groups, such as IT and marketing.&nbsp;

With the Zero Trust Exchange, we now have the confidence that we can provide a secure on-prem experience to employees no matter where they are located. This capability has empowered us to offer hybrid and work-from-anywhere (WFA) positions, and, as a result, we have dramatically expanded our talent pool.&nbsp;

Consequently, IT and marketing are now on their way to growing 60%. Recently, we hired a critical IT position that will be based in another state. We simply couldn’t have done that before. The ability to work with modern technologies such as the Zscaler platform also helps attract a higher caliber of IT and cybersecurity candidates.

3. As with any technology, ease of deployment and integrations matter

We’ve got a small IT-cybersecurity team, so efficiency is especially critical for us, but every security team can benefit from doing more with less. The more we can consolidate and simplify our overall architecture, the better. That means looking for solutions that play nice with existing tools, don’t require a lot of customization, are easy to deploy and use, and make it easy to add functionality later.

When evaluating zero trust solutions, take the time to understand exactly what’s involved to integrate with your existing tools, such as multi-factor authentication and IdP. One reason we went with the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange is because the platform includes pre-built integrations with a wide range of our tools, including our MFA, single sign-on, and CrowdStrike. With any other product, we would have to do a lot more work, up front as well as in the future.&nbsp;

With the runner-up vendor, for instance, a ton of customization would have been required out of the gate. Besides the additional hassle and expense, we were concerned that any new future product releases would require customized updates that would force us to delay upgrades or concede features or functionality.

Ease of deployment also led us to the Zero Trust Exchange. In one day, we rolled out both Zscaler Private Access for ZTNA and Zscaler Internet Access as a secure Internet onramp for our users. We continue to tweak access policy, since finding the right balance between leniency and restriction takes time, but deployment of the common agent for both solutions was fast and straightforward.&nbsp;

4. Establish a zero trust foundation that lets you grow easily at your pace

You’re not going to modernize security or complete a digital transformation overnight. If you’re at all like us, you can’t just move off-prem cold turkey. You need to start with a few specific use cases and add others gradually. So, it makes sense to go with a vendor that has a holistic approach to zero trust, one that makes it easier to add functionality when you are ready.&nbsp;

As we move more of our on-prem services to the cloud and use more SaaS apps, our next addition to the Zero Trust Exchange will most likely be its CASB solution. When ready, we can enhance our security service edge (SSE) functionality by expanding the Zero Trust Exchange platform. The Zcaler platform lets us maintain a consistent security posture across both on-prem and cloud and expand our cloud security at a speed that makes sense for us.

5. Assess the vendor’s level of engagement

Zero trust is a completely different security paradigm, so it’s important to select a vendor that can help your organization make the transition smoothly. You want a partner that will be there for you when needed and help you strategize and plan your security roadmap. Look for a vendor that treats you like a Fortune 500 company regardless of&nbsp; the size of your organization.

From day one, the Zscaler team was far more engaged than the other companies we talked to, and they continued to stay highly invested in us throughout the sales and POV process and beyond. The whole deployment process was seamless, including the transition from the sales team to the implementation team, and we’ve been extremely pleased with the support we’ve received since then.&nbsp;

6. Modernizing security helps modernize and grow business

In a few short months, we were able to securely modernize key aspects of our security infrastructure as well as kick-start our workplace modernization, transforming daily the way we work. Since implementing the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, we are more productive, efficient, and secure than we have ever been.&nbsp;

We’ve also begun hiring hybrid and full-time remote workers, something that’s not common in our industry. Furthermore, a more robust security posture and a trusted, extensible cloud security platform give us more confidence to push forward with our business modernization goals, such as offering our customers more digital services—like mobile check-in and food and beverage ordering—and expanding our use of the cloud and SaaS applications to further enhance productivity and efficiency.&nbsp;

Years ago, we gladly left behind the bingo hall and tent as we envisioned a bigger, better future. Now we’ve begun the journey to leave behind our traditional security architecture in favor of a better, more secure one based on zero trust.

To learn more, I encourage you to read the accompanying&nbsp;case study&nbsp;about how our zero trust journey and partnership with Zscaler is helping us fast-track modernization for both security and our business.
]]></description>
            <dc:creator>Stephen Bailey (Vice President of Information Technology, Cache Creek Casino Resort)</dc:creator>
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