Here is Zero Trust Network access solution as the best technology to securely connect to organizational resources and applications.
Principles of Zero Trust Network Access
Zero Trust Network Access provides significant benefits, including significantly increasing an organization’s ability to detect malicious activity. Then other violations of policy or procedure reduce the risk that a malicious or careless user can access sensitive data. Also, it allows organizations to enforce policies and procedures that ensure that users do not share credentials with other users or devices.
ZTNA is based on the following principles:
1. Authentication: Authentication is the process of proving your identity. That is by providing appropriate credentials, such as a username and password, digital certificate, or biometric data (fingerprint or voice). Authentication is a fundamental requirement of secure network access that employs multi-factor authentication and controls.
2. Authorization: Authorization is the process of determining what resources a user or a device can access. This is based on their identity and the requirements for resource access. For example, an administrator may require that users accessing servers in the data center be members of a security group that has been granted read/write access to all servers.
3. Isolation: Isolation is the practice of separating users and devices from each other and organizational resources. This is even when those users are members of the same security group(s). Isolation is important because it significantly reduces the risk that any single user or device can be compromised and thereby gain access to secure organizational resources.
Security Containment
In isolation, if a hacker compromises a single user account, they cannot use that account to reach organizational resources. So, they must compromise additional accounts to do so. This significantly reduces the risk associated with a single compromised account.
Containment is the practice of containing damage when an incident occurs. This is by protecting organizational assets through enforcement of security policies that restrict access and eliminate unnecessary privileges. Containment helps prevent hackers from accessing sensitive data by eliminating unmonitored access.
So, it also protects against damage caused by violations of policy and procedure, like an insider threat. That is by monitoring employee activity to detect policy violations as they occur. Also, limiting employee privileges as necessary to prevent further damage from occurring.
Response and recovery are activities that are carried out both before and after an incident occurs. This is to improve an organization’s ability to detect incidents when they occur and contain them when they do occur. Then to identify their root causes systematically and respond effectively without causing further damage in the process.
ZTNA Summary
In this concept, you must enforce the principle of least privilege. This is by granting only the minimum level of access that is required to perform assigned tasks. Then log all accesses to organizational resources, and monitor for anomalous activity.
Moreover, it makes it easier to grant temporary access to external users, such as vendors and consultants. Because it is easy to grant them temporary credentials without having to grant them permanent access to organizational resources. It reduces the risk of “insider threats” by establishing a means of monitoring employee activity to detect policy violations as they occur.