Zero Trust Security: Why It's Essential in Today's Threat Landscape

Originally coined in 2010, the term zero trust has become a common phrase in security jargon, but the principle is much less commonly applied to its full meaning. Zero trust is more than a simple phrase: it is an architecture. Zero-trust architecture is an alternative to more conventional network-centric perimeter-based architectures dependent on firewalls and VPNs to govern access. Firewalls and VPNs have their place, but if they are wholly responsible for security, there is an inherent flaw: if a threat makes it past these perimeter devices, they then have access to the entire network. Given that perimeter devices have themselves become an increasingly common attack vector through exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities, other ways to protect a network are advisable.

A zero-trust architecture, by contrast, operates constantly under the principle of least privilege. Rather than give out access to the entire network, the architecture hides apps behind a zero-trust cloud, keeping the level of access as minimal as possible. This is achieved through a combination of microsegmentation and context-based analysis, where a central hub, the Zero Trust Exchange, verifies all connections and acts as a middleman between the user and the cloud. All traffic is scrutinized, and since access is only given to the app, rather than to the network, lateral movement becomes much more difficult. Further, because all traffic is subject to context-based analysis, unusual activity can be spotted quickly, including encrypted traffic, where most data loss occurs.

The main difficulty in implementation of zero-trust architecture is the large volume of labor required for constant analysis. However, newer machine-learning algorithms can reduce this labor burden, and the additional cost of the labor can be offset by the savings on the network perimeter, since this architecture requires much less in terms of firewalls and VPNs. As a cloud-native architecture, implementation of zero-trust can require significant reorganization of network assets, but the additional work will lead to significantly less risk. Enterprises considering how to strengthen their network security should give considerable attention to the adoption of a zero-trust architecture.

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