The zero trust security architecture was created in 2010 by John Kindervag at Forrester Research Inc. It is based on the concept that organizations should not trust anything that is inside or outside its security perimeters, instead of taking the time to verify everything that is trying to gain access to its system before granting it. The zero trust model is growing in use because, despite the fact that organizations are spending more and more on cybersecurity, cybercrime continues to cost businesses millions and billions of dollars. Data breaches are also increasing in scope.
With the traditional security mindset that everything inside an organization’s perimeters doesn’t pose a threat and therefore can be trusted, hackers have been able to move through internal systems without any resistance once they managed to gain access.
The zero trust security network draws on several aspects of information technology, including analytics, encryption, multifactor authentication, orchestration, scoring, file system permissions, and identity and access management (IAM).
This whitepaper provides organizations and businesses with an achievable and comprehensive eight-step guide to building a zero trust architecture that can be of great benefit to businesses by providing access security in a world that is growing more cloud-based. Some of the steps included in this walkthrough include: pre-checking the requirements of the applications and access proxies being deploying, preparing access proxies for the applications being using, testing the application with real users, and upgrading security to include advanced threat protection, browser and operating system governance, geoblocking, limitations based on internet protocols, and web application firewalls (WAF).
Reading this whitepaper and following the processes explained can provide businesses with the knowledge needed to transition from an unsafe environment without perimeters to an environment that secures against untrustworthy access and cyber-attacks from the inside and out.
