Reach Zero Trust Security Mandates with an Adaptive Approach
Government agencies and large enterprises face regulatory mandates to transition to Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA). However, securing networks that contain hundreds of thousands – sometimes millions – of connected devices is challenging. The urgency to implement ZTA from the network edge to connected clouds has only intensified with the adoption of new technologies — and cyber attacks on perimeter firewalls, VPNs and beyond. The increasing growth of unmanaged OT/IOT devices creates additional vulnerabilities beyond the perimeter that often lead to audit failure, breaches and loss of sensitive data.
To help organizations, Forescout has developed a step-by-step path to realizing effective Zero Trust models that go far beyond authentication alone. We call it “An Adaptive Approach to Zero Trust” which simplifies this transition and helps meet mandates faster.
Learn all about the progressive steps to achieve Zero Trust Architecture assurance in our white paper.
Our approach is based on a trust security model. It offers progressive steps to evolve from traditional perimeter-based security models to dynamic cybersecurity. Our methodology uses a Zero Trust model to establish asset visibility and intelligence — and emphasizes continuous improvement and agility through five key phases:
- Address: Address the gaps in network visibility with asset discovery and classification
- Design: Design the protect surface for critical assets with least privilege access policies
- Automate: Enforce comply to connect policies automatically
- Protect: Leverage closed-loop controls for automating policy enforcement and asset management across both on-premise and cloud infrastructure.
- Tune: Continuously optimize security policies based on integrated system feedback.
This prescriptive and sequenced approach significantly reduces the risk of exploitation by attackers without overwhelming existing systems and resources.
Address the Attack Surface
The first phase addresses the attack surface by gaining clarity into all network resources with asset discovery and classification. That includes a deep understanding of how devices connect to the network and classifying them according to their unique characteristics. Context-aware data classification informs network topology mapping by assigning sensitivity levels to assets, ensuring that only authorized users have access to the most sensitive areas of the network.
Design the Protect Surface
The next step is to design a secure protect surface. The Design phase is all about the development of least-privileged access policies within your access control practice. It goes well beyond multi-factor authentication (MFA). This process includes assessing endpoint security and firewalls, automating device compliance, granting least privileged access, and ensuring continuous authentication and authorization throughout user sessions. Continuous authentication and authorization of all assets in the Zero Trust Assurance model are critical to preventing unauthorized access from credential theft and session hijacking.
Before network administrators and cybersecurity analysts can start developing least privileged access policies, they need to know what constitutes normal network activity. A visual representation of network traffic helps understand network communications, as well as establish a baseline of traffic behavior allowing deviations and anomalies to stand out clearly.
Once traffic is well understood, network administrators can implement segmentation accordingly. This is the point where many implementations of Zero Trust architecture falter. Applying segmentation policies before understanding normal traffic behavior can inadvertently block legitimate access or even allow unauthorized access to sensitive resources — which is bad. A policy simulation tool allows testing the outcome of segmentation and access control policies without the risk of affecting assets and users.
Align Automation Strategies with Zero Trust Policies and Enforcement
Automation is the next step. Align automation strategies by including contextual awareness. Assess risk based on location, behavior, and historical connections. Rule-based dynamic access policies allow flexible security policies to adapt to changing conditions — and ensures consistent enforcement and reduction of manual errors. Risk-based access controls evaluate the context of each access request to determine appropriate actions. Automated governance ensures that security measures are consistently applied and updated in line with the latest threat intelligence.
Protect Policies Across Organizations and Clouds with Centralized Control
The Protect phase is all about using advanced threat detection and response across your technology stack. Security measures with ZT capabilities help enable proactive responses that improve threat defense while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency from a single security system. This aligns with the core principals of ZT, ensuring that security is integrated and embedded into every aspect of the organization’s technology stack. This integration allows real-time and sharing across IT and OT domains, streamlining service management processes while maintaining enriched asset inventories in all integrated systems.
Tune by Using Advanced Analytics, Automation and Proactive Anomaly Detection
The Tune phase is a mature phase where agencies and organizations achieve full visibility and automation in their security processes. In this phase, government agencies and organizations leverage advanced analytics for real-time anomaly detection, allowing them to identify unusual behaviors and potential threats proactively. They implement adaptive incident response workflows that adjust based on the context of incidents to improve response times with automated remediation.
Adaptive endpoint protection systems isolate compromised devices and automatically enforce stricter security controls when suspicious behavior is detected. Adaptive network segmentation policies dynamically adjust security policies based on real-time risk, ensuring only legitimate traffic is allowed into sensitive areas of the network.
Continuous compliance monitoring is integral to this phase. It helps maintain adherence to regulatory standards while feeding insights back into the Zero Trust Assurance model for ongoing enhancement of threat detection and response capabilities.
An Adaptive Approach Will Transform Your Cybersecuity Program
Adopting an Adaptive Approach is not just about compliance. It is about fundamentally transforming how agencies and organizations think about cybersecurity. By focusing on asset visibility, context-aware classifications, continuous authentication, and close-loop automation and orchestration, you will create a highly secure network that integrates asset intelligence into the broader technology stack. The effect? Your cybersecurity program will automatically evolve with changing conditions and threats based on a trust security model.
This blog is the first in a ZTA series about Forescout’s Adaptive Approach. Stay tuned for the next post. In the meantime, see our new white paper on “Reaching Zero Trust Mandates with an Adaptive Approach.”