What is the Best way to Implement Zero Trust Security?

 The zero-trust security framework is a response to the evolving cyber threats in the modern world. It requires all devices and people trying to access an organization's IT network to go through a strict verification process. This includes both internal and external devices. They must be authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated before being granted access.

Zero trust is a security principle and vision for organizations that provide consistent security configuration and posture validation, regardless of whether users are inside or outside the IT network. By using a zero trust security model, organizations can more effectively protect their data, users, and applications from unauthorized access.

Zero trust is a term that's been getting a lot of attention lately from security vendors and government agencies. According to Gartner, by 2025, 60% of organizations will have adopted Zero Trust as their primary security measure.

Why Zero-Trust Security Model?

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of high-level data breaches, which has led to a greater interest and adoption of zero trust security measures. Furthermore, the need for better cybersecurity practices and the global pandemic have created an unprecedented demand for secure remote access technologies.

In the past, large enterprises relied on firewalls to protect their IT network. With this model, users access their IT resources remotely through a VPN to create a secure connection into the network. The major challenge with this approach is that if VPN login credentials are misused, it can lead to data breaches, as happened in one of the largest American pipeline data breaches. The Zero Trust model is necessary for modern computing networks because it is a holistic cybersecurity approach that comprises several principles and technologies.

Modern Approach to Zero-Trust Security

The zero-trust framework is becoming more popular in the data center industry because of the increased need for "work from anywhere" capabilities. Solutions like zero trust and extended detection and response (XDR) can help boost security resilience for businesses.

The Gartner Study found that Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is the fastest-growing segment in network security and is forecast to grow 31% in 2023. ZTNA is also the security framework of the future and will replace virtual private networks by 2025.

Zero-Trust for the cloud:

The digital transformation journey is only possible if the hybrid cloud environment is strong enough. This is why organizations should be deploying security measures consistently across all cloud environments. By doing so, it brings resilience and confidence to business operations.

A zero-trust approach is a modern way of conducting business operations. It allows businesses to adapt to different datasets, users, and workloads no matter where they are located. In other words, hybrid cloud protection with zero trust security provides centralized visibility and helps business organizations to innovate and enforce security policies without any delays.

Zero-Trust Security Implement: -

Organizations should design a robust Zero Trust architecture to mitigate risks across all computing environments by establishing identity verification, validating device compliance before granting access, and ensuring the least privileged access to only authorized resources. This will help protect your organization from potential threats and keep your data safe.

IT Assets Validation:

The health of all hardware and software assets are constantly monitored and kept up-to-date. In order to maintain access to organizational resources, all devices and operating systems must meet the minimum required health state.

Multi-factor authentication:

All identities are validated and secured with multi-factor authentication which eliminates password expiration. In addition, the use of biometrics such as fingerprints or retinal scans ensure strong authentication for user-backed identities.

Least privilege access: 

A few applications, services, and infrastructure require least privilege access to be enforced in order to perform some security operations. Any identity and access management solutions that offer broad access to any organization's critical IT infrastructure without any segmentation should be avoided.

Telemetry and pervasive data:

The automatic measurement and remote data transmission help to understand the existing security state and gaps. You can also validate the impact of new controls and compare data across all software applications in the computing environment. In Zero Trust security, robust & standardized auditing, telemetry, and monitoring capabilities are major requirements across IT assets in an IT network. These requirements help ensure that all systems and data are secure, and that any potential threats are identified and dealt with quickly and effectively.

Our organization can help you monitor network traffic, respond to activity, and examine the risks that users or applications may pose to your network. In addition, our in-house IT security team can help you secure all of your assets and protect your IT network.