Zero Trust - a modern model of cyber security

The Zero Trust model represents a fundamental shift in thinking about an organization's cyber security. Unlike traditional security models that focused on protecting a company's internal network, Zero Trust is based on the principle of "never trust, always verify."

This modern security philosophy is that no user, device or application can be trusted by default, regardless of their location on the network.

Evolution from traditional security models

Even before the era of dynamic digital transformation and growing cyber threats, the dominant model for IT security in organizations was security measures referred to as "castle and moat." These assumed that everything inside the corporate network was secure. This model worked well at a time when data was stored locally, users used desktops in the office, and the infrastructure was uniform and locked down.

However, today's organizations are already operating in a much more complex digital environment. The rise of remote work, migration to the cloud, mobile devices and more frequent internal attacks have rendered traditional models inadequate. In such a reality, implicit trust becomes a security vulnerability rather than part of a defensive strategy.

After all, it's easy to imagine that in the age of credential phishing and session hijacking, the security of an entire organization could be compromised by a single member of the organization, as a result of even a phishing attack.

Hence was born the need for more robust security and authentication measures, based on the principle of "never trust, always verify." Thus, the Zero Trust method, which eliminated the concept of implicit trust and introduced the requirement for continuous authentication and authorization of access to the corporate network, became common in organizations.

Zero Trust Key Principles

In a nutshell, the Zero Trust model is based on three fundamental pillars.

Assume Breach
(Assume Breach)

The last principle is based on minimizing the scope of a potential attack by segmenting accesses. This model assumes that a breach can happen at any time, so the architecture must be prepared for rapid detection and response. It uses end-to-end encryption and advanced analytics to detect threats and improve defense mechanisms in every element of the network infrastructure.

Verify Explicitly

Authentication and authorization of access based on all available data. What kind of data is this? First of all, the user's identity, but also his location or the status of the device he is using. Every access attempt, regardless of origin, must be authenticated, authorized and continuously monitored.

Least Privilege Access principle
(Least Privilege Access)

Limiting user access and adaptive policies based on risk, and data protection. So in a nutshell, users should be given only those permissions that are absolutely necessary to perform their daily tasks in the company.

Components of the Zero Trust architecture

The most important thing here is to properly prepare the architecture of the entire network infrastructure in the company based on three basic elements.

First and foremost is microsegmentation, which is the practice of isolating workloads and securing them separately to limit an attacker's lateral movement (moving inside the network after gaining access, looking for vulnerabilities and accesses to extend the attack) in the event of a security breach. The network here is divided into small, manageable segments that can be controlled and monitored separately. As a result, even if an attacker breaks through one layer of defense, his ability to move around the network is greatly reduced.

Zero Trust also requires the implementation of strong, phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all employees, with particular emphasis on accounts with elevated privileges.

The entire architecture, of course, also requires continuous monitoring and analysis of all network activity. Advanced behavioral analysis mechanisms (behavioral analysis) are used here, which are used to identify anomalies and unusual user reactions, such as logging in at non-standard hours or from a different location.

Zero Trust education and competency development

Implementation of the Zero Trust model requires properly prepared specialists. In response to growing market demand, our academy offers specialized training programs in this area.

The Cyber Security in Practice postgraduate program at PJAIT prepares executives to make the right decisions on cyber security, presenting different categories of threats and ways to respond to crisis situations.

For those wishing to gain deeper technical knowledge, there is a postgraduate program in cyber security of information and telecommunications systems, which includes an advanced program co-delivered with STM Cyber and using the "HackingDept" platform to learn defense techniques against hacking attacks. Importantly, this program is updated by a team composed of members of Poland's top CTF groups - P4 and Dragon Sector. 

Computer science students can also choose to specialize in cybersecurity in their undergraduate studies, which prepares graduates for work in IT security cells and enables further development in the field of cybersecurity in the context of implementing Zero Trust models.

The study also paves the way to the profession of pentesters, who play a key role in testing the effectiveness of Zero Trust implementations by launching controlled attacks on IT infrastructure to detect vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by cybercriminals.