Zero Trust Technology Is More Important Than Ever

Zero Trust Technology Is More Important Than Ever

Nowadays, there are many companies that help different organizations improve their cybersecurity systems. For example, Cloudbric can provide you with high-performing web application protection. But while such services are definitely useful, you should realize that true change happens from within.

This is exactly why the Zero Trust approach is so common in cybersecurity. It has numerous benefits and ensures that your organization’s network is as safe as possible. Hence, here’s everything you need to know about the Zero Trust approach and why Zero Trust technology is more important than ever.

What Is the Zero Trust Approach?

The Zero Trust approach is an approach that can be summed up as “never trust, always verify.” The Zero Trust approach is widely used in IT and, more specifically, in cybersecurity. In practice, this approach allows organizations to protect themselves in the digital sphere by constantly validating actions at every stage of online interactions. The Zero Trust approach is one of the most effective ways to protect your organization digitally through a variety of practices, including:

• Continuous authentication
• Network segmentation
• Lateral movement prevention
• Layer 7 threat prevention
• Granular policy simplification

The backstory of the Zero Trust approach is quite interesting. At some point, traditional security models became inefficient and outdated. It was no longer “common sense” to assume that all the processes within an organization’s network were implicitly trustworthy. That’s when the Zero Trust approach was born. Once it was implemented, it would be much harder for malicious insiders and threat actors to infiltrate an organization’s network.

Nowadays, it is more than just necessary to adopt this approach – it could be critical for your organization. The workforce is becoming more hybrid with employees often working remotely. There is an obvious trend of migration to the cloud and security operations are constantly being innovated. This is exactly why the Zero Trust approach is so necessary for companies to increase their levels of security, decrease the complexity of their security strategies, reduce cybersecurity risks, and so on.

What Are the Main Principles of the Zero Trust Approach?

To better understand how the Zero Trust approach functions, it is essential to look at the main principles behind it. Daphne Middleton, an expert from the writing services reviews site Writing Judge, says, “The Zero Trust approach uses a variety of methods, techniques, and practices to achieve the goals it sets out to pursue. All of these principles play a fundamental role in the success of your Zero Trust security strategy.” The key principles of the Zero Trust approach include:

• Continuous Validation: Continuous monitoring and validation lie at the basis of the Zero Trust approach precisely because of its main assumption. According to this approach, attackers could be operating both within your organization’s network and outside of it. This is why no user or device should be trusted and, therefore, it is necessary to verify their identities and privileges. For example, logins and connections time-out at some point which forces users to re-verify themselves from time to time.
• Multi-Factor Authentication: Directly related to the previous principle, multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires users to present more than one piece of evidence to verify themselves. In other words, they need to use more than just a password to log in. Two-factor authorization is the most common type of MFA and is used by platforms such as Google and Facebook.
• Device Access Control: Much like controlling user access, the Zero Trust approach also requires you to control device access. This involves monitoring the number of devices trying to get access to the network, checking that every device is authorized, and assessing all the devices beforehand to minimize risks.
• Least-Privilege Access: To put it simply, least-privilege access is about providing users with only the amount of access they require. This requires careful user permission management, but it can be quite effective for minimizing users’ exposure to certain parts of your organization’s network.
• Microsegmentation: Microsegmentation is a technique used with the Zero Trust approach that involves segmenting or dividing your security perimeters into small zones to allow access to the different parts of your network separately. This means that a user will have access only two a selected zone and will have to go through a separate authorization process to get access to a different zone.
• Lateral Movement Prevention: At its most basic level, lateral movement is when an attacker gets access to your organization’s network and moves within it. The problem with lateral movement is that it is difficult to detect which is why prevention is necessary. The Zero Trust approach is perfect for limiting the attackers’ lateral movement and preventing them from compromising your network. Once the attacker is detected, he can be quarantined and cut off from access.

How Does the Zero Trust Approach Work?

So, how exactly does the Zero Trust approach work? Here’s a basic breakdown:

1. You identify your organization’s network’s most critical and valuable aspects such as data, assets, apps, and services. Once identified, you can prioritize the parts that need the most attention.
2. You learn more about your users to understand who they are, which apps they use, and how they connect to your network.
3. You build your own Zero Trust strategy that takes into account your users (authentication, least-access policies, verification), applications (continuous validation and monitoring), and infrastructure (IoT, supply chain, cloud, etc.)

What Is Zero Trust Network Access?

Aaron Adams, an expert from the custom writing reviews site Best Writers Online, explains, “To put it simply, Zero Trust Network Access or ZTNA is used to design a Zero Trust solution for remote access to a network. It is the main technology used for implementing the Zero Trust approach and is often compared to a software-defined perimeter (SDP).”

ZTNA uses cloud-first, software-based methods to replace legacy VPN hardware. It conceals most infrastructure and services and sets up one-to-one encrypted connections between different devices. With the overlay network it creates, users and devices can connect securely to servers and apps in the public cloud or data center.

How Can You Implement the Zero Trust Approach?

To successfully implement the Zero Trust approach in your organization, you need to have a solid strategy for it. While it may seem challenging at first, working with the Zero Trust approach is actually fairly easy once you know what you are doing. Follow these three steps to set up and implement your own Zero Trust strategy:

1. Visualize: First, you should understand all the resources you possess, the access points that lead to them, and the possible risks that could be involved.
2. Mitigate: Second, you need to identify and stop threats or decrease the impact of the breach that has already occurred.
3. Optimize: Third, you need to extend the protection you are implementing to every aspect of your organization’s network and all the resources within it without compromising user experience.

At the end of the day, the Zero Trust approach is definitely necessary for organizations of all kinds. Once you understand how it works and starts applying the method to your own network and technology, you will see significant improvements in the quality of your cybersecurity. Visit Cloudbric Labs to get more resources on cyber threat intelligence and web security.