In a zero trust network, you trust nobody, no matter how long they have been around or how invested they are in your organization’s future. Everyone’s identity on your network must be verified, a concept that has been quite helpful in limiting data breaches. Today, we are going to discuss the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s definition of zero trust and what they recommend to businesses wishing to implement it.
According to NIST, there are seven tenets found in their security standards.
Here is NIST’s definition of zero trust:
“Zero trust (ZT) provides a collection of concepts and ideas designed to minimize
uncertainty in enforcing accurate, least privilege per-request access decisions in
information systems and services in the face of a network viewed as compromised. Zero
trust architecture (ZTA) is an enterprise’s cybersecurity plan that utilizes zero trust
concepts and encompasses component relationships, workflow planning, and access
policies. Therefore, a zero trust enterprise is the network infrastructure (physical and
virtual) and operational policies that are in place for an enterprise as a product of a zero
trust architecture plan.”
Zero trust, in essence, aims to make it as difficult as possible for a threat to infiltrate your network, but it also seeks to make it easier to figure out how the threat would get in.
Let’s take a look at what these seven tenets are and what kind of policies your business should adopt to implement them.
All devices that connect to your network should abide by your network’s security requirements and access controls.
Even if two devices on the same network are communicating with each other, they should share information in the same way they would if external networks were involved.
It’s possible that some of your employees will only need temporary access to assets or files, so you should only grant them access on an as-needed basis to prevent unauthorized access.
This has grown increasingly more challenging as the amount of data collected by businesses has grown. If you use this data to your advantage, it can help to determine access permissions and increase security.
All assets need to be monitored at all times, including those owned by both the company and the employee. This keeps threats from making their way into your network and ensures that something like patch management doesn’t get swept under the rug.
Zero trust means that you are confirming access permissions even after the user has officially been confirmed and created in the system. It’s not a one-time thing; it happens continuously.
The architecture surrounding a zero trust policy consists of the policy engine, the policy administrator, and the policy enforcement point. These three components work together to collect all data needed to ensure that zero trust is actually upheld.
KB Technologies Managed IT can help your business work toward greater network security. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at (954) 834-2800.
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