What is Zero Trust in cybersecurity ?
The internet can be a great resource for information, but it’s important to remember that not everything you find online is true or trustworthy. In fact, a lot of what’s on the internet is fake or inaccurate.
That said, there are ways to protect yourself from misinformation online or compromise (cyber-attacks).
A major study conducted in 2014 found that up to 8.7% of all active Internet users have at least one fake account, with the vast majority of those being on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This number has likely only increased in recent years, as creating and maintaining a false identity online has become easier and more common.
While it’s impossible to know exactly how many fake accounts are out there, it’s clear that they’re a significant problem for both individual users and businesses alike. Fake accounts can be used for malicious purposes such as scamming people out of money, or performing cyber-attacks through social engineering. Social engineering is the art of manipulating people into revealing information or perform actions that may not be in their best interests. It’s a type of psychological warfare that takes advantage of human weaknesses to trick someone into divulging confidential information or performing an action that could harm their organization.
Most social engineering attacks exploit human vulnerabilities through deception and manipulation. The attacker will posing as someone trustworthy- such as an authority figure, customer service representative, or even a friend- in order to get the victim to reveal sensitive information or perform an action that they wouldn’t normally
How does this all relate to Zero Trust?
Zero trust is a term you may have heard bandied about in the context of cyber security. But what does it actually mean?
In essence, zero trust means not blindly trusting anyone — even those who are supposed to be on your side. It’s a shift away from the traditional “castle and moat” security model, which relies on perimeter defenses to keep the bad guys out. With zero trust, there is no “outside” and “inside” — all traffic is treated equally, regardless of its origin. This approach doesn’t just make it harder for attackers to get in; it also makes it easier to detect and stop them if they do manage to.
Zero trust is a term for a cyber security model or philosophy in which users can only access resources after verification of their identity, regardless of where they are physically located or the type of device they are using.
With traditional security models, users are typically granted access to certain resources based on their role within the organization (e.g., administrator, employee, contractor). Once a user is authenticated and has been granted access to resources, that user is then considered trusted and can be given wider access to additional resources.
The zero trust model turns this concept on its head by assuming that all users are untrusted until they have been verified. This means that every user must be authenticated and authorized before being granted access to any resource.
Do you see the link with the initial paragraph?
With a zero-trust approach, all users and devices are treated in the same manner, regardless of whether they’re inside or outside the network perimeter.
The need for a zero-trust model has risen out of the problems associated with the traditional perimeter-based approach to security. This older method relies on building sometimes multiple layers of defense around critical systems and data within the organization. But with the current technological evolution, companies do not have anymore perimeters, and employees might work from anywhere anytime. In other words, zero trust means that no one is automatically trusted, regardless of their location or IP address. This is critical for remote working set-up, because it means that all traffic must be verified and authorized before being allowed access to sensitive data or systems. By requiring verification and authorization for all traffic, zero trust help to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data and systems — even if they are working remotely.
Is it a new concept?
The term “zero trust” was coined by John Kindervag, who was working as a principal analyst at Forrester Research at the time. In 2010, he wrote a paper titled “Zero Trust Networks” which outlined the need for this type of security measure. The paper gained traction and soon other analysts and thought leaders were writing about zero trust as an innovative concept. John Kindervag has more than 20 years of experience in the field and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist, and USA Today. He is the author of The Zero Trust Network: How to Guard Your Organization Against Cybersecurity Threats ( McGraw-Hill Education, 2016).
How to start implementing Zero Trust?
Starting to implement a Zero Trust security model can seem like a daunting task, but there are some fairly simple steps you can take to get started. The most important thing is to focus on identifying and securing your most critical assets, and then build outward from there.
One way to think about it is in terms of “striping” your organization into layers, with each layer having its own security controls. The innermost layer would contain your most critical assets, while the outer layers would contain less sensitive data and systems. By taking this approach, you can gradually roll out Zero Trust security without overburdening your resources.
Zero Trust is a security model that has been gaining traction in recent years as an alternative to the more traditional security paradigm of “trust but verify.” In a Zero Trust environment, all users and devices are treated as potential threats, and authentication and authorization decisions are made based on real-time risk assessments rather than on assumptions about who or what can be trusted.
One of the key components of a successful Zero Trust implementation is multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide not just a username and password but also something that they have (like a physical token or code generated by an app) or something that they are ( like a fingerprint or iris scan).
The advantages of zero trust are many. By eliminating network perimeters, organizations can guard against external threats such as hackers and malware. By adopting a micro-segmentation approach, they can better protect sensitive data and reduce the chances of data breaches. And by treating every user and every device as a potential threat, they can more effectively stop compromise attempts.
By Magda Chelly
Chief Security Officer | TEDx Talk | Author & Keynote Speaker | IFSEC Global Top 20 Cybersecurity Influencer | Entrepreneur | PhD, S-CISO, CISSP, Cert SCI (General Insurance)
Find out on magda-on-cyber.com
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