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In 2022, 41 percent of respondents had plans to adopt a zero-trust strategy and are in the early phases of doing so.
In general, 80 percent of respondents have plans to adopt zero trust in the future or have already adopted it.
Zero trust is a concept that requires authentication from each and everyone who is a part of the business. This process goes for all machinery, industrial access, IP addresses, and employees outside or inside.
How do Zero-Trust Models work?
The fundamental idea behind zero trust is straightforward: presume that everything is potentially a threat unless proven otherwise.
This concept marks a significant departure from the traditional network security model, which has relied on centralized data centers and secure network perimeters for decades, dating back to the 1990s.
In these conventional network setups, access controls and trust validation were established based on approved IP addresses, ports, and protocols, typically encompassing anyone connecting via remote access VPN.
Conversely, the zero-trust approach treats all network traffic as suspicious, even if it’s already inside the security perimeter. For example, it requires workloads to undergo validation based on specific attributes, such as unique fingerprints or identity, before allowing communication.
This identity-based validation approach results in robust security that remains in place wherever the workload communicates, whether in a public cloud, a hybrid setup, a containerized environment, or an on-premises network architecture.
What sets Zero Trust apart is its environment-agnostic protection, which secures applications and services regardless of the network environment in which they operate. This approach eliminates the need for significant architectural changes or frequent policy updates.
Zero trust establishes secure connections among users, devices, and applications by adhering to business policies across any network, facilitating a secure and seamless digital transformation.
What could you secure with the Zero-Trust Model?
Zero-Trust is a holistic approach to securing everything you have in the organization. Let’s list down some of the areas you can keep secure:
Identity and Access Security
Establishes a cutting-edge Zero Trust framework by prioritizing identity-centric security tactics.
This involves verifying and granting permissions to all human and non-human identities for every access request, regardless of whether they originate from your multi-cloud environment or on-premises infrastructure.
Outwits potential attackers by implementing advanced measures. Utilise machine learning-driven risk assessments and finely tuned, context-based access controls.
These measures work autonomously to safeguard your organization against compromised identities and unauthorized entry by:
- Embracing a future-ready stance in the face of emerging threats. Opting for an identity and access management solution continually evolves to keep pace with security challenges, ensuring your organization’s resilience.
- Enhancing satisfaction by reducing friction in the authentication process for your employees, partners, and customers. Providing tailored, adaptive sign-in experiences that swiftly and securely connect them to the required resources.
Endpoint Security
- Swiftly thwarts emerging threats and seizes control against complex challenges like ransomware and attacks attributed to nation-states.
- Empowers security professionals by enabling them to efficiently manage their workload, allowing them to focus on high-priority risks and elevate the overall security readiness of the organization.
- Progresses beyond isolated security measures tied to specific endpoints and evolves your security strategy.
Apps
Ensures appropriate in-app permissions and gate access based on real-time analytics and monitors and controls user actions.
Information Protection and Governance
Leverage inherent safeguards
Takes advantage of the integrated information security and governance features seamlessly integrated into all applications, browsers, and devices.
Streamline your administration
Effortlessly configure and oversee policies and access analytics, spanning your on-premises infrastructure, applications, third-party cloud services, and various devices, all from a unified dashboard.
Enhance data intelligence
Accurately pinpoints sensitive data throughout your organization using extensive classification capabilities, including the application of machine learning.
Broaden the range of capabilities
Extends your information governance and protection measures consistently to widely used applications and services with software development kits (SDKs) and connectors.
Surprising but true: 83% of organizations experience more than one data breach in their lifetime.
Protect your multi-cloud resources, workloads, and apps
- Enhances your cloud security stance: Improves the setup of cloud services using comprehensive evaluation tools.
- Guards against evolving risks: Shields cloud workloads and applications against emerging threats with cutting-edge security research and threat insights.
- Manages access to vital cloud applications and assets: Applies immediate access controls and permissions oversight by utilizing integrated risk evaluations and contextual data.
