What is Zero Trust?
Zero trust is a security approach that assumes a threat already exists within the protected environment and no internal or entity should be trusted by default. It encourages organizations to reevaluate their network’s architecture and harden their security to protect against various security threats, including internal and external threats and sophisticated attacks.
Zero trust security involves enforcing granular risk-based access control. A zero-trust security architecture applies strict access to all digital assets, allowing users to see and access only the components they need to perform their tasks. It also requires splitting the network into microsegments that help prevent lateral movement and contain threats.
The importance of zero trust security
The traditional security approach defines a perimeter around the network, assuming internal entities that have been authenticated and authorized pose no threat. This approach protects the network only against external threats and does not account for internal threats and covert attacks already moving laterally through the network.
Zero trust security is a data-centric model shifting the organization’s attention from the physical infrastructure to the components moving dynamically across the network. Cybercriminals typically target digital assets, largely represented as data. It is essential to secure data in its original location, as it travels, and its storage location.
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
Zero trust network access (ZTNA) solutions require all users inside or outside the protected network to go through authentication and authorization processes. It forces users to continuously get validated for security posture and configuration to get or keep their access to data and applications.
ZTNA provides an adaptive model that grants access to resources on a least-privileged basis according to an organization’s access control policies. Organizations use ZTNA to replace the traditional virtual private network (VPN) model that grants complete network access to allverified users.
The importance of ZTNA
As organizations continue shifting to remote work, usage of VPNs has increased dramatically, consequently increasing cybersecurity risk. VPNs make it difficult to monitor network traffic and application usage across many locations and devices. ZTNA solves this issue by separating application access from network access, forcing users to authenticate to use each resource.
Once a user gets authenticated, the ZTNA solution provides a secure, encrypted tunnel to access the requested resource. ZTNA solutions use ‘dark cloud’ principles to protect users’ IP addresses and limit each user’s visibility into any application and service that they do not have permission to access.
Isolating access and authenticating each user enables organizations to prevent lateral movement in the event of a breach and reduce the risk of infection from a compromised device.
API Security
API security typically involves implementing authentication and authorization mechanisms to establish secure connectivity. Here is how these mechanisms work:
- Authentication—a process that verifies that a client application has a safe identity that is allowed to use the API.
- Authorization—the subsequent step that determines what actions and data an authenticated application is allowed to access when interacting with the API.
Implementing an authentication and authorization process is not enough. API security should start from the design phase to ensure APIs are built with various protective features to minimize their vulnerability to malicious attacks during API calls.
The importance of API security
APIs form part of an organization’s Internet-facing attack surface and pose many challenges that affect network security. The main objective of an API is to allow communication between different applications and services.
However, it is difficult to see all API interactions of an application and how they change over time can expose the application and the network to critical risks. As a result, APIs are an ideal target for automated attacks. Incorporating API security solutions into an organization’s application security strategy helps identify and block attempted exploitation of web APIs.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
SASE is a security model that employs software-defined networking (SDN) technology to centrally manage a network’s infrastructure and security. This cloud-based model was coined by Gartner in a 2019 report called The Future of Network Security in the Cloud.
SASE enables organizations to enforce secure access policies regardless of physical locations. The SASE architecture can identify users and devices that request access, use policies to apply the appropriate security and compliance, and deliver secure access.
The importance of SASE
Traditionally, network infrastructure uses the hub-and-spoke model that connects users from several locations to resources hosted in centralized data centers. All applications and data exist within the centralized data center, and users can access these resources by connecting from a localized private network or using a VPN.
The traditional model cannot handle the modern, ever-changing technology landscape. The modern network utilizes Software as a Service (SaaS) products that require additional monitoring processes. Additionally, the network must give remote workers access to resources across various locations and devices. The traditional model cannot handle the increased latency for remote users and critical applications.
SASE provides built-in security and one platform to monitor and secure network infrastructure. It does not use the data center as a centralized hub for storage and traffic. Instead, SASE situates network controls at the edge of cloud environments, streamlining network and security services, eliminating the need for VPNs, and limiting latency.
Conclusion
In this article, I explained the basics of zero trust and its security technologies:
- ZTNA—ZTNA solutions require all users inside or outside the protected network to go through authentication and authorization processes.
- API Security—API security typically involves implementing authentication and authorization mechanisms to establish secure connectivity.
- SASE—SASE is a security model that employs software-defined networking (SDN) technology to centrally manage a network’s infrastructure and security.
I hope this will be useful as you implement zero trust in your organization
