What is zero trust security? How does this work? And how can companies and organizations today benefit from this? Find out below.
What Is Zero Trust Security?
Zero trust security refers to a security paradigm in which the concept of “trust” is removed from all elements of the IT environment. Trust is a critical element of traditional security, especially in environments that rely on single sign-on (SSO).
SSO is based on the idea that you can assume that any user who authenticates to an SSO system will be exactly who they say they are. Then, zero trust security shifts the paradigm away from the trust, which can be a dangerous assumption when dealing with an increasingly complex threat landscape. Then, this environment is one in which every element of the IT environment is assumed to be untrusted.
Further, this kind of security assumes that every device, user, and application is malicious until proven otherwise. So why remove trust? And how does this work?
The problem with trust is that it can lead to a false sense of security. This occurs when organizations and companies assume that their security posture is better than it is. They do this based on unrealistic assumptions about the true state of their security posture and the threats they face. In other words, they assume everything will work as expected and have no idea if this is true or not.
Zero trust eliminates this false sense of security. Because it requires organizations to acknowledge their true state as it pertains to IT security. By doing so, they can have a more realistic view of their security posture. And then take appropriate action to improve it if necessary.
How Does Zero Trust Security Work?
How does zero trust work? This question has several answers, depending on the context you are examining it in. For example, there are different ways to approach zero trust for the endpoint and the network. The following two sections describe how zero trust works in each case.
Then, the endpoint approach to zero trust is based on the idea that you cannot rely on any user or device being who they say they are. Because there are too many ways for them to spoof identity using stolen or compromised credentials or malicious software like rootkits and keyloggers.
Instead, you must verify who each user and device are before allowing access to your organization’s resources. You must also verify what each user and device do after accessing your resources. So that you know whether or not their actions are authorized or malicious.
Thus, this concept requires organizations to adopt a multi-faceted approach to identity and device verification. Which can be complex, depending on the technologies and services they use. Organizations must also have the ability to enforce authorization policies once identities and devices are verified.
Conclusion
As you can see, it is hard to do zero trust security. But it is necessary for any organization that needs to defend against the advanced threats they face today. If you need help implementing zero trust security in your organization, comment down below.