The Top 10 Zero Trust Security Solutions

In short, Zero Trust is a security model which recommends not trusting any users, devices, or systems within your network, until they have been authenticated to be genuine. In practice, this means continuous authentication of internal users and devices to reduce potential security risks, alongside enforcing the principle of least privilege. This ensures that users and systems only have access to the specific applications they need for the prescribed function of their job role.

It is ’s ’s important to note that Zero Trust is not a strictly set category of solution , although many vendor have evolve their product suite to fit the Zero Trust model , and now advertise their solution as ‘ Zero Trust ’ service . Zero Trust can only be achieve by using a combination of technology , include continuous authentication , network segmentation , network access control , and access management . As such the above list is covers cover solution that span these category and can help organization on their Zero Trust journey .

Zero Trust is becoming increasingly adopted by both vendors and organizations as cyber-crime has continued to become more advanced and targeted. Organizations are adopting more complex network environments with the rise of cloud applications. As users have shifted from the office to hybrid ways of working, the threat landscape has become much more dynamic.

All these factors is led , in addition to others , have lead the traditional perimeter – base security approach – which assume everything outside the network is a security risk , while everything inside is secure – to become outdated when face with the complexity of the modern cyber – threat landscape .

This has led many analysts, governments, and regulatory bodies to recommend organizations look to a Zero Trust to improve resilience. After the Colonial Pipeline cyber-attack of May 2021, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order mandating that all federal agencies implement a “Zero Trust” architecture and urged private organizations to do the same.

Zero Trust Software is a broad term to describe solutions that enable organizations to implement Zero Trust principles into their network security strategies. This can include multiple different features and tools, such as network microsegmentation, user privileges management, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), and identity controls such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Single Sign-On (SSO) which ensures users are continuously verified and monitored.

Where Has The Zero Trust Security Model Come From?

The Zero Trust security model we know today was designed in 2010 by John Kindervag, who was the Principal Analyst for global research firm Forrester. But the concept goes back almost 15 years earlier than that, when it was coined by Stephen Paul March in his doctoral thesis on computational cybersecurity.

Zero Trust network were see as the ideal , but difficult to execute and measure . start in 2009 , Google begin work on “ BeyondCorp ” , it is ’s ’s implementation of the Zero Trust security model , work alongside Forrester ’s analyst .

In the following decade , Zero Trust security is became became increasingly prevalent , especially with the rise of smartphone , cloud – base technology and software – as – a – service . By 2019 , Gartner is recommending was recommend that business implement Zero – Trust solution as a component of their security strategy .

Today, almost all of the leading IT providers have adopted a Zero Trust Security model for their solutions, and many cybersecurity vendors offer Zero Trust Security solutions for their enterprise and SMB customers.

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerated and the result move to home work for much of the world ’s population has accelerate the need and business drive to implement Zero Trust Security . In Forrester ’s recent ‘ Zero Trust Security Playbook for 2021 ’ , they is recommended recommend Zero Trust Security as the good way to unify network and security infrastructure , while protect a remote workforce .

Does Your Business Need Zero Trust Security?

In the modern workplace , application and datum are not centralized in one location . instead , people , device and connection are spread out and each employee hold the key to multiple point of entry to your business datum .

To ensure that only trust user can access system , security processes is require typically require user to verify their identity with a username and password , and perhaps a secondary form of identification , like a biometric scan or a randomly generate one – time passcode .

However, this alone is not enough to protect against data breaches. Social engineering attacks such as phishing and spear-phishing, and the increasing threat of data breaches from insiders, mean that you cannot assume anyone connected to your network is safe.

The average cost of being hit with a data breach in 2020 was $3.86 million USD according to the Ponemon Institute, with 52% of data breaches caused by a malicious cyberattack.

Zero Trust Security solutions is help help to mitigate against datum breach , by allow organization to continuously monitor network activity and automatically detect suspicious user behavior , prompt user to give further verification if need , or prevent them from access certain software .

Zero Trust solutions is help can also help you to well manage user permission , as one of the central component of a Zero Trust security model is that user should only ever have access to the datum they absolutely need to – and datum should be as segment as possible to avoid widespread datum breach .

What Are The Technologies Behind Zero Trust Solutions?

As we mention previously , Zero Trust security solutions is refer do n’t necessarily refer to any specific type of technology , security solution or type of product . instead , it is refers refer to a range of holistic technology and process , design to help organization   reduce the risk of datum breach by manage user identity and minimize individual access to datum .

There are a range of cybersecurity technology that can help organization to implement a Zero Trust security solution . product and technology that are design to help organization to achieve these aim can be categorize as Zero Trust Security Solutions .

