Building a Successful Zero Trust Strategy
June 8, 2022
What is Zero Trust?
Zero Trust is not a technology but a strategic cybersecurity approach that secures an organization by eliminating implicit trust and validating every stage of digital interaction. Instead of assuming everything behind the corporate perimeter is safe, zero trust considers threats inside and outside of the traditional boundaries, presupposes data breaches, and verifies each access request as though it originates from an open network. In other words, zero trust security means that no one is trusted by default, and verification is required from everyone and everything trying to gain access to resources on the network. This added layer of security has been shown to prevent data breaches more effectively.
Is the Strategy Suitable for Every Business?
Zero trust is beneficial for businesses of any size and complexity. This is not surprising since reducing risks and preventing breaches is the primary cybersecurity goal. However, not all businesses have enough resources, experience, or knowledge to carry out a successful zero trust strategy. At the same time, those possessing the necessary resources often have other priorities and cannot allocate sufficient efforts into implementing the new security strategy in large and complex environments.
Is Zero Trust Obligatory?
The core guidelines and components of zero trust are highlighted by NIST SP 800-207 “Zero Trust Architecture.” Specifically, the Special Publication provides recommendations on maintaining and protecting data using zero trust systems when enterprise networks include cloud-based assets and remote users. In short, the strategic approach shifts focus away from protecting the network perimeter and prohibits access until the access request, identification of the requestor, and requested resource are validated.
What are the Main Principles of Zero Trust?
Integrating zero trust principles may be complicated for all business environments. To address this challenge, businesses should look for the best way to organize, guide, and simplify these principles in their own circumstances. Below is a list of operating capabilities necessary for adopting the approach for all businesses:
- “Never trust, always verify” – Treat every user, device, application/workload, and data flow as untrusted. Authenticate and explicitly authorize each to the least privilege required using dynamic security policies.
- Assume breach – Consciously operate and defend resources with the assumption that an adversary already has a presence within the environment.
- Verify explicitly – Access to all resources should be conducted consistently and securely using multiple attributes (dynamic and static) to derive confidence levels for contextual access decisions to resources.
Applying the Principles for Your Business
While applying the zero trust approach is not obligatory, organizations can inspect its main principles to understand the essence of this security approach better.
Continuous Monitoring and Validation
Zero trust assumes organizations are vulnerable to an attack from inside and outside. Hence, no users or machines should be trusted by default.
Least Privilege
To minimize each user’s exposure to sensitive information, users should have only as much access as they need to perform their job duties. Implementing the least privilege involves careful management of user permissions.
Device Access Control
Zero trust requires strict controls on device access, including constant monitoring of devices trying to access the network.
Microsegmentation
The practice of breaking up security perimeters into small zones to maintain separate access for parts of the network.
Preventing Lateral Movement
Eliminating the ability of an attacker to move within a network after gaining access.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Requiring more than one piece of evidence to authenticate a user, such as a password and a code sent to another device.
To conclude, zero trust proposes a new approach to cybersecurity which is referred to as “never trust - always verify.” It requires continuous monitoring and validation, least privilege access, microsegmentation, and strict authorization mechanisms. To stay updated on recent cybersecurity-related topics, keep reading our blog or contact the Planet 9 team. We’ll be happy to assist!