Do you need Zero-Trust security?

The concept of zero-trust is not new; it’s been around for a decade. But the complexity of today’s business structures and the rise of digital transformation are inspiring organizations to take a different security approach: creating policy-based controls to enable secure access no matter how diverse or disruptive the current landscape is.

What Is Zero-Trust?

The “Never Trust, Always Verify” Principles

Forrester Research Inc. first popularized the term “zero-trust” around 2009. Its premise focuses on a more comprehensive approach to IT security, where organizations apply stronger restrictions and redefine access control. This security model assumes nothing is to be trusted despite the relationship with a company network.

1. Identifying users and devices: As companies grapple with having the predominance of their workforce working remotely, securing access to internal tools presents a major challenge. It is essential that you always know who and what is connecting to the business network.
2. Providing secure access: In the zero-trust framework, the goal of access management is to provide a means to centrally manage access across all common IT systems, while limiting that access to only specific users, devices, and applications. Access decisions should be made in real time based on the policies defined by the business and the context of the access request.
3. Continuous monitoring: Staying on top of threats requires persistent, advanced security that goes beyond traditional antivirus. Monitor the health and security posture of the network and all managed endpoints with machine learning and behavior-based detection.

Why Should Zero-Trust Be Implemented in My Organization?

Benefits of zero-trust adoption include:

• Supports rapid Cloud adoption and user security, key in today’s landscape as we see remote access increasingly in demand
• Improves network visibility, which helps to combat advanced and zero day malware
• Reduces management costs with centralized security, and who isn’t interested in better security for less?

The Zero-Trust Application Service provided by Data Ally, is a managed service included as part of the WatchGuard EPDR and WatchGuard EDR solutions. This service classifies applications as either malware or as trusted, and then only lets trusted applications execute on each endpoint. Since it is a fully automated service, it does not require any input or decision from the end user or from the security analysts or IT teams.

Source: Watchguard