Zero Trust is a cybersecurity approach in which no user, device, or action is trusted by default. Everything must be verified before access is allowed.
Zero Trust cybersecurity means you don’t automatically trust anyone or anything trying to access your network. Every person, device, or action must prove they’re safe before they get in. It gives users only the access they need and keeps watching for anything suspicious.
Zero Trust security helps protect against today’s smart cyberattacks, especially with more people working remotely and using cloud apps. It stops hackers and keeps your data safer by making sure only the right people can access what they need.
For instance, remote employees, SaaS platforms, and partner integrations create countless entry points. Traditional “castle-and-moat” security implicitly trusts anything inside the firewall and focuses on keeping outsiders out.
Once an attacker slips inside, through an account takeover, stolen VPN credentials, or supply-chain attack, that trust becomes the organization’s biggest vulnerability.
Implementing Zero Trust means continuously searching for data breaches in progress rather than assuming none exist, dramatically reducing the window of opportunity for attackers.
Zero Trust networks are another layer of security against modern threats like AI-enabled cyberattacks.
Take phishing emails, for example. Criminals rely on social engineering tactics to trick people into sending them sensitive information like login credentials. Once a criminal has learned the login credentials, they may attempt to log in to the associated account and perpetrate further attacks.
However, Zero Trust procedures may stop the criminal from pursuing their malicious goals. If multi-factor authentication is required to access an account, a criminal will have a more difficult time logging into an account. With Zero Trust, compromising one account that’s connected to other applications won’t grant an attacker unfettered access to those different applications.
Zero Trust can help stem the fallout from business email compromise (BEC) scams. An optimal Zero Trust approach will utilize behavior analysis to notice suspicious activity and stop zero-day email attacks. For example, Abnormal can detect if an email received from a trusted source was sent from a new device, which triggers a red flag of a possible cyberattack.
Ultimately, Zero Trust security seeks to fill the void of protection against insider threats or implied trusted sources. This additional layer of security can protect organizations from modern cybersecurity attacks.
"Never trust, always verify" is the motto of Zero Trust. Essentially, a Zero Trust approach should always verify the authenticity of every user, device, and network at every step.
Many components contribute to a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), including:
Least-privilege access
Comprehensive real-time security monitoring
User behavior analysis to detect unusual activity
System security automation
Microsegmentation
All of these security tools and processes can create a ZTA with the ability to effectively monitor and detect inside and outside threats to the network. It can accomplish this because it has the data to evaluate every access request.
This data provides context like the user's role, location, device, and what data they are requesting. A zero-trust model means security protocols will determine if the access request is coming from a trusted source.
Even in the event of a data breach, privileged access management and microsegmentation minimize the damage a criminal could potentially cause to an organization. A criminal caught in a Zero Trust system is unable to move laterally and obtain data.
One of the main obstacles to building a Zero Trust security framework is the legacy system itself. Existing systems are built on implicit trust, which means people can move laterally or access more data than necessary to do their jobs. To replace implicit trust systems with Zero Trust security, organizations often require rebuilding or replacing the entire IT infrastructure, which can cost them a significant amount of time and money.
Another obstacle facing organizations is the lack of a clear path to transitioning to a zero security architecture. While many paths are suggested, there isn't a holistic approach or best practices for implementing Zero Trust security.
The best approach to transitioning to zero-trust security is to take one step at a time. The CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model includes different maturity stages, which help organizations determine where they currently stand and how they could improve.
Organizations may also want to refer to the CISA Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture and the Federal Zero Trust Strategy to learn more about transitioning to a ZTA.
When it comes to email security, Abnormal has many tools to detect and block zero-day email attacks. Our API-based solution goes beyond scanning for malicious links and attachments. We use behavioral AI to learn your employees' and vendors' behavior and then detect and block anomalies.
See how Abnormal’s behavior-based email security fits into your zero-trust architecture. Request a demo of the platform today.
