What is Zero Trust Security and how to implement it?

What Is Zero Trust Security?

IT environments have become more fluid, open, and, ultimately, vulnerable. More companies are turning away from conventional methods such as VPN to keep their networks secure. Zero Trust is a security approach that addresses these new network realities by trusting no one.

The basic tenets of Zero Trust Security are:

• Trust nothing
• Secure everything
• Contextually authenticate requestors
• Contextually evaluate access requests
• Assess all requests
• Grant access by the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) or allowing users the minimum access privileges necessary to perform a specific job or task and nothing more

Traditionally, identity access management (IAM) and privileged access management (PAM) solutions have approached security as a closed and perimeter-based system.

Still, with growing networks of users, devices, and applications, threats are just as likely to come from within the boundary: internal threats can be as high as 50% depending on your industry.

Organizations have recognized the reality there are no longer any truly closed systems. Many migrate to Zero Trust to mitigate risk from cyberattacks from multiple entry points (including internal).

The shift isn’t exclusive to new business applications or VPN replacement either. According to Verizon's Data Breach report, by 2023, 40% of enterprises will have adopted Zero Trust for adaptive identity-based access control systems, continuous trust evaluations, and flexible access control across implementations such as privileged access management systems. Across industries, Zero Trust architectures are the way forward as most organizations make further strides in their digital transformations.

How to implement Zero Trust Security

We know many organizations are utilizing or planning to implement Zero Trust across their organizations. Zero Trust is the ultimate security goal, but getting there can take time.

A layered Reduced Trust approach provides essential stepping stones and is our recommendation for organizations on their way to Zero Trust.

This method can be implemented in any order, laying the groundwork to build your new Zero Trust paradigm. By focusing on these pillars of access management, many enterprise businesses have scaled their Zero Trust initiatives.

The Challenges of Zero Trust Security

Zero Trust is a program, not a project. While that may sound intimidating at first, you can approach it with small-but-actionable steps (like Reduced Trust) over a reasonable timeframe to achieve it at your own pace. Even so, there are some adversities you might encounter during your Zero Trust program.

Challenges Along Your Zero Trust Journey

Technical hurdles with legacy systems

Political challenges from admins over least privilege and loss of autonomy

Perceived friction in integrations across hybrid cloud, applications, devices, and more

Fear of change moving from silos to a data-centric model

Getting started with so many approaches, solutions, and implementations

What companies say:

“With 70+ systems to integrate, we need an adaptable API that can play nice with our complex environment.”

“We need professional services with a security solution that can be easily integrated into our environment and customized to our specific needs.”

“Moving from VPN to Zero Trust seems like an impossible task when I am not even sure my legacy system is compatible with least privilege.”

“Access management security solutions require so many vendors and program deployments. It can be costly, time-consuming, and hard to manage!”

4-Stage Zero Trust Security Assessment

This four-stage Zero Trust maturity pre-assessment will help you identify what stage your organization is in on a journey towards operational Zero Trust Security alignment.

STAGE 1 : Fragmented Identity

• High reliance on the perimeter
• Active directory on-premises
• No cloud integration
• Passwords wherever

STAGE 2 : Unified IAM

• Single sign-on across employees, contractors, and partners
• Contemporary multi-factor authentication
• Cooperative policies across applications and servers
• Vaulting and randomizing of privileged accounts

STAGE 3 : Contextual Access

• Context-based access policies
• Automated joiner/mover/leaver processes de-provisioning for those leaving
• Group Management
• Multiple factors deployed across users
• Secure access to APIs
• Safeguarding services, non-human accounts, containers

STAGE 4 : Adaptive Access

• Risk-based access guidelines
• Adaptive and continuous authorization and authentication
• Frictionless access
• Diminished emphasis on the perimeter
• Just-In-Time (JIT) access
• Centralized provisioning

How to implement Zero Trust Security in 6 steps

This six-step Zero Trust Maturity Model (ZTMM) is adaptable and proven to help you advance toward your new IAM and PAM standard. Start discovering the benefits of a singular, powerful, and layered solution for your evolving Zero Trust paradigm with this strategy.

