What is Zero Trust? Principles, Benefits, and Use Cases

Zero Trust is a model that requires all users, devices, and applications to be continuously authenticated, whether inside the organization’s perimeter or in a location on the other side of the globe.

The cornerstone principles of Zero Trust include:

Let’s take a closer look at Zero Trust, its role in cybersecurity, and the principles that make it such an effective approach.

What is Zero Trust?

The idea of Zero Trust as a framework isn’t new since it’s been around for more than a decade. In 2010, Forrester Research analyst John Kindervag used the term “zero trust model” to describe his view of the cybersecurity needed by organizations in the 2020s, although research around the idea of zero trust has been around since 1994. Zero Trust was based on Kindervag’s belief that risk is an inherent factor for a computer network, regardless of its location. His motto was “never trust, always verify.” Organizations have increasingly adopted this attitude toward computer security since the COVID-19 pandemic, since it minimizes the risk of data breaches and ransomware attacks from both outside and inside the organization.

While businesses have been undergoing Digital Transformation for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 significantly increased the pace of this change. Organizations could no longer count on employees to work in a single protected location like an office. A workplace could mean anywhere: A kitchen table, the local library, a plane, or a neighborhood coffee shop. While this was a liberating experience for many employees, it became a challenge for organizations as they now needed to secure, protect and defend their corporate devices and employees personal devices Computer breaches and ransomware attacks became much more common after 2020, and as a result, organizations need to adopt ransomware best practices and tighter security protocols to protect their most valuable resources.

Increased interest in Zero Trust can be seen in the statistics of its potential growth. MarketsandMarkets says the Zero Trust architecture market will be worth about $17.3 billion in 2023 and will grow to $38.5 billion by 2028 at a rate of 17.3%. Meanwhile, the Forrester Research Security Survey 2022 found that 83% of global companies have adopted or plan to adopt a Zero Trust framework.

The market growth of a framework that has been around for over a decade can be explained by a few emerging trends – increasing numbers of threat actors and evolving technologies that are challenging for security teams to maintain.

Principles of Zero Trust Security

As noted above, Zero Trust isn’t a service or product; it uses existing and new technologies to create a Zero Trust environment. Several principles form the foundation of this framework.

Verify Explictly Zero Trust departs from traditional network security strategies, which mostly adopt the “trust but verify” method. Zero Trust moves almost 180 degrees in the opposite direction. It requires continuous authentication and authorization of whether a user, device, or application is trying to access the network, a device, data, etc. For example, users may be asked to verify their identity thru Multi-Factor Authentication, MFA<when accessing their workplace network. Every time they want to use another part of the network, they must go through the verification process again. This means that no person, device, or program is automatically granted unlimited access to the computer network, since they verified their identity when they first entered.

Least Privilege Access

Under Zero Trust, users, devices, and applications are only given access to what they absolutely need at the moment they need it As part of designing a Zero Trust architecture, companies need to decide who gets access to what resources allow them to access any other part of the network. This means that if a hacker fakes credentials to get into one part of the network, they can’t access any other part since they won’t have the proper access privileges.

Assume Breach

Zero Trust is founded on the belief that breaches will happen. Instead of focusing security efforts primarily on preventing unauthorized access, companies must focus on detecting intrusions, responding to them, and quickly implementing recovery capabilities to reduce the damages caused by a breach quickly.

What are the Benefits of Zero Trust?

Zero Trust is the most appropriate  security strategy for modern IT environments. As data modernization grows by leaps and bounds, Zero Trust offers organizations more security than older methods, which often require just one level of authentication. Some of the benefits of Zero Trust include:

Challenges and Considerations of Zero Trust

As with any new strategy, implementing Zero Trust can present organizational challenges. These challenges may include:

Implementing a Zero Trust Security Framework

Implementing and leveraging a Zero Trust framework involves several essential steps that align to Zero Trust’s core pillars, including:

Verify Explictly

Least Privilege

Assume Breach

The Difference Between Zero Trust and Traditional Security Models

Traditional security strategies rely on the “trust but verify” method. Once a user is authenticated with a password and perhaps MFA, this user or device is behind the firewall. This means they can access any part of the network, including places they aren’t allowed. When employees worked in a centralized office location, it was easy for an organization to create a perimeter that meant that access to sensitive data was limited to individuals or devices behind the firewall. However, as cloud computing has become ubiquitous and remote work is no longer just an occasional situation, the “trust but verify” method has made it easier for viruses, hackers, and ransomware specialists to exploit its vulnerabilities. An attacker could be inside a network for hours, days, or even weeks before being detected.

Adopting a Zero Trust strategy can turn this situation around dramatically. Whether a user is inside an organization’s office standing right next to the machine they want to access or a thousand miles away, that user must authenticate themselves with the appropriate credentials. Least privilege means restricting access to only what that user requires. Plus, if they want to use other network segments, they must reauthenticate themselves. The user’s movements are continuously monitored, and if any inappropriate behaviors are detected, they’re immediately quarantined, and recovery operations are put into practice.

Zero Trust Use Cases

Some of the most common uses for a Zero Trust security model include:

As statistics and surveys show, organizations of all sizes are adopting a Zero Trust security framework for the increased security and benefits it provides. Some of these organizations include:

Dropbox

One of the leading cloud-based file-sharing and collaboration platforms, Dropbox adopted Zero Trust to improve its platform security. By enforcing strict access controls and continuous monitoring, the adoption of Zero Trust has resulted in increased protection for user data and let Dropbox address regulatory compliance requirements more effectively.

Google

A leading proponent of Zero Trust principles, Google’s adoption of this strategy has improved remote access for users and employees through MFA and identity verification and has significantly enhanced its security posture by reducing attack surfaces.

Forrester Research

Forrester undertook a complete cybersecurity posture transformation, including overhauling access privileges and continuously monitoring and educating its workforce about Zero Trust. This resulted in improved threat detection, allowing the company to respond to potential attacks more effectively. Forrester’s continuous employee education and training has also improved the overall security awareness of its staff, making them less vulnerable to phishing attacks or social engineering.

Coca-Cola European Partners

The European division of Coca-Cola has also adopted Zero Trust to better protect its digital infrastructure. Their implementation included identity verification, encryption, and continuous monitoring. This improved the security of its supply chain by ensuring that only appropriate users have access to sensitive data and reduced the risk of insider threats and unauthorized access.

Conclusion

In today’s evolving digital landscape, organizations must protect their most valuable resources from ransomware attacks, unauthorized access, and insider threats. As work becomes more remote or hybrid-oriented, ensuring these resources are protected is even more critical. The Zero Trust data framework provides all these protections more robustly than older models that worked on “trust but verify but trust” models.

Veeam can help your organization implement Zero Trust principles by providing you with one of its most essential elements: Data backup, recovery, and resilience. As an industry leader in the space, Veeam will work with your organization to better protect your most critical resources. 

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