With continuous advancements in technology, the world of cyber security has also been constantly evolving. A lot has changed in the cyber security sector, including strategies to deal with cyber threats and data theft risks. Zero Trust Security Framework – a new approach to protect your digital network. This security architecture assumes that an organization’s software network is always vulnerable to multiple internal and external threats.
Today it is almost impossible for all the employees to be connected to the same encrypted servers of their enterprise. Many organizations are still returning to traditional office-based workspace; however, many opt for a hybrid or fully remote workforce. With the introduction of hybrid and remote workspace, security concerns have enlarged. Organizations need to implement strategies to keep their data and resources secure.
Zero Trust escapes the traditional “trust but verified” approach. Zero Trust Security demands that all users, whether inside or outside of an organization’s network, need to be continuously authenticated and authorized before entering into a network’s resources and data. To have an idea of how you can start implementing a zero-trust security framework in your organization, visit: https://nordlayer.com/blog/how-to-implement-zero-trust/
7 Steps You Can Follow To Implement The Zero Trust Model
Here are seven simple steps to implement the zero-trust architecture in your enterprise:
Step 01: Analysis of Your Enterprise’s All Elements
The essential step to implementing Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) is recognizing the “who” of your network. Before implementing any cyber security approach, you first need to analyze your system’s key elements, users, and potential threats to the system. The analysis of all such aspects of your network involves comprehensive inspection. It is a continuous process throughout your journey of implementing ZTA at your enterprise.
Step 02: Analyzing Assets
Another step upon which the entire Zero Trust Architecture is based is analyzing all your system assets. To implement ZTA effectively, you need to diagnose all resources of your network. Such assets can be computers or tablets, or they can also be third-party devices that regularly connect to your system. Besides, you need to identify digital artifacts, including software, applications, users’ accounts, records, credentials, and any other cybernetic resource.
Step 03: Identifying Processes
Identifying all processes involved in your system is the next step toward implementing ZTA at your enterprise. You need to catalog every process related to your systems, such as workflow, data flow, and transactions. Your job is not done here. You have to further rank them according to their stakes and cyber security demands. Furthermore, you need to examine and evaluate the vulnerabilities related to these processes. It would be best if you try out ZTA practices with processes that have rarer vulnerabilities before you implement them everywhere.
Step 04: Formulation of Policies
This step involves the operation of the information gathered from previous steps to an enterprise’s ultimate Zero Trust Security framework and all-inclusive cyber security. This is a step where you move from analyzing significant aspects of your company to establishing rules. You can choose any low stake element of your enterprise to plan your ZTA scheme.
You can choose an application that is accessed by fewer employees for the first implementation and can draft policies depending upon its cyber security demands. Such policies enable you to oversee solutions for given resources.
Step 05: Formulating Solutions
As far as this step is concerned, you execute the policies you previously drafted in the fourth step. Here you formulate Zero Trust Architecture deployments to be implemented on one or two low stakes resources selected previously. The perfect way to formulate solutions is by considering multiple viable solutions instead of relying on a single solution. So, it would be better to determine a criterion on which you can draft different prospective solutions for a given resource. You need to consider a “test run” before applying any selected solution for a given resource. If you are unsure how to conduct this test consider consulting experts like GuidePoint Security .
Step 06: Deployment
Deployment is a step that pays off all your preliminary work in the previous processes. It enables you to put your prospective solutions in place and deploy it through all Zero Trust framework components for a given resource. This step demands intense observation. Here you implement changes to the cyber security framework for real-world problems. You need to run one or more tryouts to test your solution before implementing it on the entire system of your enterprise.
Despite the perfect planning and execution, there are always some initial hurdles. Once you solve every error coming in the way of deployment and ZTA starts to operate perfectly, you have successfully deployed the ZTA approach to a given resource. Now it is time to expand ZTA throughout your entire enterprise.
Step 07: Expansion of ZTA
It is time for you to return to the first step and start identifying new resources to expand your cyber security framework for the next round. The first round will guide and help you choose which resources you want to work on next and what could be the possible solutions. You are required to reprise steps four to seven until you successfully implement ZTA throughout your entire system.
Conclusion
As far as a system’s security is concerned, the zero-trust approach has become the best security practice to ensure that only authorized users access a system’s resources for the right reasons. Zero Trust Architecture ensures security at every access point compared to traditional security postures. Whether you are managing a hybrid, remote, or e-commerce workforce, zero-trust security is your ultimate solution to all your security concerns.
