Zero Trust Security Models and Principles Explained

The traditional perimeter approach to security was being dramatically altered long before COVID-19. However, the massive shift to a largely remote workforce ushered in as a result of the pandemic accelerated the need for a new approach. Securing access to a range of on-premises and cloud-based applications requires a transformation of identity and access management initiatives. The misguided trust we once had for users inside the corporate perimeter is gone. Attackers only need to be right once; we need to be perfect every time. With the majority of employees now accessing corporate assets from different locations and devices, the process is complicated further.

As a result, the governance of identities is now a key and strategic aspect of cybersecurity programs – and it’s essential to implementing the zero trust model many organizations are now using.

What is Zero Trust in Cybersecurity?

Zero trust is a cyber security model based on the principle of maintaining strict access controls and not trusting anyone by default, even those already inside the network perimeter.

Implementing zero trust helps to address modern security challenges arising from remote work, third-party integrations, and evolving attack vectors, such as phishing, social engineering, compromised endpoints, and credential theft. This is done through an approach that is set to “deny” and that sees everything and everyone as a threat.

The secure access model shifts from the starting point of trusting but verifying to not trusting and verifying continually. The model does this by actively governing permissions and continuous monitoring. Additionally, through limiting access and maintaining strong identity controls, zero trust supports companies with compliance with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2).

By applying least privilege access and continuous verification, zero trust models limit lateral movements within networks, reducing the attack surface that potential threats have access to, supporting businesses to build a more resilient and adaptive security posture against evolving threats

This model aligns with the capabilities that are core to identity governance and administration (IGA). These include the ability to regularly review permissions, require approval workflows, implement separation of duties, and tightly scope user roles, in addition to continuous monitoring and the use of strong forms of authentication. It places identity at the center because all the verification is about the “who” aspect of security.

Why Use Zero Trust Security?

What is the point of security? To ensure integrity and availability of data? To protect data from unauthorized access? To help you prevent, detect, and respond to threats? To ensure authorized users get the necessary access?

It is all the above. Keep it simple. Security allows you to protect resources and ensure only the right people can access them. Sadly, security is not always simple. We have different types of users – employees, contractors, vendors, partners, and others. Access to any tier of a user may be restricted based on time of day, location, device, authentication method, or a host of other criteria. No matter how you approach it, resources and identities are the two key elements.

In The State of Identity Governance 2024, Omada surveyed more than 550 IT security and business leaders, and more than half of respondents said they have more employees, consultants, and partners working remotely since COVID. Securing remote users’ access to both the on-premises and cloud-based applications they need to do their jobs requires organizations to re-think their identity and access management strategies. Even the most effective deployments of perimeter security are not sufficient to stop external attacks that grow more sophisticated every day.

To address this challenge, organizations must bolster their identity access governance capabilities, and make them strategic elements of their overall cybersecurity programs. They need to adopt and deploy more robust technology to make their Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) a cornerstone of a mature Zero Trust security model.

Zero Trust Principles

What are Zero Trust Principles?

The zero trust framework can be broken up into a few main, fundamental principles, and understanding these will help your organization to successfully implement a zero trust security model. So, what are the principles of zero trust security?

Verify

Trust nothing and verify everything. This means that no entity—whether inside or outside the network—is trusted by default. Every access attempt, user identity, device, application, and data transaction is rigorously verified before granting access.

Least Privilege Access

Grant the least amount of access necessary for users and devices to perform their tasks. Instead of providing broad access privileges, Zero Trust limits access to only the specific resources and data required for each user’s role or function. This principle helps minimize the potential impact of a security breach or unauthorized access.

Assume Breach

Adopt the mindset that threats exist both inside and outside the network perimeter. Instead of assuming that the network is secure once breached, Zero Trust assumes that the network has already been breached or could be breached at any time. This approach focuses on continuous monitoring, real-time threat detection, and rapid response to security incidents.

Prevent Lateral Movement

By enforcing strict controls and segmentation, zero trust architecture ensures that even if an attacker gains access to one part of the network, they cannot easily navigate to other areas. This limits the ability of a malicious actor to move laterally within a network after gaining initial access.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):

By requiring users to provide multiple forms of verification like biometric data or a one-time password, MFA ensures that identity verification goes beyond just passwords, which can often be compromised.

Microsegmentation

Microsegmentation divides a network into smaller, isolated segments, ensuring that even within a network, communication between segments is limited and tightly controlled.

Device Access Control

The regulation of which devices can access the network. This makes sure that only trusted devices are allowed to connect.

