Securing the Future of Automotive Manufacturing: A Zero Trust Approach

It's rare to find an offering that offers better user experiences, improved security posture, and reduced costs at the same time. Zscaler delivers just that.

Zscaler offers several solutions for automakers to reduce the attack surface, minimize the blast radius of attacks, and realize faster time to value-all without a heavy investment in new equipment or extensive downtime to implement it.

Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) reduces the attack surface by providing zero trust network access (ZTNA), ensuring that users only connect to specific applications they are authorized to access without exposing the network to potential threats. Unlike traditional approaches that rely on VPNs, ZPA eliminates the need to place users on the corporate network, which prevents lateral movement by attackers. Applications are hidden behind the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, making them invisible to unauthorized users and reducing the risk of exploitation. By dynamically establishing secure, direct connections between users and applications, ZPA minimizes exposure points and ensures a more resilient security posture.

Zscaler Privileged Remote Access (PRA) provides third-party contractors with secure, zero trust access to specific automaker resources without requiring traditional VPNs. With its identity-based access control, contractors are granted least-privileged access to only the applications and systems they need-without exposing the entire network. This prevents lateral movement and reduces the attack surface. Because Zscaler leverages encrypted, direct connectivity instead of network-level access, sensitive resources remain hidden from unauthorized users, and activities are monitored to ensure compliance and security.

Zscaler Zero Trust Device Segmentation minimizes the blast radius by enabling organizations to implement logical separation between environments, such as production, development, and third-party access, without relying on traditional network segmentation. By leveraging agentless device segmentation, Zero Trust Device Segmentation ensures that communication across environments is tightly controlled and limited to authorized users and workloads. This prevents lateral movement by isolating potential compromises within a single environment, dramatically reducing the scope and impact of breaches. With granular access policies and application-specific connectivity, Zero Trust Device Segmentation ensures that a security incident in one environment does not spill over into others, thereby containing threats and safeguarding critical systems.

Zscaler Branch Connector enables operational technology (OT) devices to securely communicate by providing a zero trust-based connectivity solution that eliminates the need for traditional VPNs or complex network configurations. It securely connects OT devices at factories or remote sites directly to applications and resources they need, whether within the automaker data centers, private instance of public cloud, or SaaS environment, without exposing the devices to the public internet or creating unnecessary lateral movement risks. By segmenting and enforcing identity-based access policies, Branch Connector ensures that communication is encrypted, authorized, and isolated, enabling secure and seamless interactions across OT and IT environments while protecting critical infrastructure from cyberthreats.