The foundation of the Zero Trust architecture

Zero Trust is a relatively new term for a concept that’s been around for a while. The shift to remote working and wider adoption of cloud services has accelerated the transition away from the traditional well understood and controlled network perimeter.

Security professionals should help organisations balance the productivity of their employees with appropriate security measures to manage cyber security risks arising from the new ways of working.

When people talk about Zero Trust, however, they might refer to new technologies marketed by security vendors. But in my opinion, it is as much (if not more) about the communication and foundational IT controls. Effective implementation of the Zero Trust model depends on close cross departmental collaboration between IT, Security, Risk, HR and Procurement when it comes to access control, joiner-mover-leaver process, managing identities, detecting threats and more.

Device management is the foundation of an effective Zero Trust implementation. Asset inventory in this model is no longer just a compliance requirement but a prerequisite for managing access to corporate applications. Security professionals should work closely with procurement and IT teams to keep this inventory up-to-date. Controlling the lifecycle of the device from procuring and uniquely identifying it through tracking and managing changes, to decommissioning should be closely linked with user identities.

People change roles within the company, new employees join and some leave. Collaborating with HR to establish processes for maintaining the connection between device management and employee identities, roles and associated permissions is key to success.

As an example, check out Google’s implementation of the Zero Trust model in their BeyondCorp initiative.