What is Zero Trust Security?

Zero Trust is a security model based on the principle of maintaining strict access controls and not trusting anyone by default, even those already inside the network perimeter.

What is Zero Trust Security?

Zero Trust Security is a cybersecurity framework that requires users to prove who they are, that their access is authorized, and that they’re not acting maliciously before they can access an organization’s digital assets and network.

As the modern hybrid work environment has rendered traditional, on-premises network-based security models obsolete, Zero Trust Security has risen in prominence as a means to protect an organization’s data and people – especially as remote work and cloud-based services become the norm.

How does a Zero Trust Security work?

Implemented properly, a Zero Trust Security model is closely attuned to behavioral patterns and data points associated with access requests made to a company network. Zero trust solutions may grant or deny access based on criteria such as geographic location, time of day, and device posture.

Effective Zero Trust Security will be highly automated, and its protections may be delivered via the cloud or from an on-premises implementation. Identity providers and access management are key components of any zero-trust framework since they provide critical measures like adaptive authentication and single sign-on and streamline workflows like employee onboarding.

For these reasons, zero trust is often associated with zero trust network access (ZTNA), which is used specifically to protect access to corporate applications and the data stored in them.

What are the benefits?

Zero Trust as a philosophy is better suited to modern IT environments than more traditional security approaches. With such a wide variety of users and devices accessing internal data, and with data stored inside and outside the network (in the cloud), it is far safer to assume that no user or device is trustworthy than to presume that preventative security measures have plugged all the holes.

The primary benefit of applying Zero Trust principles is to help reduce an organization’s attack surface. Additionally, Zero Trust minimizes the damage when an attack does occur by restricting the breach to one small area via micro-segmentation, which also lowers the cost of recovery. Zero Trust reduces the impact of user credential theft and phishing attacks by requiring multiple authentication factors. It helps eliminate threats that bypass traditional perimeter-oriented protections.

And, by verifying every request, Zero Trust security reduces the risk posed by vulnerable devices, including IoT devices, which are often difficult to secure and update (see IoT security).

How to Implement Zero Trust Security Tactics

After designing a zero-trust security strategy, an organization needs to put it into action. Some best practices for implementing zero trust include the following:

• Deploy Network Overlays: Zero trust can be implemented using a software-defined perimeter (SDP). By defining data flows and controls in software, an organization can make changes without significant rewiring.
• Use a Host-Based Model: Employees may connect to a variety of systems and applications over the web. A host-based model controls access in a usable and scalable way.
• Implement Encryption: Encryption algorithms are an effective means of managing access to sensitive data. Encrypt data at rest and in transit and restrict access to decryption keys.
• Leverage Kubernetes: Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that works in all cloud environments and enables deep visibility and control. This makes it an ideal tool for implementing zero trust in complex, multi-cloud environments.
• Automate Where Possible: Zero trust provides very granular protection, which can be difficult to manage at scale. Using automation where possible is essential to building a system that is usable, sustainable, and scalable.

Zero Trust use cases

There are many use cases for Zero Trust Security including limiting access for outside third parties such as vendors and contractors, isolating IoT devices, and providing secure remote connectivity for an increasingly mobile workforce.

Zero Trust for vendors and contractors. 

There have been many notable security breaches caused by ‘trusted’ third parties, such as the notorious Target breach. Offering broad access to outside organizations could be disastrous. Zero Trust addresses this problem in two ways, first with strict authentication using multi-factor authentication or other identity and access management (IAM) platform that enables each outside party to be assigned a permission category that defines their access within the network. Additionally, segmentation can limit access to just that part of the network required to perform the task or transaction with the third party.

Zero Trust and IoT.

The growth of IoT devices continues to escalate with predictions of nearly 15 billion IoT devices by 2023. Their ubiquity (and often limited security capabilities) demand that a zero-trust approach be taken when considering IoT access to network resources. For example, IoT devices can be isolated to a single network segment designed for just that purpose, limiting a compromised IoT device’s access and lateral spread to other, more sensitive network assets.

Zero Trust for Remote Workers. 

As more employees work outside traditional network perimeters whether due to company policy or pandemic, ZTNA provides secure employee access and limits the attack surface by ensuring that all employees – whether working from VPN or public Wi-Fi at Starbucks – connect securely to corporate data, and services, and resources they need to get their jobs done.

Challenges to implementing Zero Trust Security

Implementing a zero-trust access control model isn’t necessarily a simple task to undertake.

Organizations who understand the tremendous benefits to be realized and are determined to implement a Zero Trust architecture can expect to encounter several challenges along the way, including:

• Technology Silos: Legacy operating systems and applications, development tools and  platforms, third-party applications, and services along with “homegrown” applications and many others
• Lack of Technology Integration: Hurdles can emerge with owned and third-party platforms—any issues with these integrations can easily derail a Zero Trust implementation.
• Rapidly Changing Threat Surface and Threat Landscape: This can potentially lead to challenges with technologies that are limited in deployment modality.

Conclusion

 Zero trust is a journey, not a destination. Run trials, start small, and then scale deployments. It takes a lot of planning and teamwork, but in the end, a zero-trust security model is one of the most important initiatives an enterprise can adopt, even if it hits bumps along the way.