Zero Trust for organizations

The security framework has changed world-over for organizations and businesses. Gone are the days when one could only rely on traditional methods of securing networks, data, and applications. Today's threat landscape is complex, dynamic, and constantly evolving.

?The new era of cybercrime is driven by a combination of factors, including:

• Increased sophistication of attackers, who now have access to advanced tools and techniques that were previously unavailable to them. These include social engineering, malware, zero-day exploits, and other advanced threats.
• A more connected world with increased mobility of people, goods, services, information, and technology, leading to cross-border and intra-country crimes.
• A shift from physical crimes such as robbery, burglary, fraud, and theft to digital crimes like hacking, identity theft, and ransomware.
• The rise of mobile devices, providing unprecedented opportunities for criminals to attack organizations.
• The growth of cloud computing, providing convenient and cost-effective ways for hackers to gain unauthorized access to corporate resources.

And many more...

So with the fast-paced emergence of these new security threats, there's an urgent need to evolve our current approach to cybersecurity. We must move away from reactive methods towards proactive ones. And we must do this while maintaining compliance with regulations and ensuring business continuity.

In this post, I'll discuss how this goal may be achieved through the Zero Trust security framework. I'll also share my perspectives on how Zero Trust applies to various types of organization and tools associated with implementing Zero Trust. This post is just an overview of various things and not a deeper dive by any means. There has been a lot of talk about Zero Trust for quite some time, and it no longer can be dismissed as just a buzzword.

Here's what to expect in this post:

• What does Zero Trust mean?
• Why should one care about Zero Trust?
• Does Zero Trust apply to every industry, and how different is the definition for Zero Trust for various industries?
• What solutions and tools can organizations leverage to ensure Zero Trust?
• What next for Zero Trust?

What does Zero Trust mean?

Zero Trust is a security framework that treats all traffic as suspicious. It means that you don't trust any traffic coming into or out of your network. These include traffic between users, servers, and applications. It also includes traffic between internal systems (like databases) and external systems (like cloud providers).

It doesn't matter if it's legitimate or not - all traffic is usually treated as mistrustful, thus denying access to company data and applications by default. The goal is to prevent all sorts of threats by only granting access to select networks and workloads that meet the policy-informed requirements of risk-based, contextual, and continuous identity authentication across all entities, users, and devices.?

That way, Zero Trust provides a way to secure networks without relying solely on firewalls, antivirus software, and other traditional methods.

Why should one care about Zero Trust?

Because Zero Trust helps us address three at least critical issues:

• Compliance with regulations: Zero Trust ensures that all traffic is monitored and controlled, making it easier to comply with regulatory requirements. For example, HIPAA requires strict controls over who has access to what data. With Zero Trust, one can quickly implement policies that allow authorized individuals to access specific data types but deny others access to everything else.
• Security risks: Zero Trust reduces the number of potential failure points within one’s network. Treating all traffic as suspicious reduces the chances of a successful breach, making it much harder for attackers to get inside one’s network.
• Business continuity: Zero Trust improves business continuity by preventing downtime due to attacks. If someone gets past one’s firewall, they won't access sensitive information or services. Instead, they'll see a message saying "Access Denied" and nothing else.?

Does Zero Trust apply to every industry, and how different is the definition for Zero Trust for various industries?

The section below takes a deeper dive into what Zero Trust may mean to a specific company and how various departments interact with the security model.?

What does zero trust mean to a company??

Essentially, Zero Trust has a different meaning to SMBs (under 250 people companies), mid-markets (under 5000 people companies), and enterprises (over 5000 people).?

• SMBs - These businesses are typically small enough that the IT staff can handle most tasks themselves. They don't necessarily have dedicated cybersecurity professionals, so implementing Zero Trust may not be a priority. However, Zero Trust still applies to these smaller companies as they lack the resources necessary to monitor and control all traffic on their networks properly.
• Mid-market firms - They're large enough to have dedicated cybersecurity professionals but not large enough to have full-time IT staff members. Some mid-markets do have full-time IT folks or even a CIO. Either way, they rely heavily on technology to protect them from cyberattacks. Their main goal when implementing Zero Trust is to reduce the number of points of failure within their organization. For example, if a hacker manages to get through the firewall and gain access to the network, they won't be allowed to access sensitive data or systems. This helps prevent downtime due to malware infections.
• Enterprises - Enterprises are much bigger than mid-market firms and usually have dedicated IT staff members who work full time on the job. Because of this, they tend to have better security practices in place. However, because they also have multiple locations, they must consider the risk of a breach at each location. If one location gets hacked, then the entire enterprise becomes compromised. Additionally, because many businesses operate 24/7, they must consider the possibility of a hack occurring during off-hours. Thus, implementing a Zero Trust policy helps enterprises reduce the potential damage caused by a breach.