Continuous Monitoring and Logging

Constant oversight allows for real-time threat detection, immediate incident response, and proactive identification of suspicious behavior, ensuring that no action goes unnoticed, even after access has been granted.

Contextual Access Controls

Contextual access controls dynamically adjust the level of access based on situational factors, ensuring users only receive the permissions necessary within a specific context.

How to Implement Zero Trust Security?

To properly implement zero trust security within your organization, the following steps should be followed:

1. Define the attack surface

To begin implementing zero trust security, you first need to identify and catalog all potential points of vulnerability or entry into an organization’s network and systems. This helps to understand where protections need to be enforced and where monitoring needs to be increased.

2. Implement controls around network traffic

Next, controls need to be implemented around your organization’s network traffic to prevent unauthorized access and detect malicious activity. This involves monitoring, managing, and securing flows of data within your network using techniques like microsegmentation, MFA, and data encryption.

3. Architect a zero trust network

Your organization should work to architect a zero trust network where all users, devices, and applications are continuously authenticated and evaluated before they are granted access to resources.

4. Create a zero trust policy

A zero trust policy is a comprehensive security framework that defines rules and guidelines for continuously verifying the identity and integrity of users, devices, and network traffic before granting users access to resources.

5. Monitor your network

Finally, even after establishing your organization’s zero trust security, it is necessary to continually monitor your network to make sure that there aren’t any existing security issues or areas needing improvement.

Monitoring involves observing and analyzing network traffic, user behavior, and endpoint activities in real-time to detect anomalies, respond to incidents swiftly, and ensure compliance with security policies.

The Zero Trust Security Implementation Gap

Organizations need to rethink the perimeter in the context of identity and the cloud for a modern approach to identity governance. If not, there can be serious consequences.

Most organizations aspire to create zero trust but are a great distance from achieving it. Statista reports that 97 percent of companies claimed to have zero trust security initiatives in 2022.

However, one leading analyst firm reports that just one percent of companies currently have cybersecurity programs that operate on the assumption that threats may already exist within their networks and that both external and internal actors could potentially be malicious.

Why do Businesses Need a Modern IGA Solution?

The Breakdown of Perimeters

It used to be that organizations focused on the perimeter when it came to security – this is the “castle and moat” analogy. The problem is that once inside the environment, attackers move with ease like any insider. Therefore, the castle is only secured from the outside. When employees worked mainly within an office, accessing mostly on-premise corporate resources, identity was not the key to security.

When it comes to thwarting external attacks, good perimeter security remains an essential part of any organization’s overall cybersecurity strategy. Today, however, significant shifts in where and how employees, contractors, partners, and vendors work have made perimeter security less of a factor in an organization’s ability to reduce the threat of security breaches.

A New Landscape

It has been over two decades since we saw cracks in the traditional perimeter approach. The frequency, size, and scope of data breaches put information security front and center. It is rare you speak to someone who has not lost their information in a data breach. Most governance problems that organizations face today are a result of these breaches and sometimes security failures by organizations.

Now, add to that the fact that organizations have adopted cloud services and a massive increase in remote work, and it’s clear that the traditional perimeters have broken down. As the landscape has evolved, we are faced with new operational and governance challenges. In fact, in a survey conducted by analysts at Enterprise Strategy Group, respondents reported that 52% of business-critical apps are now cloud-based rather than on-premises.

Improved Access

What an Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution is supposed to do is know what access these various individuals should have inside your organization. A modern IGA automates security access in a fast, efficient, consistent, and accurate way – and at scale.

The Zero Trust and Identity Connection

A modern approach to identity governance and administration provides critical identity information and business context, which helps with building out a zero trust model – if you want to make effective decisions in a zero trust model, you must have a better and/or deeper understanding of your users and the context (or contexts) that they operate in.

A growing number of organizations are taking advantage of what identity governance can do to help successfully implement zero trust.

Zero trust is not merely a matter for the IT department – it is a benefit for the entire organization. That is why key stakeholders must be involved in the process. They must understand the critical benefit this model offers, as well as the possible consequences if nothing changes.

A More Secure Future

The increase in remote work has led to a greater need for cloud-based identity and access management. Consequently, the governance of identities and their associated permissions has become one of the top five biggest cybersecurity priorities for most organizations. Adopting a full-featured, cloud-native IGA system is key to a zero trust strategy and to strengthening a company’s cybersecurity posture.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how we have helped organizations like yours secure identities, improve compliance, and strengthen their overall cybersecurity posture.