Vishal Pratap Singh | Friday, 01 April 2022, 17:53 IST
Zero Trust Architecture is everywhere and it will change the way people undertake security. Zero Trust was created based on the realization that traditional security models operate on the outdated assumption that everything inside an organization’s network should be implicitly trusted. “This implicit trust means that once on the network, users including threat actors and malicious insiders are free to move laterally and access or withdraws sensitive data due to a lack of granular security controls”, says Rama Vedashree, CEO, Data Security Council of India.
In the post COVID-19 scenario, the global zero trust security market size is projected to grow from USD 19.6 billion in 2020 to USD 51.6 billion by 2026, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4 per cent from 2020 to 2026. Industry experts believe that if done correctly, a Zero Trust Architecture results in higher overall levels of security, but also in reduced security complexity and operational overhead.
Provides Simple Network Infrastructure
With more mobile users connecting unmanaged devices to business apps over the internet, there’s a growing need for zero trust security. When users can’t trust the connection, device or network, zero trust sounds like a great idea but it’s difficult to implement effectively without being absolutely clear on what it actually means. A well-tuned zero trust architecture leads to simpler network infrastructure, a better user experience and improved cyber-threat defence.
Helps in Reducing Business and Organisational Risk
Zero trust solutions stop all applications and services from communicating until they are verified by their identity attributes and immutable properties that meet predefined trust principles, such as authentication and authorization requirements. Therefore, it can be said that zero trust helps in reducing risk because it uncovers what’s on the network and how these assets are communicating. As baselines are established, a zero trust strategy further reduces risk by eliminating overprovisioned software and services as well as continuously checking the credentials of every communicating asset.
Gains Access Control over Cloud and Container Environments
Access management and loss of visibility are security practitioners’ greatest fears about moving to the cloud. Despite enhancements in Cloud Service Provider (CSP) security, workload security remains a shared responsibility between your organisation and the CSP. That said, there’s only so much one can affect inside the CSP’s cloud.
With zero trust security architecture, security policies are applied based on the identity of communicating workloads and tied directly to the workloads themselves. This keeps security as close as possible to the assets that need protection, unaffected by network constructs like IP addresses, ports and protocols. Protection travels with the workload and remains constant even as the environment changes.
Helps to Reduce the Risk of Data Breach
Mainly, all the entities are assumed hostile by following the principle of least privilege. Every request is inspected, all the users and devices are authenticated and permissions are assessed before trust is granted. This trust is then continually reassessed as context changes, such as the user'’ location or the data being accessed.
Professionals say that without trust, even if an attacker gets inside the user’s network or cloud instance through a compromised device or any other vulnerability, he won’t be able to access or steal the data of user. Moreover, because the zero trust model creates a ‘secure segment of one’ with no way to move laterally, the attacker will have no option to go anywhere.
Supports Initiatives of Compliance
Zero Trust Architecture shields all user and workload connections from the internet. Due to this shielding, user connection can’t be exposed or exploited. This invisibility makes it easier to demonstrate compliance with privacy standards and regulations and thus results in fewer findings during audits. Implementing zero trust micro-segmentation enables the users to create perimeters around certain types of sensitive data such as data backups and payment card data using fine grained controls to separate regulated and non-regulated data.
During audits or in the event of a data breach, micro-segmentation provides superior visibility and control compared to the over privileged access of many flat network architectures. Some veterans from the industry feel that it’s important to recognise that zero trust architecture underpins the entire security solution. Technologies and processes are layered on top of the strategy, not the other way around.
Future of Zero Trust Maintenance
In the coming years, almost all the organisations are going to implement tools such as Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) and similar technologies. Implementing zero trust architecture with careful planning will make the cloud a more manageable place for any organisation. The use of ZTNA, IAM and MFA can prevent unwanted events from occurring. New compute instances or storage buckets cannot just pop-up like weeds in unpredictable locations. Zero trust will cultivate them into domesticated plants confined to well- defined flowerpots.
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