The National Security Agency is working with National Security Systems and Defense Department programs to pilot the implementation of Zero Trust principles and will provide more guidance in the coming months, according to a document the agency released last week.
While traditional security architectures focus on protecting the perimeter of an enterprise, a Zero Trust approach assumes the threat is already inside the network and emphasizes continuously monitoring who has access to high-value data at every step and stopping them from capturing it.
The guide NSA released Feb. 25 provides examples of how implementing Zero Trust could have foiled some of the approaches hackers used to compromise at least nine federal agencies and a hundred companies in an attack that leveraged network management company SolarWinds in combination with other avenues. The perpetrators’ focus on avoiding detection portends greater use of such tactics in the future and makes Zero Trust all the more important, NSA said.
“Several recent, highly publicized system breaches have exposed widespread vulnerabilities in systems, as well as deficiencies in system management and defensive network operations,” the guidance reads. “A mature Zero Trust environment will afford cybersecurity defenders more opportunities to detect novel threat actors, and more response options that can be quickly deployed to address sophisticated threats. Adopting the mindset required to successfully operate a Zero Trust environment will further sensitize cybersecurity defenders to recognize ever more subtle threat indicators.”
Zero Trust architectures also are more important in increasingly remote environments made necessary by the pandemic.
The guidance notes that while a traditional approach relies on validating passwords, which the SolarWinds hackers exploited to gain initial access in many cases, a Zero Trust approach woul ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
