Traditional security models, which depend on a defined network perimeter, are becoming less effective in today's threat landscape. As a result, the zero trust security model, hinged on continuous verification and strict access controls, and proactive detection of and response to security incidents, has emerged as a more resilient approach to protecting sensitive data and systems.
The OMB memo M-22-09 mandates that Federal government agencies implement zero trust security, including taking advantage of secure cloud services. The NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has even advised that businesses adopt a zero trust security model and are creating a public guide to help support businesses with the rollout of zero trust security principles, with initial drafts in review.
In this article, we explore the important facets of zero trust security and how it can help effectively fortify your organization, whether in a protected industry, government agency, or general commerce.
What Is Zero Trust Security?
Zero trust security is a framework that removes implicit trust and enforces strict identity verification for all users and devices, and requires proactive detection of and response to security incidents. The zero trust model assumes that breaches can occur from any location, requiring organizations to embrace deperimeterization.
“This is especially important as we move to a cloud-enabled technology environment where much of the data sits outside of our traditional data centers.” -John Kindervag in ‘No More Chewy Centers: The Zero Trust Model of Information Security’ Forrester Report
Over the last decade, many organizations have transitioned from perimeter-based security to zero trust models, largely in response to the risks associated with modern cyber threats, such as credential theft and attacks and Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).
The zero trust security model has been especially transformative for institutions dealing with sensitive data, like the healthcare industry, where stolen healthcare data can fetch up to 10 times more money than stolen credit card numbers.
The Core Principles of Zero Trust Security
Your organization will need to adopt these five principles as part of its zero trust strategy:
Principle 1: Never Trust, Always Verify
The greatest core principle of the zero trust security strategy is to continuously authenticate all users and devices before granting them access to your information assets. For example, you could use multi-factor authentication and identity verification measures to ensure that only legitimate users can access sensitive data.
Principle 2: Least Privilege Access
Least privilege access refers to measures that ensure employees are granted the minimum level of access required to perform their tasks. It's a principle of the zero trust model that reduces your attack surface and limits how much damage hackers can cause by compromising user credentials or accounts.
Principle 3: Micro-Segmentation
Micro-segmentation involves dividing IT infrastructure into smaller, isolated components to limit the spread of potential threats. If a micro-segmented infrastructure is breached, the danger can often be contained in the affected segment. With that in mind, micro-segmentation is particularly useful in cloud and hybrid environments.
Principle 4: Continuous Monitoring & Validation
Organizations use a variety of tools to support continuous monitoring, including behavior analytics and anomaly detection, which identify any suspicious activity, like data access and exfiltration, system reconfiguration, privilege escalation, and more. With these resources, businesses can respond rapidly, minimizing exposure and disruption.
Principle 5: Data-Centric Security
The goal of any security model is to keep your business information out of the wrong hands. The zero trust framework takes that a step further by ensuring that data is as follows:
- Encrypted in transit and at rest
- Classified appropriately for encryption, anonymization, and retention purposes
- Accessible and modifiable by authorized entities
The idea is to create multiple redundant layers of protection. These (in addition to micro-segmentation) can mitigate a hacker’s access to valuable data in the event of a breach.
How These Principles Work Together
Ultimately, the strength of the zero trust security strategy lies in its complementary principles. Each principle addresses a specific shortfall of the perimeter-based security model.
Here’s a closer look at how the principles work together and the real-world applications of the model:
Interdependency of Principles
The principles of the zero trust model aren’t just complementary but interdependent on one another. Continuous monitoring, for instance, supports least-privilege access by ensuring that administrators can adjust permissions based on user behavior. Likewise, micro-segmentation works in tandem with data-centric security to limit access to critical data.
Real-World Application
Suppose that your organization experiences an attempted ransom attack. If your business uses the traditional security model, a single compromised credential could allow attackers to infiltrate the entire IT infrastructure.
However, in a zero-trust environment, its core principles would work together in the following process:
- Never trust, always verify would require the attacker to authenticate at multiple checkpoints
- Least privilege access would prevent the hacker from accessing critical systems beyond the access level assigned to the stolen credentials
- Micro-segmentation would contain the attack altogether
- Continuous monitoring would proactively detect the abnormal activity and trigger an automated response
- Data-centric security would ensure that sensitive files remain encrypted
These interdependencies make it significantly harder for bad actors to steal and use your sensitive data. Organizations can accelerate zero trust security using the rich security features present in cloud infrastructure.
Benefits of Embracing the Core Principles
The benefits of zero trust are plentiful and include the following:
Enhanced Security Posture
Implementing any core principle of the zero trust security strategy is an effort that will strengthen your organization’s security posture. The proactive nature of the model closes security gaps that hackers may exploit. Improving your security posture by incorporating all of the model’s principles decreases your exposure to costly downtime or crippling attacks.
Operational Efficiency
A well-implemented zero-trust model streamlines security processes and reduces complexities. Automation tools and identity verification systems eliminate manual processes from your cybersecurity model, allowing your IT team to focus more on continuous monitoring, proactive detection, automated response, and other strategic activities.
Compliance & Future-Proofing
Many industries must comply with stringent security regulations. The zero trust strategy supports frameworks such as the GDPR and CCPA by enforcing strict data protection and access control measures. Additionally, its principles help protect your organization’s reputation and safeguard customer data.
Protect Your Data Using Zero Trust Security Principles with Own from Salesforce
Given today’s growing and evolving threat landscape, it’s up to your organization to ensure fortified, protected data. With the power of Secure now available through Salesforce Shield and Salesforce Security Center, your organization can trust in a more deeply unified data security experience, with zero trust security at its core.
Ready to see the difference that a zero trust security strategy can make? Request a demo today.
