A Zero Trust Policy Can Help Your Business Stay Secure

Of all the things your business needs to worry about, few of them are as complicated as cybersecurity. You need to ensure that your network is protected from threats outside of your business, but you cannot forget the threats that are within your organization as well. A zero trust approach to security can help you effectively protect your organization from attacks that come from all vectors.

What is zero trust, and how does it help your organization? Let’s find out.

A Quick Definition of Zero Trust

Most traditional networks only require a username and password combination during the initial login process, providing access to anything that the user’s account permissions allow for. While this might be the tried-and-true standard that has existed for decades, there are security risks that stem from both internal and external threats.

Rather than hoping that your employees aren’t going to cause problems for your business, through succumbing to phishing attacks or pursuing outright sabotage, zero trust takes the opposite approach. It treats each and every individual who logs into your network as a potential threat, meaning the individual has to authenticate their identity every step of the way, not just during the initial login. Zero trust is inherently more secure than alternative security policies, and with remote work and insider threats being common issues to deal with in today’s work environment, you can never be too careful.

What You Need to Know About Zero Trust

At the start of any zero trust policy is classification, i.e. determining what data actually needs zero trust protection and what doesn’t. Once you’ve made this determination, you can proceed to attach additional authentication measures to it. This means that if any of your employees want to access specific data, they must have the appropriate permissions and be equipped with the proper authorization in order to do so.

These stringent protocols are not meant to get in the way of employees doing their work; rather, they are a means to an end, enabling them to do their work while keeping the business’ security and privacy at the forefront of everyone’s minds. By controlling who has access to what information at any given time, you are effectively maximizing security and minimizing the risk of any issues which could cause damage to your business, your data, or your reputation.

What You Need to Know About Implementing Zero Trust

Zero trust begins when you classify which data needs protection like this, but the strategy is something that will take time to develop and deploy. It’s not something that can be applied all willy-nilly—these systems are complex and will require careful and strategic planning. Furthermore, the costs associated with such an implementation and heavy reliance on cloud computing make it difficult for a business to follow through on this system while ensuring consistency in security and privacy.

Considering the fact that about 20 percent of cyberattacks are the result of deliberate actions carried out by insiders, and another 50 percent are caused by insider mistakes or negligence, the odds of your company’s most important data becoming compromised are shockingly high. Therefore, you must take action now to prevent it from happening. Whether or not a zero trust policy is the right call for you, however, boils down to your specific needs.

BNMC can help you determine your security needs. To learn more, call us at (978) 482-2020 today.