SOJOURNERS

Why Implement Zero Trust Security Model?

“Zero Trust extends the principle of ‘least privilege’ to its ultimate conclusion: Trust no one and grant the least privilege, so that once a user’s identity is verified, they only get access for the role they’re assigned – nothing more.”

Your business gives multiple users access to your company’s resources. And despite the different goals and needs of these employees, partners, clients and customers, they all require some level of access to corporate information. The number of connections and resources you need to manage make user verification complex. 

Moving to a hybrid, multicloud infrastructure means your resources are also likely scattered throughout multiple IT environments with varying levels of visibility and control. It’s difficult to know if the right user has the right access to the right data. You need context to help you make the right decisions.

Equally concerning is the prevalence of malicious activity, such as ransomware and phishing, that puts your network, digital assets and business at risk.

A Zero Trust security strategy can help organizations increase their cyber resiliency and manage the risks of a disconnected business environment, while still allowing users access to the appropriate resources. It’s a model and plan that uses context to securely connect the right users to the right data at the right time under the right conditions, while also protecting your organization from cyber threats.

What is Zero Trust?

Instead of assuming everything behind the corporate firewall is safe, the Zero Trust model assumes breach and verifies each request as though it originates from an open network. Regardless of where the request originates or what resource it accesses, Zero Trust teaches us to “never trust, always verify.” Every access request is fully authenticated, authorized, and encrypted before granting access.

Microsegmentation and least privileged access principles are applied to minimize lateral movement. Rich intelligence and analytics are utilized to detect and respond to anomalies in real time.

Benefits of Zero Trust Architecture

Zero Trust is one of the most effective ways for organizations to control access to their networks, applications, and data. Benefits of a Zero Trust Architecture include:

  • Improved visibility: The main objective of a Zero Trust model is to allow the organization to approve every user and every device every time access to the network is requested – with a clear understanding of who, why and how. This capability, coupled with least-privilege access, allows the organization to maintain strict oversight of all network users and devices, as well as their activity.
  • Reduced risk: Unlike a traditional perimeter security model, the default access setting for all users and devices in a Zero Trust environment is “deny.” By leveraging advanced technologies to verify the user’s identity, as well as provide application access based on behavior, user risk and device risk posture, the organization can significantly reduce risk by making it more difficult for adversaries to discover the network or gain access to it.
  • Containment: By segmenting the network by identity, group, and function, and controlling user access, a Zero Trust strategy helps the organization contain breaches and minimize potential damage. This helps organizations improve their “breakout time” — the critical window between when an intruder compromises the first machine and when they can move laterally to other systems on the network.
  • Improved user experience: When implemented correctly, a Zero Trust model provides an enhanced user experience, as compared to a VPN, which often limits application use, impacts system performance and needs to be updated and authenticated frequently. In many cases, Zero Trust organizations are also more likely to leverage MFA along with single sign on (SSO) tools to streamline and simplify the user experience with a conscious effort to reduce MFA fatigue.
  • BYOD policy enablement: Zero Trust can help enable personal device use, in that the security protocol does not consider who owns the device, but only that the user and device can be authenticated.
  • Cloud compatibility: A Zero Trust architecture is a critical security measure as companies increase the number of endpoints within their network and expand their infrastructure to include cloud-based applications and servers. A Zero Trust network is essentially borderless – it applies security principals equally to all users and devices regardless of location.
  • Reduced complexity: With fewer products needed for your Zero Trust implementation, there will be less complexity required to build, operate and maintain it.

Core Principles of Zero Trust Model

The Zero Trust model (based on NIST 800-207) includes the following core principles:

  • Continuous verification.  Always verify access, all the time, for all resources.
  • Limit the “blast radius.”  Minimize impact if an external or insider breach occurs.
  • Automate context collection and response.  Incorporate behavioral data and get context from the entire IT stack (identity, endpoint, workload, etc..) for the most accurate

1. Continuous Verification

Continuous verification means no trusted zones, credentials, or devices at any time. Hence the common expression “Never Trust, Always Verify.” Verification that must be applied to such a broad set of assets continuously means that several key elements must be in place for this to work effectively:

  • Risk based conditional access. This ensures the workflow is only interrupted when risk levels change, allowing continual verification, without sacrificing user experience.
  • Rapid and scalable dynamic policy model deployment. Since workloads, data, and users can move often, the policy must not only account for risk, but also include compliance and IT requirements for policy. Zero Trust does not alleviate organizations from compliance and organizational specific requirements.

2. Limit the Blast Radius

If a breach does occur, minimizing the impact of the breach is critical. Zero Trust limits the scope of credentials or access paths for an attacker, giving time for systems and people to respond and mitigate the attack.

Limiting the radius means:

  • Using identity based segmentation. Traditional network based segmentation can be challenging to maintain operationally as workloads, users, data, and credentials change often.
  • Least privilege principle. Whenever credentials are used, including for non-human accounts (such as service accounts), it is critical these credentials are given access  to the minimum capability required to perform the task. As tasks change, so should the scope.  Many attacks leverage over privileged service accounts, as they are typically not monitored and are often overly permissioned.

3. Automate Context Collection And Response

To make the most effective and accurate decisions, more data helps so long as it can be processed and acted on in real-time. NIST provides guidance on using information from the following sources:

  • User credentials – human and non-human (service accounts, non-privileged accounts, privileged accounts – including SSO credentials)
  • Workloads – including VMs, containers, and ones deployed in hybrid deployments
  • Endpoint – any device being used to access data
  • Network
  • Data
  • Other sources (typically via APIs):
    • SIEM
    • SSO
    • Identity providers (like AD)
    • Threat Intelligence

Zero Trust Use Cases

Zero Trust, while described as a standard for many years, has increasingly been formalized as a response to securing digital transformation and a range of complex, devastating threats seen in the past year. 

While any organization can benefit from Zero Trust, your organization can benefit from Zero Trust immediately if:

You are required to protect an infrastructure deployment model that includes:

  • Multi-cloud, hybrid, multi-identity
  • Unmanaged devices
  • Legacy systems
  • SaaS apps

You need to address key threat use cases including:

  • Ransomware – a two-part problem involving code execution and identity compromise
  • Supply Chain Attacks – typically involves unmanaged devices and privileged users working remotely
  • Insider threats – especially challenging to analyze behavioral analytics for remote users

Your organization has these considerations:

  • SOC/analyst expertise challenges
  • User experience impact considerations (especially when using MFA)
  • Industry or compliance requirements (eg. financial sector or US government Zero Trust Mandate)
  • Concern in retaining cyber insurance (due to the rapidly changing insurance market as a result of ransomware)

Every organization has unique challenges due to their business, digital transformation maturity, and current security strategy. Zero Trust, if implemented properly, can adjust to meet specific needs and still ensure a ROI on your security strategy.

Final Thoughts

Imagining an ideal, fully Zero Trust architecture can make the path to achieving it seem daunting (not to mention cost-prohibitive). But it doesn’t have to be. Ultimately, Zero Trust isn’t a technology but a security framework and philosophy, which means you can build it into your existing architecture without completely ripping out existing infrastructure.

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Interested in Management, Design or Technology Consulting, contact anil.kg.26@gmail.com
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