What is Zero Trust and How It Protects Your Business
Traditional cybersecurity models no longer suffice as business environments and IT infrastructures evolve. The rise of remote work, cloud computing, mobile devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has rendered perimeter-based defenses largely ineffective.
To adapt, businesses are embracing a new model known as Zero Trust Security, also called Zero Trust.
Zero trust operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify” because:
- Many users now work remotely and are no longer always protected by the corporate firewall.
- Some company applications, services, and data, collectively known as resources, are located outside the corporate firewall (e.g., in cloud environments, on mobile devices, or hosted servers)
- Threats can exist from within (e.g., disgruntled employees, socially engineered insiders, or malicious contractors), not just outside the firewall.
In these scenarios, a firewall that keeps threats out is insufficient. You need protection wherever elements of your organization reside at any given time. Zero trust provides this type of protection.
Core Principles of Zero Trust Security
Zero trust is based on a few core principles. Let’s tackle each one briefly.
Security Breach Assumption
Research has shown that many cyber threats, especially Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) and highly evasive malware, can reside in your network and stay undetected for extended periods.
For instance, according to the Microsoft Digital Defense Report, a breach takes an average of 207 days before it is detected.
It’s, therefore, logical to assume that a threat may lurk in your network even as you read this article. When you start embracing the assumption that your network may already be compromised, you’ll understand why more stringent security controls are necessary. This leads us to the succeeding Zero Trust principles.
Data Security
As with all cybersecurity models, one of the key goals of zero trust is to establish data security.
In the zero trust architecture, businesses must protect data wherever it is, whether at rest in a storage device or in transit on a network connection. It doesn’t matter whether the data resides outside or inside your network. Data must be protected at all times.
Least Privilege Access
Cyber threats inside your network don’t always have to be APTs or malware. They can also be disgruntled employees, malicious third parties, or compromised accounts, devices, or applications.
To minimize the damage these threats can inflict on your business, you must limit access to your resources to only what is necessary for the subject to fulfill its task and nothing more.
To clarify, a ‘subject’ in Zero Trust parlance refers to any entity, such as a user account, device, or application, requesting access to a resource.
You can implement least privilege access by combining the following controls:
- Granular access – Instead of granting broad access based simply on location (e.g., outside or inside your network), you should grant it based on several factors. For instance, you can combine the subject’s location, role, software application, and device.
- Per-session access – Access should be granted on a per-session basis. In other words, subjects must be re-evaluated at the start of each session before being granted access. This must be done regardless of where they’re located or what device or app they’re using.
- Minimum permissions – Each specific permission, such as read, write, or delete, should only be granted if the task requires it.
Continuous Monitoring and Verification
In addition to per-session evaluations, subjects, and their current environments must also be evaluated on an ongoing basis for signs of compromise or potential risks. This means that access policies can be dynamic.
Suppose a subject’s location, application, or device changes during a session, its access should then be reassessed in real time.
Similarly, if the subject’s environmental attributes or security posture changes (e.g., a threat or potential risk is detected), access permissions may also be affected. Consequently, subjects may have to re-authenticate (i.e., undergo the login process again) if necessary.
Micro-Segmentation
One way to limit malware infections or hacker intrusions to other parts of your network (known as lateral movement) is by applying network segmentation. To implement this, you typically divide your network into sections or segments. You then limit access to a particular segment to subjects with official business in that segment.
In traditional networks, segmentation uses network infrastructure devices such as switches, routers, or firewalls to create isolated network zones.
Modern networks with software-defined networking (SDN) enhance segmentation by allowing policies to be applied dynamically, independent of physical network infrastructure. This gives you more flexibility because it will enable you to apply segmentation virtually.
You can also reduce the size of each segment and apply the dynamic access policies we discussed earlier. Known as micro-segmentation, this approach further reduces each segment’s attack surface and limits malware infections and lateral movement.
Core Components and Data Sources of Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)
A typical zero trust architecture deployment consists of three core components and several data sources.
