How to Implement Zero Trust

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Most organizations today rely on a distributed workforce and services in the Cloud. At the same time, attackers have ramped up security threats. The result: Companies have made Zero Trust projects a priority.

One big question many companies are wondering about is how to make the transformation to zero trust. Small, defined steps are best.

Some potential starting points could be replacing a SD-WAN that is a remote worker bottleneck, improving user monitoring through identity and access management, or extending endpoint detection and response (EDR) monitoring to all nodes.

But it’s not a matter of rip and replace. Some of your existing security technologies can often be reconfigured to be more in line with the Zero Trust model.

Key Steps to Implement Zero Trust Security

Here are a few essential steps to get you started:

Get executives to buy in

All Zero Trust initiatives need support from business leaders. At the end stages, what you get out of zero trust is: remote-workforce enablement, lower risk, and more command and control of diverse assets. So, you have an easily translatable business strategy that is easily justifiable to the business.

Assess your current situation

Every company has a different security maturity level and a different set of assets and skilled personnel. Before creating a business infrastructure for Zero Trust, you must know where you stand.

It’s very important for organizations to take a realistic assessment of their current posture. You don’t know where to start if you don’t do that.

Start small and proceed with deliberation

Companies that want to deploy a Zero Trust framework are often overwhelmed by the enormous scope of the project. A good place to start is by identifying critical services and/or applications to your organization. Know who uses what, where, and how they access that data.

Once you do this, a risk assessment is a good place to start to help you identify where your security gaps are.

All-new technology is not needed

Zero trust is not necessarily a set of new technologies but a different way of looking at security and the boundaries for trust. Because vendors have all labeled their products as necessary for digital transformation and zero trust, there is a lot of confusion in the market.

Take it all with a grain of salt. That’s not to say that the right technology will not help. But companies should first figure out what they really need.

Prepare for take-off

Ultimately, a deliberate and planned approach to zero trust allows companies to learn the technology, correct course, and then take on the most critical threats.

Zero Trust involves revamping trusted principles with a new approach. Remember that when sorting out the approach your team will take.