Zero Trust Network: What is It and How to Implement It

Cybersecurity has become the ultimate concern for many enterprises and tech industries out there and why wouldn't it be; the emerging threats in the form of breaches and data theft is not something to be endured. Because the damage that is sustained by this cross millions of dollars and worst of all the reputation of the business gets damaged which is something that can't be repaired easily. That is why various actions are taken by enterprises to make things better and to secure their assets; implementation of the zero-trust network is one of them.

Zero trust network; An impressionable need or unnecessary hype?

If you are not familiar with what this is, here is a quick explanation; A zero-trust network means that no one within or outside of a dedicated enterprise can be trusted with handling of company's assets (data and other relative information) as well as using its resources such as network, communication-based elements or any other digital resource. That is why authentication is required each and every time an employee or some outsider needs access to certain privileges, assets, or resources of the intended company. This added layer of security might come out as rude among customers and employees but it has in reality brought a lot of benefits on the table.

A dedicated process has been implemented that needs to be thoroughly followed by the employees and clients to access a resource from the company which has resulted in fewer data breaches and similar events over time. It has almost become rudimentary to implement a zero-trust network among tech companies to limit data breaches and ensuring smooth business operations at all times. If you want to implement this policy but are not so certain about doing so then you have come to the right place. Following is a detailed guide that can help you with that;

Defining the protect surface

There are two possible surfaces; one of them is the attack surface and the other one is known as the protect surface. No matter how tirelessly you try to work your way around the attacks that are coming your way, you will not be able to do anything because it keeps on expanding in magnitude, new threats are introduced every day and the process repeats itself. It almost becomes a tiring exercise to be able to determine the attack surface when it is expanding at a much higher rate. That is why you need to work on your protect surface because this is something that you can control. The protect surface includes critical data, applications, assets, and services that are the most valuable elements for any company to protect. 

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Following are some of the examples that you can include within your protect surface;

• Data; credit card information, protected health information, and other intellectual property falls under this section
• Applications; off the shelf or some other custom software that your company is using
• Assets; the point of sale terminals, manufacturing assets, and the IoT devices.
• Services; DNS, DHCP, and other networking nodes

Map the flow of transactions

The way transactions of the resources, assets, and critical information takes place on a network would unveil the process that needs to be implemented in order to protect it. That is why it is important to have a serious workaround in the form of a map that depicts the flow of information and other various transactions that took place. This way you will have a contextual insight about working with your own network and protect surface and defining and implementing different controls around it.

Architecting a zero-trust network

When you have all the critical information from the map work of your own network and how transactions are taking place, you can go around architecting a zero-trust network for your company. To do so you will have to develop a special architecture and this very architecture is not bound to a specific order, neither it can be derived from a single source. It has to be customized according to the very requirements of the organization or determining the current state of the protect surface. You can begin by adding a next-generation firewall that will act as a segmentation gateway. What it does is that; it will create a micro-perimeter around your protect surface that no one will be able to penetrate until unless provided the right credentials.

You can add various notions or types of access control or go with a layer by layer approach for authenticating the right personnel from unauthorized sources. It is an excellent depiction of cybersecurity practices that you can take on, the last but not least is to properly maintain and monitor the network so it continues to do what it is supposed to and that is to guard your protected surface.      

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