Don’t Fall for These Top 5 Misconceptions about Zero Trust

Zero Trust is the new buzzword, and there is no singular definition of what it is. Because of that, the term “zero trust” has been misused, misinterpreted and misunderstood. As a result, almost every data security and cybersecurity vendor nowadays claim to have zero trust.

But, is that true?

After reading this article, you can answer that question yourself. You will better understand what zero trust is and is not, as well as the top misconceptions when it comes to implementing zero trust within an IT environment.

Understanding Zero Trust: 3 Commonly Used Terms

Before zero trust, perimeter-based defense was used to protect data. This model was effective when data and users were on-premise. In today’s world, however, that is not the case.

As more and more companies implement digital transformation projects, remote access from third parties is becoming more prevalent, such business intelligence specialists and data scientists. Further, employees working from home is now the trend. As a result, data and users are everywhere, which greatly increases the attack surface if these accesses are not secured. Because of this, security technology must now be closer to the data and users. That’s the high-level concept of a zero trust security model.

Zero Trust – This is the term that has been widely misused for commercial purposes. It is now commonly used to position products as being “more secure”, where in fact, the product perhaps does nothing to help with zero trust. That’s because zero trust is a framework and methodology. It dictates how users and administrators move through and handle operations on an organization’s network.

Zero Trust Security Framework/Model/Architecture – This is the term that properly describes the concept of zero trust. A Zero Trust Security Framework requires internal and external users of a network to be continuously authenticated, authorized and validated before granting access to applications and data. That explains why the maxim of zero trust is “never trust, always verify”. It assumes every entry point in a network as a potential threat.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) – This term applies to network access and is part of the zero trust security framework. ZTNA uses defined access control policies to provide secure remote access to an organization’s applications and data hosted across the cloud and corporate data centers. At Mamori, our ZTNA solution is free for small businesses.

What Zero Trust is NOT: Top 5 Misconceptions

1. Zero Trust is a Product or Solution, like a 2FA Solution

“Our organization has zero trust security because we have two factor authentication (2FA).” No, zero trust security is NOT a single product or solution, nor is there a product or solution that provides an on-off switch to achieve zero trust security. Zero trust is a security model with a set of principles to help you build a secure environment. While some products may help you build a zero trust security architecture, there are no products out there that will help you become zero trust compliant immediately.

To implement a zero trust security model, your organization will need to classify data and limit access privileges by employees, vendors, contractors and other roles. Critical assets need to be identified, and network flows and operations need to be adjusted. Afterwards, you’ll need the products that enable you to enforce principles to govern how internal and external users and applications of a network are continuously authenticated, authorized and validated before granting them access to critical data.

2. Deploying Zero Trust is Expensive

According to Forrester, zero trust can reduce security costs by 31% (Adopt Next-Gen Access to Power Your Zero Trust Strategy,” Forrester Research, April 2018). This is because organizations no longer need to build massive perimeter walls around their data and networks. Instead, the zero trust methodology is closer to the data and the users, focusing more on the identity, device, application, workloads and more.

It is true that to deploy zero trust, you may have to select and integrate multiple data security solutions together. Depending on the vendor you select and the amount of integration needed, the cost of deploying zero trust could sometimes be just as costly. However, there are data security solutions in the market that are pre-built with multiple security modules combined, like Mamori.io, which could significantly decrease the licensing cost AND eliminate integration costs.

3. Zero Trust is Too Complex and Time-Consuming

Zero trust is often viewed as highly complex because some organizations took months or years to fully implement. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. Zero trust is based on a straightforward concept - enforce least privilege access, authenticate and verify all accesses accompanied with activity monitoring. The time-consuming part is identifying who should have access to what. With the right solution, implementing zero trust is not complex at all.

Also, some professionals mistakenly think that zero trust is an all-or-nothing approach. It is not. It does not need migration to a new IT environment or infrastructure. Nor does it need a new set of agents installed in all your organizations devices. Mamori.io, for instance, does all of the above and allows you to roll over your existing directory and access settings to make implementation fast and easy. This “too complex and time-consuming” misconception is typically used by those who don’t want you do deploy zero trust because it will kill their perimeter defense model.

4. Zero Trust is Not Trusting Employees

The phrase “zero trust” is sometimes misinterpreted as not trusting employees, or that employees are untrustworthy. When employees feel they’re not trusted, they may become the main obstacle preventing the roll out of a zero trust framework.

Zero trust is NOT about not trusting employees. It’s about not trusting before secure authentication and validation. It is similar to requiring a key card for employees to enter an office building. The ultimate goal is to prevent data breaches, which affects everyone within the organization.

5. Zero Trust is All About Identity and End-User Access Privileges

This misconception is why some people falsely believe they have zero trust security after implementing 2FA. While it is true that 2FA is essential, identity and end-user access privilege is just one building block to achieve a zero trust framework. That’s because other resources, other than users, also has the right to access sensitive data. One example is where a customer-facing application will need access to a database server to display customer information. Everything, whether human or machine, that have network access should abide to the “never trust, always verify” rule.

That is why zero trust should also include access privileges by other types of resources, such as applications, workload, devices, and network. Also, zero trust should also take into account access by time of day, location, and type of resource. Some solutions, like Mamori, can provide more granular access management that controls how tables and rows are accessed, what tables are accessible, and what types of operations can be executed.

Don’t Fall for the “Zero Trust” Buzzword

“Zero trust” is a buzzword that’s been misused, misinterpreted and misunderstood. There is no turnkey solution that deliver zero trust, and simply implementing 2FA does not mean you have zero trust security. Zero trust requires everything that has access to your organization’s network to be authenticated and verified, and implementing this can be simple and cost-efficient, depending on the solution that you use.

Mamori Helps You Achieve a Zero Trust Security Model

Mamori.io helps organizations build a zero trust security framework by offering an all-in-one data security solution that combines ZTNA, 2FA, Database Activity Monitoring (DAM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), SQL Firewall, intrusion detection and data privacy solutions. Implementation is fast and easy – simply deploy a Mamori server without any changes to your existing infrastructure, roll over your existing directory and access settings, and start defining a more robust access control. Try for free or schedule a demo today!