Zero Trust is a framework which assumes a complex network’s security is always at risk to external and internal threats. Zero trust helps organize and strategize a thorough approach to counter those threats and protection your organization.
What is a Zero Trust Network?
A zero-trust network is built upon five fundamental assertions:
- > The network is always assumed to be hostile.
- > External and internal threats exist on the network at all times.
- > Network locality is not sufficient for deciding trust in a network.
- > Every device, user, and network flow are authenticated and authorized.
- > Policies must be dynamic and calculated from as many sources of data as possible.
What is the concept of Zero Trust?
Zero Trust is a strategic approach to cybersecurity that secures an organization by eliminating implicit trust and continuously validating every stage of a digital interaction.
Example of an Attack Progression
- Employees targeted via phishing email
- Corporate machine compromised; shell shoveled
- Lateral movement through corporate network
- Privileged workstation located
- Local privilege escalation on workstation—keylogger installed
- Developer password stolen
- Compromised prod app host from privileged workstation
- Developer password used to elevate privileges on prod app host
- Database credentials stolen from app
- Database contents exfiltrated via compromised app host
What is Perimeter-Based Security?
Prior to Zero trust, there was a perimeter-based approach to network security. The core idea is that anyone inside the network is trusted and anyone outside was not trust. Perimeter cybersecurity model has been the standard for over 20 years.
Resources
IBM Zero Trust: click here to read more on Zero Trust.
Next Steps
If you are ready to discuss and evaluation the changeover to the Zero Trust cybersecurity model, let us know. We are here to help transition your organization.
You already have a Zero Trust model implemented, we can help maintain, configure, and manage your Zero Trust security.