Why zero-trust security

Five tenets of defence

Companies interact with external entities and access outside systems every day. This is a must-do to collaborate, survive, and reach digital customers—but it also introduces new vulnerabilities. 

According to the US Treasury, enterprises forked out over $600 million in ransomware-related payments during the first half of 2021.  One thing is clear: every organization’s security system should be stronger than ever to ward off threats. And these systems must be based on five tenets.

• Evolve with the pace of digital transformation
• Protect distributed business-sensitive data
• Meet data security and privacy regulations
• Achieve convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT)
• Secure technologies such as 5G, cloud, XaaS, and IoT

Zero-trust security and cyber resilience solution is an upgraded model–where nothing is left to chance and the architecture itself is context-aware, risk-driven, and adaptive enough to counter modern threats. This type of model can enable businesses to confidently pursue digital transformation without the fear of security breaches and reduce time-to-value.

Start with the basics 

Zero-trust security is centered on preventing unauthorized access to digital resources.

We suggest implementing an organized control system for every access request using a trust broker that validates authorization and authentication at every level. 

But a trust broker is just the start. The following best practices will help you on your zero-trust security journey: 

• Resource visibility: Ensure visibility into the resources you need to protect, and eliminate security blind spots.
• Zero-attack surface (micro-perimeter): Prevent unauthorized human or non-human access by enforcing right access controls. 
• Principle of least privilege: Provide minimum access and permissions to employees  to deliver required business outcomes. Segregation of duties must be enforced to avoid conflict in access.
• Data-centric security: Move the security and privacy controls closer to data as it moves across internal and external security boundaries.
• Risk-driven approach: Identify critical risks and create a customizable IT risk roadmap that can adapt to changing threat landscape.
• Security visibility and analytics: Ensure all key security events in networks, workloads, and security components are logged, centrally correlated, and analyzed to derive insights using SIEM (security information and event management) and UEBA (user and entity behavior analytics) technologies. This will fine-tune security policies for adaptive security controls and expedite breach investigations.
• Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR): Automate incident response processes and auto reconfigure security devices. While still in the early stages of maturity, SOAR tools and technologies provide the latest weapon in the zero-trust security armor.

Adopt best practices 

Implement an end-to-end zero-trust security model to elevate cyber defence.

While the above-listed principles form the building blocks of zero-trust security, implementing them enterprise-wide can be complex—particularly while transforming existing cyber security practices and culture. Follow these best practices to mitigate common roadblocks:

• Focus on cyber hygiene: Maintain basic cyber hygiene before planning zero-trust security adoption. The basic six controls outlined by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) can be a good starting point.

• Holistic zero-trust strategy: Assess, reuse, replace, and/or rebuild existing security solution options. Prioritize adoption basis business requirement, transformation roadmap, availability of security controls, investment, and enterprise threat exposure.

• In-built security controls: Zero-trust security must be integrated with overall enterprise transformation journey to ensure effective implementation and avoid being pushed back as an afterthought. 

• Continuous review and enhancement: Protect your ecosystems by setting up regular review cycles.

• Frictionless user experience: Ensure a highly responsive trust broker solution component while evaluating complex access policies in real-time.