Zero Trust and Encryption Best Practices to Safeguard Data in 2025

SEMNET TEAM
Nov 10, 2025
6 min read

Updated: Nov 18, 2025

Why Zero Trust plus encryption is non‑negotiable in 2025

Organizations face faster, more complex attacks and higher breach costs in 2025. IBM’s latest Cost of a Data Breach report puts the global average at $4.44 million per incident, while U.S. breaches average $10.22 million—both shaped by AI’s rising role and the persistence of supply‑chain risks. IBM also found “shadow AI” added roughly $670,000 to breach costs on average. (ibm.com)

Verizon’s 2025 DBIR reports more than 22,000 incidents and 12,195 confirmed breaches, with vulnerability exploitation up 34%, ransomware present in 44% of breaches, and third‑party involvement doubling to 30%—a stark reminder that identity, device, and partner access need continuous verification. (verizon.com)

What this means for customer trust

Customers assume their data is encrypted everywhere and always. A single weak link (e.g., a third‑party connection) can undo years of brand building.
Zero Trust controls—"never trust, always verify"—reduce attack paths, while strong encryption limits blast radius if attackers get in.

The 2025 threat picture: speed, supply chains, and ransomware economics

Verizon highlights credential abuse and vulnerability exploitation as leading entry points, and shows ransomware in 44% of breaches—underscoring the need for fast patching, strong identity controls, and least‑privilege access. (verizon.com)

Ransomware activity evolved: Sophos’ 2025 study finds nearly half of victims paid a ransom, but median payments fell sharply as more organizations negotiated and improved response, and 44% stopped attacks before encryption. Meanwhile, the mean recovery cost (excluding ransom) dropped 44% to $1.53M year over year. (sophos.com)

The U.S. remains the most targeted region: Zscaler ThreatLabz reports the U.S. accounting for about half of global ransomware attacks in 2025, with year‑over‑year increases near 146% in reported incidents. (techradar.com)

Key takeaways for CISOs

Prioritize external‑facing patching SLAs (esp. VPNs, edge devices).
Treat third‑party access as high risk; enforce granular, verified connections.
Assume extortion without encryption; data exfiltration defenses are essential.

Zero Trust momentum: maturity and gaps

Adoption has accelerated. A January 2025 survey of 600 security pros shows 81% of organizations have fully or partially implemented Zero Trust, but 49% struggle with fragmented tooling and multi‑cloud policy drift. Focusing Zero Trust on cloud security and database access remains a top priority. (prnewswire.com)

Marsh McLennan and Zscaler estimate Europe could have prevented up to 41% of cyberattacks over eight years with Zero Trust controls, potentially reducing losses by 31% (about €408B annually)—a powerful macro‑level ROI signal for boards. (elpais.com)

What “good” looks like in 2025

Identity at the core: phishing‑resistant MFA, risk‑based access, just‑in‑time privileges.
Verified devices: posture checks before issuing short‑lived credentials.
Micro‑segmentation: contain lateral movement; default‑deny east‑west traffic.
Continuous assessment: real‑time signals from identity, endpoint, and network.

Encryption in 2025: raise the floor and prepare for PQC

TLS 1.3 now dominates modern traffic. Cloudflare reports TLS 1.3 comprises almost 60% of encrypted origin traffic across its platform as of late 2025, while legacy protocol usage keeps shrinking. At the same time, “hybrid” post‑quantum key exchange (ML‑KEM + X25519) protects a large and growing share of human web traffic—about 43% by mid‑September 2025 on Cloudflare’s network. (blog.cloudflare.com)

Let’s Encrypt, which secures over 550 million websites and issues 340,000+ certificates per hour, is preparing for a billion active certs and has begun piloting six‑day, short‑lived certificates to reduce key‑compromise risk—improving the web’s encryption baseline. (letsencrypt.org)

F5 Labs’ 2025 snapshot shows that among the top one million sites, only 8.6% currently support hybrid PQC key exchange. Security‑sensitive sectors like banking and healthcare lag, highlighting a critical 2025‑2027 transition window. (f5.com)

2025 encryption checklist

Enforce TLS 1.3 site‑wide; disable obsolete ciphers/protocols.
Use modern AEAD suites (e.g., AES‑GCM, ChaCha20‑Poly1305).
Automate certificate lifecycle (ACME); prefer short‑lived certs where feasible.
Deploy hybrid PQC for key exchange on external endpoints that support it.

Post‑quantum cryptography (PQC): standards and practical next steps

NIST finalized three PQC standards: FIPS 203 (ML‑KEM), FIPS 204 (ML‑DSA), and FIPS 205 (SLH‑DSA). In March 2025, NIST selected HQC as a backup KEM, with a draft standard expected around 2026–2027. Bottom line: organizations should migrate to the 2024‑approved FIPS algorithms now and track HQC as a contingency. (nist.gov)

Thales’ 2025 Data Threat Report shows 60% of organizations are prototyping or evaluating PQC, and nearly 70% cite AI’s fast‑moving ecosystem as a top GenAI‑related security risk—evidence that crypto‑agility and AI governance must advance together. (thalesgroup.com)

PQC migration playbook

Build a crypto inventory: discover libraries, protocols, certs, and keys.
Prioritize “harvest‑now, decrypt‑later” exposure: long‑lived sensitive data.
Enable hybrid KEM in TLS 1.3 where supported; validate performance.
Update code‑signing to PQC‑ready signature schemes (ML‑DSA/SLH‑DSA) as toolchains mature.
Establish crypto‑agility: policy‑driven rollbacks and rapid algorithm swaps.