- Ensures security at every stage of the software development cycle: Protects the complete app creation, deployment, and operational journey seamlessly integrated into the usual developer workflow.
Network
Ensure that devices and users aren’t trusted just because they’re on an internal network. Encrypt all internal communications, limit access by policy, and employ micro-segmentation and real-time threat detection.
Benefits of Adopting Zero-Trust Models
Secure Remote Work
Zero-trust enhances the employee experience with adaptable security policies. It helps you and your team to manage and protect all your devices and identities effectively, no matter where the workforce is.
Safeguards your digital assets
Zero trust works on unified data protection and governance. This makes sure that your data is secure even outside your network.
Adaptability to modern security posture
You help your organizations expand the horizon across digital environments by adapting to zero-trust models. This also ensures that risk-based access controls and automated policies are better managed.
Mitigate the risk posed by bad actors
Zero Trust models are designed in a way that they keep a strict check on any unauthorized access requests. A layered defense safeguards your organization from internal and external risks.
Meet regulatory requirements
Compliance with policies across different countries and standards has become a challenge with rising security checks. You can seamlessly protect, manage, and govern your data with a comprehensive strategy.
Zero-Trust Infrastructure: NIST Specific
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a U.S. Department of Commerce government agency.
Its primary motive is to assist businesses in comprehending, managing, and mitigating cybersecurity risks to safeguard their networks and data.
NIST offers valuable guidance and resources for organizations implementing zero-trust security principles into their cybersecurity strategies.
NIST’s publications on zero trust include:
NIST SP 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture
This publication has laid the foundation for zero-trust architecture. It defines it as a set of guiding principles, not the specific technologies. The principles work on the importance of continuous monitoring and adaptive, risk-based decision-making.
NIST SP 800-207 introduces the Seven Pillars of Zero Trust, which stress the importance of
- 1. securing all resources, ensuring secure communication,
- 2. granting access per session,
- 3. dynamic policy enforcement,
- 4. asset monitoring,
- 5. dynamic authentication and authorization,
- 6. collecting extensive information
- 7. enhanced security posture.
NIST SP 1800-35B, Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture
It offers a practical approach to implementing a zero-trust architecture in enterprise environments.
It works on addressing IT security challenges faced by both public and private sectors.
Guiding how to adopt zero trust principles and components using commercially available technology helps you attain better outcomes for your organization.
NIST’s approach to zero trust centers on the principles of least privilege, micro-segmentation, and continuous monitoring.
It encourages organizations to implement a layered security strategy incorporating various technologies and controls to protect against evolving threats effectively.
The four zero-trust architectures implemented by NIST are as follows:
- Device agent/gateway-based deployment.
- Enclave-based deployment.
- Resource portal-based deployment.
- Device application sandboxing.
What should you look for when deploying the Zero-Trust model to your organization?
Although each organization’s needs are unique, a zero-trust model must comply with certain stages. Your model should be aligned according to your needs, meeting core principles:
Module 1: Collect resources, and access points and evaluate risks.
Module 2: Act immediately to mitigate the impact of the breach in case a threat cannot be immediately stopped
Module 3: Collaborate and implement IT infrastructure and all resources regardless of location. Optimise user experience for end-users and security teams
Never Trust, Always Verify!
This approach acknowledges that traditional security perimeters have become porous, and the idea of trusting everything inside a network is no longer viable.
Zero Trust minimizes the attack surface and enhances security posture by requiring constant verification of users, devices, and applications.
What should you consider? With all the benefits and unique features, transitioning to a zero-trust architecture can be resource-intensive and require substantial changes to existing infrastructure, which can be time-consuming and costly.
Zero Trust can reduce the attack surface but cannot eliminate all threats, especially those originating from within an organization or through social engineering.
To address these weaknesses, you must carefully plan and implement their Zero Trust strategies, balancing security with usability, and continually adapt and refine their approach to stay ahead of evolving threats.
Marrium Akhtar
October 3, 2023
7 months ago
