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The Importance of Zero Trust Architecture in Protecting Critical Data

Zoom Local News > Business > The Importance of Zero Trust Architecture in Protecting Critical Data

The Importance of Zero Trust Architecture in Protecting Critical Data

Zero trust is widely regarded as the best way to prevent data breaches. The framework focuses on protecting enterprise networks, workflows, and devices to stop cyber attackers from accessing critical data.

Zero trust also requires continuous verification of all access to minimize risk and the “blast radius” should a breach occur. It addresses modern challenges, including securing remote workers and hybrid cloud environments.

Authentication

Zero trust combines network architecture with the security policy to create a “never trust, always verify” framework. This framework enables organizations to securely access applications, devices, and cloud services from anywhere in the world – including outside the corporate network – without compromising an organization’s critical data.

Zero trust architecture requires every user, device, and application to be authenticated, authorized, and verified before they have full network access. The framework uses a separation of planes to manage the network. It allows for fine-grained security policies based on application, identity, and device, including multi-factor authentication, profiling, and posture checking.

In addition, zero trust prevents lateral movement within the network by restricting access to specific systems and apps. This approach also helps limit the scope of credentials and the paths for attackers to steal information, minimizing damage should they gain access to the company’s data.

This type of security provides the first defense against hackers, cybersecurity threats, and other unwanted actors. By enforcing strict identity verification guidelines for users, devices, and applications, zero trust ensures that even if an attacker gains access to the corporate network via a perimeter breach, misconfiguration, or other attack vectors, they can only access limited data and resources.

Access Control

Zero trust security model context, access control is where the rubber meets the road in preventing data breaches. Since modern organizations have their data strewn across SaaS applications, cloud services, and on-premise networks, access control is critical to prevent attackers from moving laterally within the network to access sensitive data.

Authentication and access control should be based on the principle of least privilege so that users and devices only get what they need and nothing more. This way, even if an end-user account is compromised by malware or ransomware, the attack won’t spread outside the restricted data and systems.

Another critical component of access control is monitoring and logging. In addition to ensuring that only the right people have access, this provides visibility into network activity and the ability to flag suspicious activities (such as uploading files or sending emails from an untrusted source) in real-time.

Finally, zero trust requires that access be based on the identity of communicating workloads rather than network constructs like IP addresses and ports. This approach ensures that security is positioned close to the data needing protection. This is essential in an environment where attackers are growing more sophisticated and have access to well-funded teams of professionals and specialized tools. For example, zero trust will ensure that access to customer-facing apps or back-end database servers is approved based on real-time evaluation of the behavior and identity of the inquiring party.

Network Segmentation

Network segmentation best practices are crucial for zero trust security, as they limit the scope of any breach in case a threat penetrates your firewalls. It also helps to keep vulnerable systems secure by preventing malware from spreading or embedding devices that are difficult to update and protecting the data and equipment stored in them.

Segmentation allows your network to be divided into distinct segments that communicate only with each other, requiring all traffic to pass through an external demarcation point (typically a firewall) to be inspected or secured by security policies. Using network segmentation, you can also apply the principle of least privilege for users and machines to ensure that access is granted only on a need-to-know basis. It is also a great way to limit access to devices that are more likely to be compromised, like IoT or industrial systems, which are typically prone to breaches and a lack of regular updates.

Zero trust takes the defense-in-depth philosophy to a new level by removing network location as a position of advantage and replacing it with an identity-based security posture. This means that a threat will likely be detected and stopped once it has gained entry. By implementing micro-segmentation, robust authentication methods, and limiting access to critical assets with granular policies, zero trust ensures that any breach is limited in scope and confined to a small area that can be isolated and repaired.

Detection

Zero trust takes a different approach to network security. Instead of assuming everything inside the perimeter is trusted, all users, devices, and applications are treated as hostile until verified and authenticated. This prevents the attacker from moving laterally within your system or stealing critical data because they never gain unfettered access to your data or systems.

This is a significant departure from the traditional network security architecture that has relied on secure perimeters and approved IP addresses to verify users and networks. Zero trust models enable business processes without blocking or slowing down legitimate traffic. Zero trust also allows monitoring of all activities and resources to detect suspicious behavior that could indicate a cyberattack.

This is made possible by micro-segmentation, which separates regulated from non-regulated data. This provides superior visibility and control compared to the overprivileged access of flat network architectures. It also makes it easier to demonstrate compliance with privacy and regulatory standards. Zero trust also helps to limit damage from breaches because it restricts access to compromised users or systems, reducing the likelihood that they can spread malicious code and cause more damage. Continuous monitoring of devices and users is essential, with granular context-based policies validating user access privileges. This allows you to track the time, location, and application involved in each access request.