Zero Trust Security Is Here To Stay For Decades

Though lockdown was temporary, the trends that arose because of COVID-19 seem permanent. One such trend is the migration from physical workplaces to remote and hybrid workforce. Organizations are still opting to expand their workplaces to remote environments despite lifting lockdown. The reasons are the perks that come with the remote workforce; flexibility and reduction in expenses.

So, a remote workspace seems like a permanent trend. Though many users are dealing with zoom fatigue, they generally like to work from the comfort of their homes. According to a survey by Gartner, 90 percent of the HR leaders are planning to introduce a remote workforce despite the availability of COVID-19 vaccination. With the shifting from physical to virtual workspace, the demands for the security of a network become tenfold. The traditional security postures do not meet the remote workforce's security demands.

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That's the reason most organizations are implementing Zero Trust Security Framework. Before virtual workspaces, the word Zero Trust had no importance beyond merely another buzzword in cyber security. However, with an increasingly remote workforce, implementing Zero Trust is the crucial step towards a secure network, keeping your system and its data encrypted. Zero Trust architecture is more likely to stay here for decades with the increasingly remote workforce.

Zero Trust Architecture

Zero Trust is a security posture that ensures authentication and authorization of every single entity entering an organization's network. It assumes that a system's resources are always at risk since they do not possess any specific endpoint. They can be local, in the cloud, or hybrid. So, it requires that every individual, whether they are part of an organization's network or not, must be continuously verified before entering into the system and accessing its resources and data. Learn more about Zero Trust and why it is important here.

Zero Trust is the ultimate solution to real-world business challenges. It uniquely addresses the security concerns because of today’s digital transformation, including protecting the remote workforce and hybrid cloud computing systems. Zero Trust Architecture is most likely to stay here for decades or even more. Here are a few reasons that support this the notion;

Alleviates Security Vulnerabilities

ZTA (Zero Trust Architecture) enables you to monitor user activity throughout your system. In this way, it circumvents common security issues in your network. It ensures that only genuine users are accessing the resources and data of your system for the right purposes. It keeps you alert if someone violates the trusted resources of your network.

Since the Zero Trust Architecture allows you to supervise users' activities and patterns better, it denies every attempt to enter your system unexpectedly. It keeps you vigilant when an unknown entity tries to access any application, data, or files for which they do not have any authority.

Ensures Identity Management

Today's digital transformation has introduced complex IT environments. To keep the resources of a network encrypted, be it remote, in the cloud, or hybrid, identity management is crucial. That is what the Zero Trust model addresses at the top. It evades the traditional system for accessing network resources and is based upon granting access by considering several identity variables.

This includes authentication and verification of users at multiple access points. It is not limited to the validation of a user only; instead, it ensures that the correct user is accessing the right resources of a system for the right purposes. Further, it also guarantees that the user is entering into an organization's network with secured devices.

Allows flexibility in Moving Resources

As business goals are ever-changing, the resources you require to meet such purposes revamp likewise. Previously, it was tough to move IT resources within the corporate framework. You need to manually establish a security policy at the new location before moving data and applications from a particular data center to the cloud computing network or vice versa. It was not only a time-consuming process but caused multiple security vulnerabilities too. However, ZTA allows you to migrate security policies throughout IT infrastructure through automation effortlessly.

Provides conditional Access

The security concerns of every organization are different. Every establishment can tailor the Zero Trust model according to its system's security demands. ZTA allows conditional access enabling you to tighten or relax security strategies as your setup demands.

Since Zero Trust is not a particular tool or software, it is an approach that provides you robust security and is adaptive at the same time. Being an IT administrator, you can customize ZTA according to the security concerns of your system.

You can develop strategies that challenge your system's users to continuously validate their identification or deny their attempts to gain access from untrusted devices. You can also opt for multi-factor authentication at susceptible access points, including biometrics. Besides, ZTA is a model that you can implement without causing interruptions to the users' experience.

Grants Access Beyond Passwords

The traditional security postures do not align with the demands of today's complex IT networks. Passwords are now a thing of history. Though they protect sensitive information to some extent, they are not a robust security approach. In actuality, passwords do not necessarily confirm a person's real identity. Instead, they merely show that someone presents an accurate arrangement of credentials.

In comparison, ZTA profoundly analyzes the identification of a user at multiple access points beyond passwords. It requires that every individual's device and network be secured to grant access to an organization's applications and data. It lets organizations establish authorized identification and credentials and add an extra layer of protection as multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Conclusion

Zero Trust Architecture does not trust any entity unless authenticated. It addresses the ever-evolving security concerns for decades and today's security issues resulting from the hybrid and remote workforce. Organizations will increasingly employ dispersed workforces, and employees will continue to work remotely or under hybrid conditions. Since it is a win-win situation both for employees and employers to work remotely, remote work is the future. Zero Trust Architecture is crucial to keep a system's resources secure as long as a remote or hybrid workforce is there.