STEP 1 : Rally a dedicated Zero Trust team.

Zero Trust is one of the most transformative actions that an organization can undertake. You may be tempted to cast a wide net by making Zero Trust an organization-wide strategic initiative, but this can make it less imperative and slow the process as a task that ranks below everyone’s top to-dos.

Instead, elect a small team tasked to plan and implement your Zero Trust migration. This team should Include internal members from:

• Applications and data security
• Network and infrastructure security
• User and device identity
  

STEP 2 : Assess the environment.

Taking an inventory of all devices that access your network is critical, even if you may not be able to compile a fully comprehensive and complete view of your infrastructure. Your inventory should include devices owned by your organization and those that are not. Moreover, simply cataloging this information is not enough; you must understand these devices’ security status and the controls around them as well.

In addition to devices, your organization should also look beyond hardware across resources to software and users, including:

• Accounts
• Groups and group memberships
• New, added, changed, or moved identities
• Non-human (application and service accounts)
• Virtual machines and containers

STEP 3 : Review the available technology.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identifies three main approaches to implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA):

• Micro-segmentation
• Enhanced Identity Governance (IAM and PAM)
• Software-defined perimeter

STEP 4 : Strategically plan your integral Zero Trust Security activities.

Security Fabric Framework

As no two organizations are the same, we recommend adopting this structure as a planning aide for your Zero Trust program:

• Start with multi-factor, adaptive authentication, and single sign-on (SSO)

With a trending resurgence of de-perimeterization, it’s easy to see the benefits of these implementations early in the process in a world where software-as-a-service (SaaS) adoption by a remote workforce is increasingly prevalent.

• Move to privileged access

In light of recent headlines and strong regulatory obligations, this step is also an early necessity. Hackers are not breaking in--they’re logging in, finding ways to move laterally, and elevate access. Vaulting and randomizing passwords for highly privileged accounts is an effective deterrent against such tactics.

• Build out your identity fabric patchwork, which ideally consists of a set of components like microservices and containers; beyond essential services, other pieces may be necessary to your organization, including:

STEP 5 : Define operational changes.

Zero Trust strategy can fundamentally change security operations. For example, as tasks are automated, corresponding manual tasks might need to be modified or automated to keep pace and prevent security gaps. Disciplined change management practices will be important as each piece of the fabric gets stitched together, and the next steps take form.

STEP 6 : Implement, rinse, and repeat.

As your organization deploys new technologies, assess their value according to security key performance indicators (KPIs), including the average total time to contain incidents, which should decrease dramatically the closer an organization moves to Zero Trust.

Zero Trust Benefits

Bravura Security Fabric  

• solves the latest, evolving access management challenges
• delivers the solution with the industry’s only single platform for multi-factor, adaptive authentication, IAM, and PAM

Integrative

Leverage the industry’s most extensive organically grown ecosystem connector portfolio with seamless two-way integrations, offering a robust API platform to complete your security strategy

Combine freely utilizing the open architecture solution empowered by genuine agnostic integration support for all security platforms, implementations, and Zero Trust targets

Uncover more with Bravura Discover, which allows you to assess threats and risks across systems, improving your response time and making your Zero Trust strategy more exhaustive

Customizable

Weave and apply parts of the fabric to your journey over time as you uncover unknown threats, and your roadmap evolves

Use optional automation and detection, governance and compliance, and analytics and reporting. Turn services on or off as needed without installing other products

Manage your access management and integrations — no matter what service created them

Comprehensive

Access one platform and framework that brings together all layers of Bravura Security Fabric, including Identity, Privilege, Pass, and Group plus a threat detection layer: Bravura Discover

Gain visibility and threat intelligence around your entire ecosystem

Work in partnership with to create a comprehensive program that addresses your specific needs our global support helping you meet challenges at every step of the way