Let’s start with how Zero Trust impacts our daily lives.
You swipe your debit card at the gas pump, enter your PIN, fill your tank, and drive off to your next destination. Five minutes later, someone tries buying a $3000 watch using your debit card details–500 miles away from where you just pumped gas.
The bank realizes that you couldn’t have driven 500 miles in five minutes to purchase something and you never spend more than $500 on a single purchase, so you receive a text or email from your bank notifying you of potential fraud. You decline the transaction and disable your card.
This Zero Trust approach saved you and the bank a lot of time and money and eliminated the threat before they could do more damage.
Traditional vs. Zero Trust Security Approaches
Traditional access models allow everyone within the company network to access data, trusting everyone who logs on to a computer within the network’s perimeter as long as they have a password and username. This model was legitimate until digital transformation and hybrid cloud infrastructures became the norm.
Now that employees regularly work outside their companies’ network perimeters due to hybrid work, companies’ attack surfaces have expanded and made them more prone to threats. This prompted organizations to make a dramatic change to their security standards.
Zero Trust takes the opposite approach with its motto of “Never trust, always verify,” enforcing access policies based on a user’s location, device, and requested data. Under this framework, end users are always seen as a potential threat and are continuously verified to block inappropriate access to critical information.
Zero Trust evaluates against each resource separately, so every time a user needs access to a particular app, they must prove they are someone who needs access to that resource before being able to use it. ZTNA is especially important for companies employing a hybrid workforce where employees constantly shift locations.
Zero Trust’s Three Core Principles
Zero Trust is not a single solution but rather a combination of third-party services that operate simultaneously and follow three core principles:
Everyone Is a Threat: By assuming everyone and everything is a threat, organizations are more prepared for actual threats when they do occur. Through continuous authentication and authorization of all Internet of Things (IoT) devices, users, locations, and data sources, organizations reduce risk by uncovering what’s on the network and how it’s operating.
Reduce Attack Surface: The Zero Trust model employs microsegmentation, enabling admins to monitor and control information between applications and servers. Isolating your network’s assets limits the attack surface, eliminates the risk of lateral movement by attackers, and prevents exposed devices from damaging other resources.
Minimize User Access to Resources: Zero Trust only allows users access to necessary applications they need to perform their jobs and doesn’t offer them direct access to the network without verification. Following the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP), Zero Trust prevents users, accounts, and processes from having broad network access, significantly reducing network vulnerabilities.
Now that you get the gist of what Zero Trust is and it’s core principles, let’s help you establish a base for how to start your Zero Trust journey.
Answering these questions will help your organization develop a strategy to begin implementing Zero Trust on top of your current infrastructure. Begin with your most critical assets before you try implementing solutions on a broader scope. Rome wasn’t built in a day; your Zero Trust Network won’t be either.