The core components are collectively responsible for allowing or denying a subject access to a resource. The data sources provide policy, inputs, and context, which the core components use to make access decisions.
| ZTA Core Component | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Policy Engine (PE) | Makes the final decision whether to grant a subject access to a resource. Takes into account input from external sources, such as CDM, threat intelligence, SIEM, etc. |
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| Policy Administrator (PA) | Acts as an intermediary between the PE and PEP. After processing the PE’s policy decision to allow or deny access, it issues commands to the PE for enforcement. |
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| Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) | Enforces the access control decisions |
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Here are some examples of data sources. All these data sources feed information to the policy engine, which then uses it to make policy decisions.
| ZTA Data Sources | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) system | Continuously monitors, assesses, and responds to security threats by collecting real-time data on resources, subjects, and network activity to enforce dynamic security policies. |
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| Threat Intelligence feeds | Aggregates internal and external threat information. |
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| Activity logs) | This refers to system, application, and network traffic data. |
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Benefits of Implementing Zero Trust
All that being said, what can zero trust do for your organization? What are the benefits?
Mitigates the risk of a data breach
Data breaches are costly. In fact, according to the Cost of a Data Breach Report, the global average cost of a data breach is now at a whopping $4.88 million, a 10% increase from the previous year.
For many businesses, the financial repercussions of a breach can be catastrophic.
Fortunately, zero trust offers some advantages. The same report identifies multiple factors that can reduce the cost of a data breach. Among those factors are technologies that can serve as zero trust components and data sources.
- SIEM - Average cost reduction of $255,932
- Encryption - Average cost reduction of $243,914
- Threat intelligence - Average cost reduction of $243,090
- IAM - Average cost reduction of $222,883
- SOAR - Average cost reduction of $214,603
While encryption is neither a zero trust architecture core component nor a data source, it’s a vital ingredient of data security, a core principle of zero trust.
Here’s a sample computation of potential savings if we only consider the five items above.
Chart created by OffGrid, data sourced from Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024
Enhances compliance initiatives
Zero trust core principles and components provide security measures that are often more stringent than what existing regulations require. These include HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, GLBA, and other data privacy and data protection regulations.
Thus, your organization will be much better positioned to achieve regulatory compliance by implementing least privilege access, micro-segmentation, continuous verification, and other zero trust elements.
Supports modern work environments
Highly evolved work environments, like those involving remote work, cloud computing, and bring your own device (BYOD), now require more advanced cybersecurity models.
As discussed earlier, traditional models are no longer as effective. If you’re operating a modern work environment and want to reduce cyber risk, shifting to zero trust is a good strategic choice.
How to Implement Zero Trust In Your Organization
So, how can you implement zero trust in your organization? Here’s an overview of the steps you can take.
- Assess your current infrastructure and security posture – Conduct an inventory of your resources, subjects, and every related entity, such as users, roles, devices, applications, data, and so on. You will also want to know how those entities relate to one another. For example, who needs access to what?
- Identify gaps – Based on the information you gathered, identify gaps. For example, do you lack access control requirements? How about network segmentation?
- Develop a road map – Plan how to bridge the gaps between your current infrastructure and security posture with your desired zero trust-enabled setup.
- Define your zero trust policies – These are your security policies, but with zero trust principles, like granular access, per-session access, minimum permissions, etc., baked in.
- Evaluate potential zero trust solutions – The market is flooded with zero trust solutions and vendors. Be strategic when picking the right one for your organization. For example, prioritize those solutions that integrate well with your current infrastructure. Do you have a BYOD policy? Then, choose a solution that supports a BYOD environment.
- Run a pilot program – Once you have your policies and solutions in place, run tests in a controlled environment. Begin rolling out into production only after you confirm everything is fully operational.
- Do a phased rollout – Instead of rolling everything out in one go, roll out in phases. Start with one department and gather feedback. If that rollout succeeds, gradually expand your implementation to other departments.
Conclusion
Zero Trust is essential in a world where employees, applications, and data constantly shift between networks, devices, and cloud environments.
By assuming that threats exist both inside and outside your organization, Zero Trust forces a more proactive, adaptive approach to security. This approach limits access, continuously verifies, and minimizes potential damage.
Cyber threats are only getting more sophisticated, and compliance requirements aren’t getting any looser. But Zero Trust isn’t about making security complicated, it’s about making it smarter.
The good news?
You don’t have to overhaul everything overnight. Whether it’s enforcing least privilege access, segmenting networks, or implementing continuous verification, every step toward Zero Trust strengthens your overall security posture.
Security isn’t about trusting the right people. It’s about ensuring the wrong ones never get the chance.