With the cyberthreat landscape getting more complicated with every passing minute, cybersecurity deserves more attention than ever before. Fully trusting applications, interfaces, networks, devices, traffic, and users without authentication is no longer an option, as misjudging and misplacing your trust in a malicious entity can lead to severe breaches that can damage your business.
The Zero Trust approach suggests that nothing within or outside its perimeter can be accepted at face value and insists on verifying everything attempting to connect to the company systems before granting access. In simple terms, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) refers to it as a “never trust, always verify” approach.
Zero Trust Security practices can go a long way towards helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) minimize cybersecurity risks and prevent data breaches, guarding against data breaches, downtime, productivity loss, customer churn, and reputation damage.
Three Misconceptions and Facts About Zero Trust Security
- Misconception: Zero Trust Security is only for enterprises.
While it’s true that enterprises prioritize protection of their data and networks by deploying the best solutions and approaches, SMBs must also protect sensitive data and networks by taking adequate measures to minimize internal and external vulnerabilities. - Misconception: Zero Trust Security is too complex.
By applying Zero Trust concepts at a scale that makes sense for your business, most SMBs quickly realize it isn’t as complex as they’d anticipated. - Misconception: The cost of implementing Zero Trust is too high.
Zero Trust adoption is both operationally and economically feasible if you focus on your most critical applications and data sets first.
Make Your Systems More Secure
Chances are your current approach to cybersecurity falls short of stopping cybercriminals from accessing your network. If you’re not equipped with a solid defense against cyberthreats, you may regret it later when a breach happens.
Fortunately, the Zero Trust approach can change all that.
Adopting Zero Trust Security within your business doesn’t mean you throw away your existing security tools and technologies—in fact, Zero Trust Security should include incorporating existing security tools and technologies more systematically.
An effective Zero Trust model encompasses governance policies, such as giving users only the access needed to complete their tasks—and incorporates technologies such as:
- Multi-Factor Authentication
- Identity and Access Management
- Risk Management
- Analytics
- Encryption
- Orchestration
- Scoring
- File-System Permissions
Taking your business down the path of Zero Trust may not be easy, but it’s certainly achievable and well worth it. Don’t worry about where and how to begin. With the right partner by your side, your journey becomes easier and more successful.
