In today's world, you likely conduct almost every key transaction digitally. Unfortunately, cybercriminals understand this and have grown more sophisticated in their attempts to compromise your identity, which has the potential to cause severe personal and financial consequences.
To protect yourself against such threats, Senior Principal Engineer Hritesh Yadav says you must partner with proactive cybersecurity companies that employ the powerful zero-trust strategy. Here are more of his insights on zero-trust security.
Zero Trust Means Zero Trust
In cybersecurity, zero trust is precisely what you might think. This form of digital architecture operates under the notion that no one attempting to enter a given network can be trusted and requires those seeking such permissions to justify that their means for doing so are legitimate.
Adhering to Core Principles
Zero-trust technology assumes that everyone is a threat. Therefore, gaining access to such digital entities is governed by notable principles, including:
Least Privilege
In technical terms, least privilege follows the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP), which dictates that users, applications, and processes should have only the minimum access required to perform their functions. Role-based access control (RBAC) and attribute-based access control (ABAC) are commonly used mechanisms to enforce this principle.
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous monitoring involves real-time analysis of user behavior, endpoint health, and network traffic patterns. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions, combined with User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), help detect anomalies that may indicate a security threat.
Zero trust requires network users to verify their identity constantly. Access to a network is time-sensitive. Once a given period expires, a verified user will be asked to reenter using their login credentials.
Device Access Limitations
Zero trust enforces device compliance through Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions. These tools assess device security posture, ensuring only compliant and trusted devices gain access.
Such cyber security efforts must carefully monitor each device accessing its network. A greater number of devices used can compromise said networks.
Microsegmentation
Microsegmentation is enforced using Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and identity-based segmentation, allowing security teams to restrict east-west traffic flow within a network. This limits the potential blast radius of an attack by preventing lateral movement.
This undertaking involves dividing security perimeters into smaller, more manageable segments. As an added safety measure, one with access to a specific segment cannot generate another section.
Lateral Movement Prevention
This concept describes how cyber criminals progress through a network where the subject illegally gained entry into a network email, enabling them to engage in more unscrupulous actions. If someone breaches a network, lateral movement prevention keeps them from moving around it.
Techniques such as deception technology, honeytokens, and Just-in-Time (JIT) access control are deployed to hinder lateral movement within a compromised system. Additionally, zero-trust environments utilize identity threat detection and response (ITDR) to flag unusual authentication attempts.
Multi-Factor Authentication
As the practice is referred to in the cyber security world, MFA mandates that those entering a zero-trust protected environment provide several forms of authentication before being granted entry.
MFA implementations often leverage FIDO2-compliant hardware tokens, biometric authentication, and adaptive authentication mechanisms that analyze contextual factors such as geolocation, device reputation, and login behavior.
Intended Benefits
Investing in zero-trust cybersecurity limits a network's exposure to potential threats. Moreover, safeguards like micro-segmentation restrict the scope of security breaches. More controlled attacks often take less time for the impacted party to remediate. MFA also lessens the possibility of criminals gaining unauthorized access to an established user's login credentials.
Beyond access control, zero trust also enhances regulatory compliance with frameworks such as NIST 800-207, CIS Controls, and ISO/IEC 27001. By implementing zero trust, organizations can better meet industry-specific compliance requirements, including HIPAA, GDPR, and CMMC.
The Implementation Process
Adopting zero trust requires a phased approach: asset discovery, identity verification, network segmentation, policy enforcement, and ongoing monitoring. Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platforms facilitate a streamlined deployment process, ensuring continuous security posture improvements.
Zero-trust technology may sound complicated and seem complex and lengthy to implement. That said, installation on your network is somewhat simple when using a company or individual experienced with said process. The sooner you add this protection, the quicker you can take comfort in knowing that your sensitive information is as safe as possible.
