Corporate executives and stakeholders demand better security with threats ranging from malware and ransomware to insider attacks.
In response, many organizations are moving toward identity-based architectures that support business agility while enhancing protection.
However, this new identity-based approach requires a culture change at all levels of the organization. This means teams must implement new technologies, working methods, and policies that promote zero-trust principles.
Security
A zero-trust network access provider protects your business from security threats by limiting access to data and systems only to those with the proper credentials. Unlike traditional firewalls and other security measures that only keep attackers and cybercriminals outside the network, Zero trust takes a more strategic approach to protect critical systems and data.
Organizations need to take a series of security measures to implement and operate a zero-trust network effectively. These include implementing infrastructure, limiting data access, and monitoring user behavior.
In addition, businesses should ensure that their security solutions comply with NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) SP 800-207 standards. These standards were developed to ensure that businesses can prevent cybersecurity breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive data.
Next, monitoring user behavior and preventing security incidents such as phishing attacks and malicious insiders from gaining access to data or networks is essential. These security issues are mainly due to human error and can be prevented with a robust and comprehensive security strategy.
Lastly, businesses should employ advanced real-time threat detection and analytics to identify abnormal behavior. This can prevent cyber criminals from launching successful attack campaigns, minimizing the impact on your business.
These security measures are necessary to implement a zero-trust network effectively, but they can be costly if you need the right resources and technologies. Choosing a security solution that best meets your business needs and supports the zero-trust network model is essential.
Flexibility
Flexibility is adjusting your security program to your unique business and security challenges. In cyber threats, flexibility is an essential tool that can help you reduce your attack surface and protect your assets while reducing costs and complexity.
The most effective zero trust network access providers can quickly adapt their security policies to match your needs. These vendors can make a Zero Trust approach much easier and more efficient to implement, saving you time and money while giving you peace of mind that your data is protected.
Moreover, they can enable you to secure applications and data at any location or device. The ability to control who can connect to your company’s applications and data is critical to reducing risk, preventing lateral movement of malicious devices, and protecting against device-to-device attacks.
In addition to reducing risk, ZTNAs can also reduce your reliance on VPNs and other complex security solutions to implement and manage. These technologies will allow you to grant granular, context-aware access based on user identity, device identity, and other factors.
To achieve the most granular access possible, your ZTNA technology must consider user and device-specific characteristics, such as biometrics, MFA, certification, and context. This will enable you to ensure that users and devices are always matched with their correct permissions. It can prevent end-users from recycling passwords or other authentication methods that increase security risk. Moreover, it will enable you to revoke or deny user access and monitor their behavior using complementary technologies such as behavioral threat analytics.
Compliance
As a business, you must understand your compliance obligations when using a zero-trust network access provider. It’s a complex area, and you may need an experienced provider with a track record of delivering secure access to applications, networks, and cloud resources in an automated and efficient manner.
Whether your organization is a government agency, a financial services company, or a consumer-facing retail brand, you must mitigate the risks of cyberattacks and data breaches. These measures include identifying all applications, devices, and networks on your IT landscape, implementing micro or identity-based segmentation, and auditing how sensitive information is stored and accessed.
Security solutions that meet the compliance requirements of a ZTNA should also provide you with visibility into all user and device activities on your network, including connected IoT devices. This visibility will help you determine what data is being shared and used and who is accessing it.
With so many potential threats to a corporate network, it’s essential to protect all of your assets from external attacks by deploying a zero-trust solution. This will limit the damage of an attack and allow you to demonstrate that your organization took all reasonable steps to secure your data and infrastructure against hackers.
As a result, your network should be protected against lateral movement by constantly monitoring all connections and terminating permissions once users are detected. This will keep attackers from continuing to access your network after a security alert has noticed them. The process can be tedious and time-consuming, but it’s worth the effort. It’s a cost-effective way to reduce the risk of security breaches and avoid costly fines.
Deployment
A zero-trust network access provider can help organizations implement security and compliance policies, protect against malware, and reduce the risk of data breaches. These measures include ensuring that endpoints, devices, and apps are securely managed, properly configured, and kept up to date.
Finding a vendor that understands the unique challenges associated with zero-trust deployment is essential. This includes securing cloud-based applications, separating trust from the network, and externalizing apps and workflow.
The best ZTNA providers also offer endpoint verification, enabling IT teams to monitor and verify every user’s device and connected machine. This helps to ensure that employees have the access they need while preventing them from accidentally using a compromised system and infecting other users.
In addition to monitoring, it is essential to keep endpoints and other devices updated with patches to mitigate vulnerabilities. This helps to reduce the risk of malicious software, such as ransomware spreading across your network.
It is also critical to apply the principle of least privilege to all endpoints and devices. This minimizes the damage if an end-user account is compromised and makes it easier to detect lateral movement.
Additionally, it is essential to create adaptive access policies based on your resources’ sensitivity and security state. These policies can require a specific software version, encryption, or step-up authentication based on user behavior.
Lastly, it is essential to deploy ZTNA in an optimized way. This involves implementing a Zero Trust network access solution within a broader security framework called Secure Access Services (SASE). SASE provides consistent, comprehensive security and network protection for all your resources, no matter where they are located or how they access them.
Automation
A zero-trust network access provider is an enterprise IT security solution that adheres to the zero-trust security model. A business must verify the identity of every user and device trying to access network resources. This is a critical step in preventing data breaches and improving security.
The modern IT environment has a variety of endpoints, including third-party devices, guest devices, and employee-owned devices that access work data. These unmanaged devices may have different configurations and software patch levels, which makes them an attack surface.
As a result, many businesses use zero-trust technology to protect these diverse endpoints. This approach uses robust authentication methods, a segmented network, and Layer 7 threat prevention to secure modern environments and enable digital transformation by eliminating implicit trust and continuously validating every stage of digital interaction.
In addition to a strong network security strategy, implementing zero trust requires a scalable solution to handle the growing number of endpoints and users accessing digital assets. This is because endpoints can come from various sources, and the software they run on must be verified constantly.
With this in mind, selecting a zero-trust network access provider that offers a range of solutions and support options is essential. These options include standalone services and SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platforms that combine networking, security, and access control technologies to simplify zero-trust implementation.
Implementing zero trust can require time, effort, and a significant investment of human and financial resources. It also requires a detailed understanding of your assets and the areas you must protect. It also requires a network access control (NAC) system to monitor and track traffic moving across the entire network.