Zero Trust Security Model Explained as a new way of thinking about security. It is based on the observation that security models built around the concept of “trusted” networks and users are becoming obsolete. The Zero Trust Security Model uses modern technology to create a more secure environment for organizations.
Zero Trust Security Model Background
The Zero Trust Security Model was developed by Forrester Research. And its authors Bill Pollino, Avivah Litan, and Peter Firstbrook based on the findings of their research on the evolution of enterprise security.
Modern computer networks redistribute trust at an incredible rate. Hence, makes it hard to maintain an accurate balance of trust between internal resources. And external resources like partners, suppliers, customers, employees, and mobile devices.
Security problems
This creates several security problems:
The more you redistribute trust, the more frequently you must change your security policies. So, to keep up with the changing balance of trust. The bigger your network, the more difficult it is to keep track of all the changes in trust; It becomes more difficult to ensure that all your policies are properly configured.
Also, it becomes harder for a single person or organization to keep track of everything that happens in your environment. So, it becomes harder for a single person or organization to keep track of everything that happens in your environment. It becomes harder to identify where attacks come from when they occur.
The Zero Trust Security Model is designed to solve these problems. It assumes that you no longer have any idea who can be trusted on your network or what they are doing there. You need to treat everybody as a potential attacker. Whether it’s your employees or customers, an army of script kiddies looking for juicy targets, or even a rogue insider.
This means you can’t afford to let any traffic into your network. Moreso, without being certain that it’s legitimate and not being used as a vehicle for an attack against your network. You need strong authentication before letting anybody onto your network. And strong authorization before letting anybody do anything once they’re there.
Solutions
Strong authentication: You can’t just take somebody at their word anymore. Because you have no way of knowing whether they really are who they say they are. Instead, you need some other way of verifying their identity. Like checking a fingerprint or using a smart card or USB token.
Strong authorization: Once somebody has authenticated to prove their identity, you need to be certain that they’re authorized to do whatever it is they’re trying to do. You can’t allow them access to anything they shouldn’t have access to, regardless of who they are.
Further, you can’t assume that anybody who has been properly authenticated and authorized for one thing is also properly authenticated and authorized for everything else. You must assume that if somebody is on your network, they could be trying to hack it, so anything you allow them to do must be authorized as well.
The perimeter is dead: If you must treat every single visitor to your network as potentially hostile, then there is no longer any such thing as a perimeter – because the perimeter is where you used to put all your protection devices like firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), anti-virus software, etc. The Zero Trust Security Model proposes collapsing the traditional network perimeter into a “virtual” perimeter that surrounds the entire network instead of just one part of it.
Zero Trust Security Model Advantages
With the Zero Trust Security Model, organizations can create an environment where security policies can be consistently applied across the entire enterprise – including cloud resources as well as on-premise assets like laptops and smartphones.
It enables organizations to implement security policies that are more effective. Because they are consistent across the entire organization; It provides consistent application of critical security policies. Such as multi-factor authentication and authorization. Also, it enables organizations to reduce staff training requirements. Because users only need to understand their own role in the system. It allows organizations to reduce user inconvenience by eliminating the need for passwords on mobile.