Hacking seems to be on the rise, and many companies are scrambling to figure out what to do to avoid falling victim to attacks. For many years they operated on a somewhat lucrative model, but its time is apparently over, judging by the staggering number of breached records in databases around the world. It's time for something new. It's time for zero trust models. But what is it ? And how can it help companies avoid data leaks like a bottomless bucket?
Although zero trust architectures are not designed to fight hackers, they are designed to make it as difficult as possible to compromise an entire system. Instead of everything interconnecting in a network, each element has a separate segment that forces potential attackers to repeat the exploitation process each time they want to move "sideways".
Simply put:it makes the network so hard to chew on that hackers would give up and seek greener pastures elsewhere. If you compromise part of the architecture, the rest stays in its own space, making progression incredibly cumbersome.
Let's put this idea into practice:if you have a sales department, you will only give them access to the data they need to do their job. It just means giving them access to marketing-relevant customer data (like what products they purchased, etc.). Financial information, on the other hand, should only be accessible by the accounting department.
This type of model would prevent a hacker from gaining access to a commercial database by compromising a commercial's credentials.
In addition to compartmentalization, a zero-trust model should also have other principles in place:
As I said earlier, zero trust is not meant to stop attacks, but it works as a proactive method to make sure hackers have a hard time doing what they want.
Do you know of any creative ways companies have incorporated a zero-trust architecture? Tell us everything in the comments!
