What is Zero Trust and How Does it Supercharge Your Cybersecurity?

‍‍The Zero Trust security concept is a cybersecurity strategy based on the principle that no user or device should be trusted by default, whether inside or outside the organization’s perimeter. 

Instead, all internal and external entities requiring IT systems or workload access should be continuously verified and authenticated.

This guideline brings with it the principle of "never trust, always verify," replacing the mindset of "trust but verify." But how can you use Zero Trust-based models to boost your company's cybersecurity?

To answer this and other questions, we have developed this article to explore what Zero Trust is, its benefits and challenges, and how PAM helps enforce the principle.

Zero Trust: What is it?

The Zero Trust security model is a term coined by Forrester Research analyst John Kindervag in 2010. At that time, a strategic shift was proposed in terms of cybersecurity: instead of "trust but verify," the focus became "never trust, always verify."

In practice, this means that when giving a resource access to a user or device, their identity must be verified before access is granted. This applies to anyone using a network, whether an employee using a company computer at home or even using their personal mobile device to access organizational resources.

Moreover, the identity must be verified every time a resource is used within the infrastructure, regardless of how often the entity has used it.

In the past, cybersecurity often focused solely on protecting what was inside the network. However, with the rise of remote work, it's become clear that this approach isn't sufficient anymore.

Malicious users and agents can be both inside and outside the company premises, so it is important to monitor everything susceptible to a cyberattack using Zero Trust solutions.

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Rogério Godoy, CMO at senhasegura, defines Zero Trust in this brief 1 min. 30 sec. video:

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7 Principles of the Zero Trust Security Model

The Zero Trust security model is built on several key principles that ensure organizational security, including:

1. Zero Trust Workloads

Workloads stored in the cloud, including those based on assets such as containers, functions, and Virtual Machines, are attractive to malicious attackers and, therefore, require extra protection.

Granular and customized zero-trust security monitoring and access management are essential to secure these assets, especially in public cloud environments.

2. Zero Trust Networks

Defending the traditional dependency perimeter is insufficient to ensure a Zero Trust security policy. The ideal approach is to use a Zero Trust-Based micro-segmented network. In such a network, perimeters are established around each of the company's critical assets.

This allows for security inspections and access controls, facilitating the blocking of lateral threat movements and containing potential breaches.

3. Zero Trust People

Human users are the leading cause of data breaches. Therefore, authentication based on usernames and passwords alone is insufficient to provide IT system security. Instead, mechanisms such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) should be adopted.

4. Zero Trust Data

One of the main purposes of a Zero Trust security policy is to enhance data security.

Implementing the Zero Trust security model requires detecting silos of confidential or critical data, mapping common data flows, and defining access requirements based on business needs.

These criteria must be consistently applied across the company’s IT systems, including mobile devices, workstations, application servers, databases, and cloud deployments.

5. Zero Trust Devices

In a Zero Trust security model, devices should be treated as untrusted or potential threats. As threats, they should be isolated from all others to prevent compromise.

6. Visibility and Analytics

A Zero Trust security model should provide informed access decisions based on extensive visibility of devices used in the corporate network.

Zero Trust security should be capable of monitoring, recording, correlating, and analyzing all data collected from the network.

7. Automation and Orchestration

A Zero Trust strategy enables the identification of unauthorized and potentially malicious actions within the corporate environment. The Zero Trust architecture, corporate security infrastructure, and IT architecture must be integrated to offer a rapid, automated, and scalable incident response.

What are the Challenges in Implementing Zero Trust?

Despite its numerous benefits, which we will discuss below, implementing Zero Trust solutions can be challenging and may encounter resistance within companies.

Complex Infrastructures

Some companies have infrastructures composed of many servers, databases, proxies, internal applications, and SaaS solutions, some running in the cloud and others locally.

Protecting these segments or deciding on a local or cloud environment to secure them can create hurdles, especially when trying to protect a mix of legacy and new software and hardware.

Effort and Cost

Implementing a Zero Trust security model requires time, effort, and financial resources.

Determining work network segmentation, deciding who should have access to which areas, and evaluating the best ways to verify each entity’s legitimacy before granting access demands careful assessment.

Hiring professionals to efficiently manage this process often requires significant financial investment.

Flexible Software

The flexibility of software to implement the Zero Trust system is another key consideration. It may be necessary to incorporate various microsegmentation features, identity-aware proxies, and software-defined perimeter (SDP) tools.

Acquiring redundant systems to cover all environment elements may become imperative without flexible software.

What are the Benefits of Zero Trust?

Adopting the Zero Trust security model is crucial for modern companies seeking digital security. Its advantages include:

• Control of lateral network movement and reduction of the attack surface, leading to decreased cyberattack risks.
• Enhanced cybersecurity and support for mobile and remote employees.
• Protection of applications and data, whether on-premises or in the cloud.
• Strong prevention against Advanced Persistent Threats (APT).

