The adage “put your money where your mouth is” makes a valid argument for implementing zero trust protections. If your network is valuable to you, you don’t want to take any chances: everyone who wants to access your systems must go through a thorough security check.
There’s no such thing as a traditional network edge in zero trust security. All users, whether internal or external, must be authenticated and authorized. If you implement zero trust security effectively, it helps in preventing cyber attacks. So how do you implement zero trust security in your network?
1. Do a Comprehensive Security Assessment
The first port of call in implementing zero trust security is to understand the current state of your network security. Do you already have any security defenses? If the answer is yes, how effective are they?
No matter how strong your current security is, it cannot be 100 percent effective. Identify vulnerabilities that cyber criminals can use to infiltrate your network. If you have old and unused accounts on your system, get rid of them as attackers can use them without your knowledge. Your IT department should be able to advise on this.
Having a comprehensive report on your network security gives you a clear picture of where to focus your defense efforts.
2. Adopt effective device recognition
Do you have a system in place to identify devices accessing your network? Identifying devices with access makes it easier for you to track the people who connect to your systems, reducing the chance that cyber criminals can use them to innovate.
Keep in mind that cyber attackers devise ways to evade network detection, so you need to make sure that you use very strong device identification that cannot be easily manipulated.
Cyber criminals can try to break into your system without a network connection. Stay one step ahead by ensuring device recognition even in the absence of a network connection. Assign an identity to a device, not just a user. Also, make sure that each device does not have more than one identity.
3. Monitor and verify network traffic
Where are the devices entering your network coming from? Leaving your system open to all kinds of traffic is one of the easiest ways to become a victim of a cyber attack.
Direct all traffic to a central location and verify sources before admitting them. Doing it manually will slow down your operations and negatively affect the user experience. You can automate the process by adopting security monitoring techniques like packet sniffing.
4. Tighten security on communication channels
Eavesdropping also happens between devices. An attacker can sabotage your system to recover your data or monitor your activities. If it is not detected, they will have all the information they need to strike.
You should implement security measures to prevent any attempts to eavesdrop or tap your messages. All communication channels must pass an integrity test before they can be accessed. Authenticate new devices added to the communication channels and deny access to them if they fail this authentication.
5. Continuously Verify Device Integrity
To fully implement zero trust security, you must recognize that there are no trusted devices or credentials on your network at all times. All devices are suspect until proven otherwise. Achieving this state of vigilance requires constant verification of all equipment and credentials.
But you don’t want to jeopardize the user experience because of constant validation of devices. Adopt a risk-based assessment that initiates a verification process when the system detects a potential intrusion.
6. Apply policies to operations
Zero-trust security policies are for users, so you must understand who these users are, what specific network areas they are accessing, and when they are accessing them. It is also important to identify the endpoints from which those users are requesting access to your network.