What Is Zero Trust Security and how you can Implement it?

The future is now for organizations embracing digital transformation to become more competitive and agile. Modern-day businesses have employees working from various remote locations using a combination of work and personal devices. These people rely on different cloud services to keep information flowing. It is a problem because the perimeter has become too blurry, making it difficult to defend with traditional approaches to cybersecurity.

A zero-trust security model is a new approach to protecting necessary resources from both external attacks coming in through the perimeter and those who may be working with or against you on site.

What Is Zero Trust Security?

Zero Trust Security is an innovative way to ensure your company’s data safety and security. This model treats all devices, whether physically located in or outside office premises, as untrustworthy – requiring their authentication at every turn. The zero-trust security model is a solution to the insider threat, which some experts have predicted as responsible for 60% of data breaches.

The zero-trust security model provides a much more secure environment than traditional approaches because it creates an invisible fence around all the valuable items in one room.

Locks often protect houses on their doors, but this can be a tactic for deterring intruders. The traditional way of covering such places boils down to locking the front door (using a firewall and other means). The problem is that once someone has been inside your home, they can move from room to room without any restrictions. With today’s technology, if an employee’s device becomes compromised or when they decide to turn against their employer, all hell will break loose.

When you install zero-trust security, not only will the front door be locked uptight, but every interior door to prevent any lateral movement on your network. The best way to create a secure network is by segmenting it into multiple interconnected subsegments. The idea of “zero trust” security has been around for some time now, but it’s never been more crucial than in this day and age because most organizations have at least started embracing the hybrid work model. It means that some workers can operate from remote locations instead if they choose to. 

Implementing Zero Trust Security 

Zero Trust Security is a holistic approach to designing and implementing IT systems. It’s not just for the “IT guys” – it can be implemented in hours or days, depending on your needs as an organization!

Managed IT service providers know if its implementation is worth it in the first place. So, what are you waiting for?

A quick look at some of the benefits will make it easier to decide.

• Enhanced network visibility: Zero Trust security is like having an eye in the sky watching over you. Since there’s no way for zero trust servers to assume any connection or device has been vetted, it can see who and when accessed specific network resources with pinpoint accuracy.
• Improved data protection: Small businesses with just a few employees store large quantities of sensitive data, and they are responsible for its protection. The goal of zero-trust security is to prevent a single intrusion from giving hackers unrestricted access.
• Seamless end-user experience: It is essential for cybersecurity solutions to be user-friendly because employees will otherwise attempt to make their life easy by avoiding them. Zero-trust security is a novel approach to protecting networks from outside attacks by removing any elements of uncertainty in the system. It is paired with a single sign-on (SSO) authentication scheme, allowing users to access their accounts through just one ID and password.
• Better compliance: The concept of zero-trust security is an innovative approach to designing and implementing IT systems that provide a solid foundation for continuous compliance with data protection regulations.
• Cloud readiness: With the popularity of cloud solutions, organizations are turning to remote work and more sophisticated technology and decreasing their expenses by taking advantage of this new trend for company culture. Zero Trust Security protects cloud resources by establishing a firm access control boundary.

The Zero Trust security model offers many attractive benefits which make its implementation worth pursuing.

How to Implement Zero Trust Security?

The concept behind it may be easy to explain, but that doesn’t mean the implementation is without its fair share of challenges.

Even though there is no single approach that every organization can use, the potential for success with this strategy remains high. Serious security doesn’t happen as a side effect. It results from thorough planning and attention to every detail, which is only possible with an MSP with experience implementing zero-trust solutions for your business needs.

ITsguru specializes in providing managed services for security implementation plans. The company has helped many organizations understand the data they have and come up with a thorough zero trust plan to protect it from external and internal threats. Contact us to get started.