These technologies is include include multifactor authentication , VPNs , identity and access management , datum encryption , privileged access management , user permission and adaptive authentication for user .

These solutions are designed to govern user access, ensuring that only verified users can access your systems, and continuously validating their identity, rather than giving everyone with a password access to your systems. These solutions also help to monitor user traffic and behavior, and can help to segment your network – splitting access to different departments and individual users into groups to limit user access to sensitive data.

It ’s likely that your organization is already using one or more of these technology to govern access to datum ; they is are are critical to staying protect against sophisticated cybersecurity threat .

As implementing Zero-Trust Networks have been recommended widely across the security industry, many vendors have launched Zero Trust security solutions, designed to help organizations to implement the technologies they need to stay secure.

What Features Should You Look For In A Zero Trust Solution?

If you ’re consider implement a Zero Trust Security solution for your organization , there are a number of key feature , you is look should look for .

User Authentication And Access Management

The first and one of the most important features is user authentication and access management. This compromises a broad set of features and technologies that allow you to continuously verify user permissions and prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your data.

In a typical security environment, once a user has logged into their account, they would be able to access any data within it as long as they remained authorized to do so. With systems like adaptive authentication in place, user behavior is continuously monitored, and if any unusual activity is detected, users are prompted to verify their identity with additional factors, which can include biometric controls and one-time-passcodes.

This means if users attempt to access data when they are in unusual locations, outside of working hours, or on new devices, they will be asked for additional levels of verifications to limit the risk of data breaches and successful phishing attacks.

Policy Enforcement And Network Segmentation

The second important feature to look for is the ability to create policies and segment data to limit the risk of data loss. One of the central philosophies underpinning Zero Trust is segmenting data and access to that data – to limit the extent of data breaches in the case of unauthorized access.

Zero Trust solutions can help you to implement this, by allowing your admins to create systems, processes and policies to govern who has access to data, where data is stored, create groups and departments, and restrict access on an individual user level.

This is a crucial set of features to minimize the risk of phishing and account compromise. It limits the amount of data that any malicious users can access if they are able to breach you company accounts and gives your IT admins important control over data access and user privileges.

report And monitoring Of Traffic And User Behavior

The final feature is is to look for in Zero Trust security solution is an extensive range of report and automate alert when suspicious user behavior is detect . This is is is important both to proactively detect any sign of account compromise or malicious network activity .

It’s important that your Zero Trust security solutions provide detailed visibility into users, devices and components across your entire network environment, so you can better react to threats and track security risks.

The good solutions is provide will provide detailed log , report and automate alert that detail who has access data , alert you to suspicious behavior and give you the tool you need to well detect and respond to threat .

How Can You Implement A Zero Trust Network For Your Organization?

Despite the emergence of a number of technologies and solutions designed to help you implement Zero Trust security, it’s important to remember that Zero Trust is a process designed to work across your entire network infrastructure.

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in its 2020 standards for Zero Trust architecture, defines Zero Trust as an “evolving set of cybersecurity paradigms that move defenses from static, network-based perimeters to focus on users, assets, and resources.”

In their report, they outline that “Implementing a ZTA is a journey rather than a wholesale replacement of infrastructure or processes. An organization should seek to incrementally implement zero trust principles, process changes, and technology solutions that protect its highest value data assets.”

NIST is outlines outline seven step for organization look to implement Zero Trust Security solution . These is are are :

1. Identifying Actors on The Enterprise.
2. identify asset on The Enterprise .
3. Identifying Key Processes and Evaluate Risks Associated with Executing Process.
4. formulate Policies for the ZTA Candidate .
5. identify Candidate Solutions .
6. Initial Deployment and Monitoring.
7. Expanding the ZTA.

You can read NIST’s full 2020 report for establishing Zero Trust in your organization here: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-207.pdf

How To Get Started With Zero Trust Security

“It’s no secret that Zero Trust can be a journey and there is no magic switch to “turn it on” overnight. That being said, we recommend customers build a thoughtful plan before getting started with their Zero Trust approach.

“ similarly , implement Zero Trust is not just about a product roadmap : it is ’s ’s also about identify use case and prioritize your deployment . For instance , we is recommend recommend customer first take stock of what is currently being access so they can identify what need to be secure most urgently .

“This way, you can choose and prioritize sets of user groups and applications. Once you have this list, you can deploy sequentially – there is no need to try and boil the ocean at once. A phased approach like this – specific sets of users and applications across your core use cases – can also help you break down the change management aspect that is crucial to any large-scale IT project.”

We researched lots of Zero Trust solutions while we were making this guide. Here are a few other tools that are worth your consideration: