When the perimeter is gone ...

As the world becomes increasingly connected, people will face a growing host of threats from a range of sources, make sense?

Hence the increasing importance of being not only connected but "well" connected (secured).

I remember as a child, sometimes when I was distracted by something when I was doing schoolwork or another activity, hearing the warning voice of an adult saying "Hey!, wake up, you're in the clouds!" ????

And today more than ever, and each day that passes more, we ARE in the "cloud", without being distracted, ironic right?

We "live" and operate in an external world more and more, out of the perimeter of our offices and company. It is like the perimeter has expanded so much that it almost does not exist, or now it encompasses too much that everything around us is part of the "interior".

As a cybersecurity model, Zero Trust has come a long way from being just another buzzword to becoming a business imperative.

It's been more than eleven years since the "Zero Trust" term was coined, although the earliest works go back to the beginning of the century, back in 2003.

As cybersecurity threats, business models, and workforce dynamics evolve, a Zero Trust model roots in the principle of “never trust, always verify”, instead of the traditional network access of "trust but verify". In a matter of fact, a more accurate statement says that this model is rooted in the principle of "never trust, always verify and verify again".?That's why using multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a key component of this approach.??

This model doesn't automatically trust anything (outside or even inside your network). It gives users only as much access as needed; in other words, it implements the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP).??

And to make it even more restricted, the PoLP principle can also be expanded to include "just in time" privileged access, meaning it restricts privileges to ONLY the specific times when they are needed.

It utilizes micro-segmentation of your network to create small zones with separated access for each.??

Zero Trust is now a mandate for federal agencies. President Biden’s 2021 cybersecurity executive order outlined the actions federal agencies should take to move toward a more secure government.

Even before you start considering all kinds of solutions and technologies to deploy a Zero Trust model in your business, this is the first "baby" step as a business owner you need to address, or at least, a conversation you may have:

• knowing which devices are in your environment, establishing an ongoing device discovery, classification, and inventory process. Because you can only secure what you can see, right?

And then, distinguishing between managed and unmanaged devices is next. The super cool 55" smart tv in the conference room and the computer where you have the payroll stuff should be treated differently, but both require 'attention'.

And let me be clear here. "Baby" doesn't mean they are "too little".

There are cybersecurity asset management solutions that, with the proper credentials, can collect and correlate information about all your unmanaged and managed devices in the network. These platforms are constantly assessing your network, so the list of devices is always updated. ????

In ABACUSTEL, we love our business, we love connecting businesses. That's what we do! We connect clients, managers, partners, employees, vendors, information, data.

And we do it with the right phone communication, Internet + Cloud connectivity, and Collaboration solution for each business in town.

Enjoy the ride!???????