As businesses move towards digital transformation, the need for an agile security framework is more pertinent than ever. Cue in Zero Trust, a revolutionary approach to network security that requires all users to be authenticated and authorized before gaining access to applications and data.
What is Zero Trust?
Zero Trust is a significant departure from traditional network security methods, notably the “trust but verify” protocol. This older model automatically trusted users and endpoints within the organization’s perimeter, which unfortunately opened up opportunities for malicious internal actors and compromised accounts to gain wide-reaching access.
However, with businesses migrating to the cloud and the acceleration of remote work due to the pandemic, this model has become obsolete. Instead, Zero Trust assumes that there is no traditional network edge. 1 Networks can be local, in the cloud, or a hybrid with resources anywhere and workers in any location.
The Core Principles of Zero Trust
At its core, Zero Trust operates on a “never trust, always verify” principle. It assumes a breach and verifies each request as though it originated from an uncontrolled network, regardless of the request’s origin or the resource it’s trying to access.
This approach should extend throughout the entire digital estate, serving as an integrated security philosophy and end-to-end strategy. Strong identity verification is established, compliance of the device is validated prior to granting access, and least privilege access to only explicitly-authorized resources is ensured.
Implementing the Zero Trust Model
Implementing the Zero Trust model requires a strategy that acknowledges the modern environment’s complexities. This environment embraces a mobile workforce and protects user accounts, devices, applications, and data wherever they are located. 2
In practice, Zero Trust is designed to address modern business challenges such as securing remote workers, hybrid cloud environments, ransomware threats, and more. From the Department of Defense (DoD) to Google’s BeyondCorp, several large organizations have implemented their own variations of Zero Trust.
Maturing Your Zero Trust Posture
Maturing your Zero Trust posture involves aligning the Zero Trust model with your organization. This can be achieved by following standards from recognized organizations such as NIST 800-207.
Modern corporate networks consist of many interconnected zones, cloud services, and infrastructure, remote mobile environments, and non-conventional IT connections such as IoT devices. In this context, maturing your Zero Trust posture means continuously adapting and evolving your security framework to secure infrastructure and data effectively.
The Future of Zero Trust
As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation and cloud migration, the importance of a robust and adaptive security framework cannot be overstated. Zero Trust offers a promising solution, uniquely addressing modern challenges with a “never trust, always verify” approach.
By understanding, implementing, and continuously maturing your Zero Trust posture, you can ensure that your business stays ahead of the curve in cybersecurity, protecting your valuable data, applications, and resources from both internal and external threats.
Embrace the Zero Trust State of Mind
Zero Trust is not a product that you can buy; it’s a state of mind that needs to be embraced. It represents the future of network security, transforming the way businesses approach cybersecurity in an increasingly digital and distributed world.