The Top 5 Tenets of Zero Trust Security

Traditional security models that were effective for on-premises network architecture are simply insufficient in the age of digital transformation, where more businesses are moving to cloud environments. Hackers have become increasingly inventive, coming up with countless ways to get past perimeter security and move laterally between networks. According to SISA’s forensics investigations, 40% of exploits occur as a result of adversaries using insecure credentials to gain initial access and then move laterally.

Strengthening an organization’s cyber resilience requires a more comprehensive approach and Zero Trust security is the answer. Enterprises must adhere to five zero trust security principles to prevent unauthorized access to the network and the ensuing data loss

1. Least-Privilege Access – last change

Ensure that users, processes, and systems only have the minimal access and privileges required for them to carry out their intended functions. This can assist in avoiding malicious or unintentional actions that might jeopardize the system’s security. The same is true for gadgets, applications, and data.

2. Damage Mitigation

One of the guiding principles of zero trust is to take security precautions before, during, and after an attack to reduce the impact of a security breach or attack. Security teams can effectively respond to and mitigate the attack by ensuring a constrained scope of access paths and credentials for attackers, like identity-based segmentation.

3. Continuous Validation

Nothing can be trusted by default as there are cyber attackers both inside and outside the organizational network. Two essential components that can guarantee the effectiveness of continuous validation without compromising the user experience are the deployment of risk-based conditional access and scalable dynamic policy.

4. Micro-Segmentation

Zero trust also involves maintaining separate access for separate parts of the network. The practice of dividing the security perimeter into small zones simplifies access control and management by establishing a separate authorization process for each segment.

5. Intelligence Gathering

Intelligence gathered from multiple points of telemetry informs a security strategy that is constantly evolving and strives to proactively prevent old and new attacks. When any anomalies occur, zero trust security entails collecting contextual data from disparate sources and using behavioral analytics to enable dynamic risk scoring and real-time action.

While there is ambiguity and challenges surrounding the implementation of a Zero Trust model, a carefully considered and balanced approach that is centered on using the appropriate technology and focusing on an organization’s overall security goals can help ensure a successful Zero Trust journey. For a successful deployment of zero trust, some businesses may only need minor tweaks to their cybersecurity baseline, whereas others may be missing the necessary building blocks and will need to create the model from scratch.