Zero Trust is a new cybersecurity measure sweeping the business world and tech industry. Like any new technology, businesses often hear of Zero Trust long before they understand or know how to implement it. Many organizations are still unfamiliar with the Zero Trust framework and its benefits, but there is a reason this new approach to data security has become the hot new thing that everyone should be implementing. It’s not a fad, it’s a new method for internal data security.
What is Zero Trust?
Zero Trust is not software or a platform, it’s a cybersecurity model based on the philosophy of “Never Trust, Always Verify.”
Let’s break that down in terms of data. “Trust” is when an account is allowed to access a secure file because the account is familiar. “We know you, and you can see our data”. Zero Trust takes the position that any account could be hacked, any action could be malfeasance, and authorization should only be granted where it is necessary – and removed when that necessity ends. Zero-Trust seeks to verify authorization at every access point – removing the possibility of company data being accessed by unauthorized accounts, hacked accounts, or stolen connected devices.
Zero Trust is also known as perimeterless security because it relies on authorization instead of firewalls and protected networks.
Never Trust and the Principle of Least Privilege
The Principle of Least Privilege or “least privilege” for short is at the core of Zero Trust. This principle says each employee, contractor, and client should only have access to what they need to access. Additional access is just an opportunity for mistakes and worse. Marketing teams don’t need access to payroll documents – and shouldn’t have that access. When an employee moves to a new team, they should gain access to the new team’s documents, but lose access to their old team’s files. Even account managers should only have access to the private information of their own assigned accounts.
This is how least privilege works, including removing authorization when access is no longer needed.
Application Whitelisting and Ring Fencing
Least privilege extends to applications as well as data. A good Zero trust implementation assures users get only allowed applications and are not allowed to install or add application without verified permission. When implemented by Rose Computers, each application is locked down to specific allowed behaviors, and not allowed to interact with other applications or data regardless of the credentials used to run the application.
Always Verify and the Effort to Keep Accounts Secure
Always Verify entails checking both the authorization and the legitimate connection of any account seeking access to any company data. An authorized employee will pass every verification with only a slight delay to ensure their access is legitimate. However, a hacked account might immediately throw location red flags, fail to 2-factor authenticate, and when this happens – access was never granted because it is denied by default.
“Always verify” may catch family members or thieves who pick up a logged-in laptop. It can also detect when a valid employee is trying to access data they are not authorized to access. This can trigger a red-flag for behavior or a reasonable request for access.
Zero trust allows exactly as much access as each person needs, while reducing the number of endpoints that are left open – which means fewer opportunities for a cyber attack.
Why You Need Zero Trust
Zero trust is among the newest and most effective cybersecurity methods in the industry. It is the pinnacle of cloud-ready, dispersed-network security that does not require businesses to know where employees are connecting from to maintain absolute security over internal data, platform access, and operations.
Zero trust also protects against attacks that are becoming increasingly complex. Threat hunting alone is no longer effective. With Zero Trust, all access is checked, and access is locked out without specific authorization keys.
Because Zero Trust is a methodology and not a program, it can be used easily alongside other security methods for a broad and complete defensive strategy. Zero trust places the emphasis on cybersecurity’s biggest weak point – human access – and provides the protections necessary to both keep hackers from causing problems and to keep employees out of trouble with more access than they need.
How Rose Computer Technology Services can Help
Here at Rose CTS, our technicians are on the cutting edge of zero-trust implementation and the strategies for building this approach into existing business security infrastructure. We are pleased to announce that Rose Computer Technology Services has received the CompTIA Security Trustmark+ from CompTIA, the non-profit association for world’s information technology (IT) industry. You can easily implement the most advanced cybersecurity measure in the industry by partnering with Rose to build your Zero Trust architecture.