In this modern world of technology, enterprises are looking for a reliable security system to protect their organizations from cyber threats. Zero Trust Network Access is one such cybersecurity strategy that helps them secure their entire team from cyber attacks no matter where they are working from. It allows verification of access requests for users and devices with minimum effort.
Zero Trust Architecture includes micro-segmentation of access, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and constant monitoring of the security process. Each step ensures the reduced risk of attack, prevents unauthorized access, and also reduces the impact of cyber breach.
Building Zero Trust Architecture ensures a commitment to risk mitigation and also to get insured from cyber insurance companies or other legal bodies.
In this article, let’s learn about building a Zero Trust Architecture: practical steps for enterprises.
Steps Involved In Building A Zero Trust Enterprises
1. Identify And Classify Critical Assets:
Enterprises need to assess their digital assets, applications, users, and data flows before installing Zero Trust network access.
- Conduct a thorough analysis of asset inventories like applications, users, endpoints, and workloads.
- Classify these inventories based on data and group sensitive information like (PII, PHI, financial data, etc).
2. Enforce Strong Identity And Access Controls:
Stolen data is the main reason for data breaching. By building strong identity verification strategies provided by reliable network providers like Tata Communications, you can effectively reduce the risk of surface attacks.
- Install MFA & passwordless authentication like Okta, Azure AD, and Duo Security.
- Install risk-based access control as users get different access levels depending on location, device health, and behaviour.
- Use Just-In-Time (JIT) access to reduce the risk of privilege escalation.
3. Secure Network Access With Microsegmentation:
Once attackers get access to a network, they continue to expand their attack. Microsegmentation avoids unauthorized movement within the network.
- Deploy software-defined perimeters (SDP) to separate critical applications.
- Build least privilege segmentation for sensitive workloads
- Use identity-based firewalls.
4. Inspect And Encrypt All Traffic:
Attackers use non-encrypted or unsupervised traffic to infiltrate networks. Data encryption and inspection of all the traffic reduces unauthorized access.
- Install TLS encryption for data that is in transit and at rest.
- With Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) analyze your network traffic.
- Deploy Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) for SaaS monitoring.
5. Implement Continuous Monitoring And Threat Detection:
As cyber threats are increasing day by day, enterprises need to have real-time visibility into network traffic, user behaviours, and anomalies to prevent attackers.
- Implement SIEM and UEBA tools.
- Automate threat response using SOAR.
- Install behavior analytics to detect anomalies in user access patterns.
6. Apply Endpoint Security And Zero Trust For Devices:
As compromised devices are at high-security risk, every endpoint accessing corporate data has to be continuously verified and monitored.
- Use EDR/XDR (Endpoint Detection & Response) to protect endpoints.
- Install Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) to verify device health.
- Restrict access to corporate resources based on device compliance.
7. Promote A Zero Trust Culture:
Security is not only about technology but it is also about people. Zero Trust has to be embraced at each level of an organization.
- Conduct regular security training and phishing simulations.
- Create Zero Trust playbooks for different departments.
- Involve leadership teams and employees in security decision-making.
Conclusions
It is important to verify every user, device, and application before giving access to reduce the risk of data breaching and lateral movement within the network. Zero Trust eliminates the risk of data theft and system compromise and saves millions of dollars for your business wasted on cyber attacks.
Though the upfront cost of implementing Zero Trust is more, it saves you money and protects it from cyber security.
