Introduction

Zero Trust is a cyber security approach where all the users of an organization, internal and external are verified for security configurations before being granted access to the data of an organization residing on any endpoint.

The need for Zero Trust arose due to many security issues with cloud environments. Today’s cloud environment is vulnerable and is an easy target for cyber intruders to steal data. And traditional network security,  where anything inside the network is trusted, does not offer a solution to such security issues. 

For example, many mobile device users connect unmanaged devices to business apps over the internet. Traditional network security protocols can only do a handful in such circumstances to avoid a cyber attack. However, implementing a Zero trust framework will verify the authentication of the device as well as the user on each step of data access and will lessen the number of cyberattacks while also reducing the impact and severity of such attacks.

Basically, the concept of Zero Trust is no endpoint should be trusted even if it was previously verified or connected to an approved network such as LAN or VPN. 

How is Zero trust better than Traditional Network Security protocols? 

Tradition Network Security protocols follow Castle and Moat security model, in which no one from outside the approved network can access the data on the inside. This is effective until a hacker gains access to the approved network. Once done, he will have free access to the data without any restrictions. 

Whereas the Zero Trust framework is based on the “Never Trust, Always Verify” approach and does not authenticate or validate anything or anyone without verification. This involves devices on the internal networks, external networks, or even previously verified devices or users. Zero Trust will verify each and every end point or user every time before granting access to them to access certain data. 

What are the fundamentals of Zero Trust?

Zero trust follows a few fundamental principles.

A. Frequent monitoring and validation: Since Zero Trust is based on the assumption that cyber invaders are always around, zero trust does not trust devices and users without proper validation. User identity, device identity, user privileges, and other security checkpoints (Location, type of data requested, type of access requested, etc.,)  are verified with timed logins and connection or session timeouts to ensure the connections are continuously confirmed. 

B. Least-privileged access: The idea here is to grant the user the least access necessary to perform their task, hence reducing the visibility and exposure of sensitive data to the user. For this, zero trust architecture requires visibility and control over the organization’s users and traffic to implement stronger security policies on the run. 

C. Segmentation: Zero Trust practices dividing network perimeters into smaller segments for better supervision of networks. Therefore ZeroTrust maintains separate access to different segments of the network. 

D. Avoids lateral movement: One of the major objectives of implementing Zero Trust is to reduce the effects of a cyber attack. Due to Segmentation, even if there is a cyberattack, the hacker will have access to a small segment of the network only. This way Zero Trust immediately quarantines the source of an attack and its perimeter, hence reducing the damage. This is not possible with traditional ways which use Castle and Moat model. 

E. Multi-factor authentication: The basics of Zero trust is to rely on more than one evidence of authentication. Evidence can vary from passwords to the location of the device or user and more than one in number always. 

Conclusion

Based on the principles followed by Zero Trust, it is now clear that this framework ensures that data hacking is not an easy task for Cybercriminals. Even if a data breach is detected, Zero-trust ensures that the damage is minimal and controlled immediately. 

In addition to a secured network, organizations can also demonstrate compliance with privacy standards and regulations during security audits.