Today’s blended workforce and cloud ecosystem require a modern approach to governing and managing identities in the cloud. The best way for an organization to reduce its attack surface is to implement a Zero Trust model that continuously re-evaluates the risk and trust level of every digital interaction. Basically, the Zero Trust approach implies that your systems are set up to trust no one. You have separation of duties in place and are enforcing least privilege so that users only have access to the right sensitive data for the least amount of time.
Refactoring your security architecture to support modern cloud-based technologies requires a modern identity solution that integrates with existing security and compliance tools. This way, a Zero Trust Identity Architecture can continue to enforce existing use cases while enabling the creation of new ones. Achieving this requires architecture built upon interoperable solutions that can readily exchange information. This will also enable your organization to make use of visibility, risk, and threat intelligence to drive automated decision-making.
In the wake of several high-profile cyberattacks and security breaches involving federal agencies, the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) created an abstract definition of a Zero Trust Architecture along with several deployment models. Elaborated in NIST SP 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture, this model provides a roadmap for enterprise security architects looking to implement Zero Trust-based approaches to information security.
Building a Zero Trust architecture isn’t a simple, one-step process. It instead requires implementing new solutions that can gather intelligence across your IT ecosystem and inform the SASE, access management, and security tools that enforce policies. Designing such an architecture means thinking differently about interconnectivity and the value of an open, standards-based approach. It means thinking smarter in your entire approach to identity and security across your organization.