Page 38 - Federal Computer Week, March/April 2019

GOVERNMENT INSIGHTS
Rethinking Cybersecurity
“Zero Trust” is reshaping network protection.
Digital transformation of IT networks has expanded and disrupted the concept of the enterprise attack surface. Among
the casualties of the upheaval is the venerable notion of perimeter defense. Keeping out the bad guys has become a more complex undertaking. Even the basic notions of “inside” and “outside” have become less clear. The idea of a trusted perimeter bulwark is all but obsolete.
The escalation of cyber threats
is forcing IT leaders to consider a security reboot. Computing is moving away from corporate data centers
and into the cloud. Users continue to venture beyond the safety of corporate networks to connect via remote access in order to access third-party tools. Shifts in the way users connect to
networks has created an imperative to rethink access and security.
A new approach is needed. One such approach, the Zero Trust model, reimagines the fundamental security paradigm. In the following page, we’ll consider basic principles of
this emerging approach to network security, including how Zero Trust works, why it is necessary, and its effective implementation.
For Safety, Trust Not
Conventional security approaches concede that there are open doors that provide access to intruders clever enough to get past the perimeter defense, which exists in the form of firewalls and other barriers. Having defeated the first line of defense, intruders often can roam at will
around networks.
The Zero Trust paradigm
decouples shared network access
from the remote user connection, limiting user’s access to authorized applications. In this structure, an identity-aware proxy manages access to networks and curtails user activity on a granular level, application by application. Requests flow through a proxy that relies on identity awareness to provide least-privilege access, giving users only what they need. Sensitive systems used by human resources and financial operations aren’t accessible. Moreover, unauthorized users can’t see them.
Zero Trust also provides authentication at the level of users’ devices by determining if a device is broadcasting its request from an
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