Data control plane: key management, tokenization, and format‑preserving protection

Effective encryption depends on resilient key management and data‑centric controls:

Key management in 2025

Centralize keys in HSMs or cloud KMS with strong separation of duties; enforce rotation and short lifetimes.
Support BYOK/HYOK where regulators or customers require external key control; log all key operations.
Use envelope encryption: keep data keys ephemeral; protect with master keys.

Tokenization and FPE for usability

Tokenize PANs and other PII to reduce PCI scope and breach exposure.
Format‑preserving encryption (FPE) can protect sensitive fields while preserving schema compatibility for legacy apps and analytics.

Organizations are reassessing encryption strategies in 2025, with 73% investing in AI‑specific security tools and 60% evaluating PQC—indicating broad movement toward crypto‑agile architectures. (thalesgroup.com)

Compliance drivers you must meet in 2025

PCI DSS 4.0: New requirements became enforceable March 31, 2025—data discovery, encryption, and strong authentication are now table stakes for any cardholder data environment. (press.comforte.com)
U.S. SEC cybersecurity disclosures: Public companies must disclose material incidents within four business days of determining materiality and describe cyber risk management and governance in their annual reports—requirements now fully in effect. (sec.gov)
EU DORA: As of January 17, 2025, financial entities in the EU must meet rigorous operational resilience obligations, including third‑party risk oversight and incident reporting—raising the bar on encryption and Zero Trust control evidence. (cincodias.elpais.com)

A 12‑month roadmap to protect customer data with Zero Trust and Encryption

Phase 1 (0–90 days): establish visibility and quick wins

Map data and access: inventory customer PII/PCI across SaaS, IaaS, and on‑prem; classify sensitivity.
Lock down identity: enable phishing‑resistant MFA for admins and customer support; enforce conditional access.
Patch externally facing systems with a 7‑day SLA for criticals; remove unused VPN concentrators.
Enable TLS 1.3 everywhere; automate certificates via ACME; disable weak ciphers.

Phase 2 (90–180 days): contain and encrypt

Micro‑segment crown‑jewel apps; require device health and user risk checks for access.
Tokenize PCI and sensitive customer data; deploy FPE where tokenization isn’t feasible.
Centralize key management; enforce rotation and least privilege for key use.

Phase 3 (180–365 days): resilience and PQC readiness

Pilot hybrid PQC (ML‑KEM + X25519) on public endpoints; add PQC‑ready signing in CI/CD.
Run tabletop exercises for SEC‑style 8‑K materiality decisions and DORA incident scenarios; tune forensic logging and immutable audit trails.
Measure and report: Verizon DBIR shows internal detection saves time and reduces impact; IBM reports internal discovery cut breach costs by roughly $900K in 2025—use these metrics to demonstrate ROI. (verizon.com)

Example program: Retail/e‑Commerce

Facing account takeover and payment fraud, a mid‑market retailer can:

Replace legacy VPN with ZTNA for partner and contractor access; enforce per‑app policies.
Tokenize PANs and move card data out of core systems to reduce PCI scope before audits.
Turn on TLS 1.3 across APIs and checkout flows; automate cert rotation; introduce short‑lived certs where compatible.
Pilot hybrid PQC on the customer login domain to future‑proof session key exchange.

This blueprint maps directly to the 2025 risk trends—vulnerability exploitation, third‑party exposure, and ransomware data theft—while maintaining checkout performance and minimizing developer friction. (verizon.com)

How Vaultrex supports a Zero Trust & Encryption Strategy

Vaultrex, a Zero Trust Data Vault from JP Solutions and managed exclusively by Semnet, combines zero‑trust access control with multi‑layer encryption and immutable, blockchain‑backed logging. It’s designed for regulated sectors and built with quantum‑era readiness in mind. You can integrate Vaultrex as a high‑assurance data layer—centralizing encryption, tightening access verification, and producing tamper‑evident audit trails that help with PCI, SEC, and DORA evidence. (jpsolutions.com.sg)

Where Vaultrex fits

As a decentralized vault for tokens and encryption keys with least‑privilege service access.
As an immutable ledger for sensitive‑data access events—useful for incident reconstruction and regulatory response.
As a Zero Trust‑aligned broker that verifies identity, device, and context before decrypting or releasing data.

Common pitfalls to avoid in 2025

Multi‑cloud policy drift: 49% cite multi‑cloud Zero Trust management as a top challenge—standardize on a single policy model and automate enforcement. (prnewswire.com)
Third‑party visibility gaps: DBIR shows third‑party involvement doubled to 30% of breaches—treat integrations like untrusted networks with per‑app ZTNA and tokenized data sharing. (verizon.com)
AI governance blind spots: IBM notes 63% lack AI governance policies; set access controls for models, plug‑ins, and data pipelines to prevent “shadow AI.” (ibm.com)

Conclusion: the path forward

2025 is the year to raise your cryptographic baseline and operationalize Zero Trust. The data is clear: faster detection and containment reduce breach lifecycles and costs; Zero Trust narrows attack paths; and hybrid PQC begins future‑proofing your customer data against harvest‑now, decrypt‑later threats. (it.newsroom.ibm.com)

What to do next

Close the basics: TLS 1.3, strong ciphers, ACME automation, phishing‑resistant MFA.
Cement Zero Trust: per‑app ZTNA, micro‑segmentation, continuous device/user verification.
Make crypto‑agility a habit: inventory, policy, and pipelines ready for PQC standards.
Prove compliance: align to PCI DSS 4.0, SEC disclosures, and DORA with immutable logs and tested playbooks.

Vendors and standards bodies are moving quickly—Cloudflare plans continued features through 2026, and NIST’s HQC backup standard is on a 2026–2027 path. Start now to reduce today’s risk and avoid a costly scramble later. (blog.cloudflare.com)