What does zero trust mean for different departments in an organization??

The concept of Zero Trust is applicable across the board. It's important to note that it doesn't just apply to the networking department; it should be implemented throughout the business. The following sections will discuss how Zero Trust affects different parts of the organization:

• Marketing - Marketing teams need to ensure they can communicate effectively online. This includes sending emails and reaching out to customers via social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. To do this, marketers need to use secure channels such as HTTPS, ensuring that no malicious code can be injected into the website itself.
• Sales - Sales teams need to share information about products and services with clients. This means they need to use secure communication channels, such as email and web conferencing tools. Information sharing between sales and marketing teams is essential to ensure that both sides understand what the other side needs.
• Finance - Financial teams need to be able to monitor their finances closely. They need to track expenses and payments to ensure that there isn't any suspicious activity. For example, if someone makes large purchases or sends money to overseas accounts, they might want to investigate further. Setting up alerts helps here greatly. They also need to make sure only limited number of folks in the organization have access to financial data.
• HR - HR teams need to access sensitive data quickly and easily. This includes things like employee records, salary details, etc. To accomplish this, they need to implement systems that allow them to store these documents securely. They also need to make sure only limited number of folks in the organization have access to HR data.
• Engineering - Engineers are responsible for writing code, building products, using solutions like Github to host code repositories, using solutions like AWS to deploy & run infrastructure or code and more. All of these activities require engineers to have access to sensitive data. Therefore, they need to develop processes that prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive data. Setting up alerts helps here greatly.

What solutions and tools can companies leverage to ensure Zero Trust?

Organizations need to implement various solutions and tools to solve the various cyber threats through the Zero Trust policy. These include:

• Having a single sign-on enabled (like Google SSO or Okta). When users log into a network, they should only be required to enter a username and password once. Once logged in, they shouldn't be required to reenter credentials again, making it easier for users to stay safe while accessing resources.?
• Implementing multi-factor authentication (like Duo or Google MFA). Multi-factor authentication requires at least two factors: something you know (e.g., a password) and something you have (e.g., your phone). If someone tries to log in to your account without providing either factor, they won't be allowed to.
• Using a password manager (like LastPass or 1Password). A password manager allows users to create strong passwords unique to each site. It also helps protect against phishing attacks by generating random passwords for users.
• Have good access management policies in place (privileged access management). Privileged access management ensures that employees don't have too many permissions. It prevents them from accidentally doing damage to company assets. Examples of policies to implement include:

???? - Not all developers not having access to production.

???? - Sales not having access to code, IP, etc.

???? - Frequent access reviews of who has access & what privileges (quarterly).

???? - Engineers not having access to customer data.

What's next for Zero Trust? (Or what's beyond Zero Trust)

As we move forward with the implementation of Zero Trust, more challenges will arise. One of the biggest ones is how to handle privileged accounts. For example, how do you manage this situation if an admin user needs access to a resource on the network, but that same user doesn't have permission to view the source code? Thankfully, there are several ways to address this issue. Some examples include:

• Require admins to connect to the organization network whenever they need to access specific privileged resources.
• Implement just-in-time access control, thus enabling you to focus on managing the risks associated with regular access.
• Implement role-based access control. This method gives admins the ability to grant different access levels to different types of users. For example, one group might only see specific files while another group may be authorized to edit those files.
• Go password-less and rely on biometrics like fingerprints or facial recognition.
• Use an identity provider to store metadata about users for effortless authentication.?

There we have it! Hopefully, this comprehensive resource was insightful and will help get started on the journey towards implementing Zero Trust. Do you have any questions or comments? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!