What is Zero Trust Architecture?

Zero Trust is a security methodology that assumes all systems, networks, and people are untrustworthy. It necessitates ongoing verification of devices, users, and apps. Zero Trust Architecture is built using interconnected solutions that adhere to Zero Trust principles. 

What is the Zero Trust model?

Zero Trust is a security strategy that requires all users, both within and outside the organization's network, to be continually authenticated, authorized, and verified before gaining access to network applications and data.

Zero Trust presupposes there is no typical network edge; networks might be local, cloud-based, or hybrid.

What are the three principles of Zero Trust?

The technical specifications of different frameworks and models may differ, but they all follow a basic set of Zero Trust principles: 

Continuous monitoring and validation

Zero Trust means that all network assets are inaccessible by default. To get access to any resources, users, devices, and workloads must pass continuous, contextual authentication and validation checks, which must be performed each time a connection is requested.

Dynamic access control rules make decisions on whether to authorize requests based on data points such a user's rights, physical location, device health status, threat intelligence, and odd behavior. Connections are constantly checked and must be reauthenticated to maintain the session.

The concept of least privilege

In a Zero Trust environment, users and devices have access to resources with the least privilege. This means they are granted the bare minimum of authorization needed to execute a job or perform their position. Those rights are withdrawn after the session ends. 

Managing permissions in this manner reduces threat actors' capacity to get access to other parts of the network.

Assume breach

In a Zero Trust infrastructure, security teams believe that hackers have already compromised network assets. Actions that security teams often do to minimize an ongoing cyberattack become regular operating procedures. These steps include network segmentation to limit the reach of an attack, network monitoring of every asset, user, device, process, and real-time response to anomalous user or device behaviors.

Zero Trust Architecture workflow

Zero Trust Architecture is based on the premise that no person or device should be trusted by default, even if they are located within the network perimeter. The procedure starts with strict user and device authentication, during which identities are validated using methods such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and devices are reviewed for compliance with security regulations. Once an access request is sent, it is reviewed based on contextual criteria such as the user's role, location, and device health, while adhering to the concept of least privilege to ensure that users only access resources required for their work. The network is separated into smaller, isolated parts using micro-segmentation, which limits lateral movement and enforces tight security regulations on each segment. 

Continuous monitoring and behavioral analytics are used to detect odd activity or possible threats, and dynamic access choices are made in real time based on this information. Data is encrypted, and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) techniques prevent sensitive information from being accessed or moved unlawfully. When a threat is recognized, automatic responses are initiated to reduce the risk, followed by a full investigation and recovery procedure. The architecture is constantly enhanced, with security policies updated on a regular basis and users and devices revalidated to ensure the system's resilience against changing threats.