How to Implement Zero Trust in an Organization

Implementing Zero Trust in an organization involves five essential steps to establish a reliable level of data loss prevention and breach prevention:

Step 1: Define Areas to Protect

Firstly, define the attack surface to prioritize areas needing protection to avoid an overwhelming tool deployment across the network. Identify critical assets and focus on protecting those.

Step 2: Implement Controls on Network Traffic

The next step involves implementing controls around network traffic, and understanding how traffic flows across your network and the dependencies each system uses.

Many systems, for example, may need to access a customer information database, making understanding these details crucial for choosing and positioning network controls.

Step 3: Design a Zero Trust Network

Next, design a Zero Trust network architecture. Keep in mind that no single Zero Trust solution fits all needs. 

Your architecture could start with a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) to segment a network area. Consider implementing Multi-Factor Authentication so users are evaluated before gaining access.

Step 4: Develop Zero Trust Policies

Design Zero Trust policies using the Kipling Method, asking who, what, when, where, why, and how for each user, device, and network seeking access.

Step 5: Monitor the Network

Finally, it’s time to monitor your network, staying alert for possible failures and accessing critical information that safeguards your security.

‍Zero Trust and PAM: How Are They Related?

Integrated with the Zero Trust security model, Privileged Access Management (PAM) provides cybersecurity for organizations using senhasegura.

Its purpose is to enable centralized access management by controlling, storing, segregating, and tracking IT system credentials.

This way, you can verify if the access is genuinely performed by an authorized user with legitimate permissions.

The main PAM features that enable organizations to apply Zero Trust practices include:

• Credential Management: Allows you to define administrators and user groups, stipulating their accesses and permissions and managing the full lifecycle of their credentials
• Access Segregation: Enables the isolation of critical environments, detection of suspicious activities, and prevention of issues stemming from unauthorized access
• Approval Workflows: Access requests through PAM are easily configurable and allow for multi-level approval workflows and validation of justifications provided by requesters
• User Action Monitoring: Capable of identifying and responding to changes in user behavior patterns and access profiles
• Unauthorized Access: Denies access to users outside the company’s policies;
• Action Analysis: Analyzes user activities and generates alerts to detect inappropriate actions or fraud
• Session Blocking: The administrator can block user sessions in IT environments or operating systems whenever suspicious activities occur

About senhasegura PAM

senhasegura PAM enables secure and simplified management of generic and privileged credentials, ensuring protected storage, access segregation, and usage traceability.

This tool allows organizations to adopt Zero Trust and comply with the strictest access control requirements for privileged credentials in an automated and centralized manner, preventing cyberattacks and information leaks.

Check out some of its benefits for your company:

• Control over misuse of privileges.
• Secure management of encoded passwords.
• Protection against insider threats and the theft of critical data.
• Monitoring and recording activities during privileged sessions.
• Automatic password reset based on a predefined schedule.
• Simplified audit report generation from a central audit data repository

Conclusion

In this article, you learned:

• The Zero Trust security concept is a cybersecurity strategy based on the principle that no user or device can be trusted by default, whether inside or outside an organization’s perimeter.
• This guideline is rooted in the principle of "never trust, always verify," replacing the more outdated  "trust but verify” mindset.
• The Zero Trust security model was introduced by Forrester Research analyst John Kindervag in 2010.
• Previously, cybersecurity often involved protecting only what was within the network. However, this approach has proven inadequate in the era of remote work.
• The Zero Trust security model incorporates five basic principles: Zero Trust workloads, Zero Trust networks, Zero Trust people, and Zero Trust data.
• Implementing the Zero Trust security model requires detecting silos of confidential or critical data, mapping common data flows, and defining access requirements based on business needs.
• In a Zero Trust model, devices should be treated as untrusted or potential threats.
• A Zero Trust security model should provide informed access decisions based on comprehensive visibility of the devices used in the corporate network.
• A Zero Trust strategy enables identifying unauthorized and potentially malicious actions within the corporate environment.
• Despite its numerous benefits, implementing Zero Trust solutions faces challenges and may encounter resistance within companies.
• Key challenges include complex infrastructures, effort and cost, and software flexibility.
• Zero Trust benefits include control over lateral movement in the network and reduced attack surface, consequently lowering cyberattack risks, and strong prevention against Advanced Persistent Threats (APT).
• The first step in implementing Zero Trust in an organization is defining the attack surface to prioritize areas that need protection.
• The next step is to implement controls around network traffic, understanding the dependencies each system uses.
• It's crucial to understand there is never a single Zero Trust solution for all surfaces around which they are designed.
• After designing the network, it’s time to develop Zero Trust policies using the Kipling Method.
• Finally, monitor your network, staying alert for possible failures and accessing critical security information.
• Integrated with the Zero Trust security model, PAM provides cybersecurity and centralized access management for organizations using senhasegura.
• PAM aims to enable centralized access management through the control, storage, segregation, and tracking of IT system credentials.
• senhasegura PAM allows secure and simplified management of generic and privileged credentials, ensuring protected storage, access segregation, and usage traceability.