What is a Zero Trust Company?

A Zero Trust company offers products and services that can help an organization implement a Zero Trust approach to cybersecurity. No person, application or machine is automatically trusted in a Zero Trust security framework; every user, device and connection must authenticate on every request for network or IT resources access.

The Zero Trust approach is a response to significant changes in IT environments, workforces and cyber threats. In the past, when users or devices within a network were automatically trusted, an attacker who successfully slipped past network defenses could move freely inside the network. Zero Trust security tools thwart this lateral movement by limiting broad access to select individuals and by constantly requiring authentication.

To implement this innovative approach to security, organizations need the help of a Zero Trust company that can provide a range of capabilities, including continuous monitoring, endpoint protection, identity and access management, microsegmentation and more.
 

The highly distributed nature of IT environments today has spurred the rapid adoption of Zero Trust security. In the past, an organization’s network and IT assets were largely contained on-premises. Security teams sought to protect them with firewalls and defenses that prevented cyberattacks and kept unauthorized users out while allowing users, devices and applications inside the network to access IT resources freely. Everything inside the network was trusted by default.

Today, with the rise of cloud computing and hybrid workforces, there is no longer a defined network perimeter for security teams to defend. Data, applications and infrastructure in the cloud may reside anywhere in the world. Workers connect to the network not only from the office but from home, the road, co-working spaces and other unsecured locations on devices not managed by security teams. 

When these distributed IT environments are protected with traditional security measures – where everything inside the network is implicitly trusted – attackers who gain access to one internal endpoint can easily move laterally across the network to exploit weaknesses, exfiltrate data and launch additional attacks.

A Zero Trust company helps organizations protect highly distributed environments by providing a Zero Trust platform with various solutions. A Zero Trust company minimizes complexity by enabling security teams to manage multiple Zero Trust security tools from a single interface. It allows IT teams to enhance protection without adding headcount.
 

There are a number of essential practices and principles to consider when moving to a Zero Trust environment.

Nothing is trusted by default
“Never trust, always verify” is the central principle of a Zero Trust environment. No person, device, application or location is trusted by default. Instead, every access request must be authenticated based on all available data points – a user’s identity and location as well as the type of device, data source and workload.

Assume that breaches have already occurred
Waiting for positive confirmation of a breach prevents a security team from acting quickly to mitigate it. In a Zero Trust environment, teams assume their defenses have already been penetrated. They are constantly looking to discover the next threat.

Segment the environment to limit damage
Segmentation and microsegmentation solutions create zones and perimeters within the network to isolate and secure workloads, applications and critical data. By strictly limiting access to high-value assets, microsegmentation prevents attackers from moving laterally throughout the network after gaining access to one machine or zone.

Grant minimal access
Zero Trust security involves the principle of least-privilege access. Rather than granting access to broad areas of a network, a Zero Trust framework limits access for a user, device or application to only the assets required to complete a specific task or perform a particular function. This severely limits the number of entry points for attackers and minimizes the resources needed to validate credentials continually.

Continuously monitor the network
By constantly monitoring the network for threats and tracking how users interact with data and applications, security teams can quickly spot unauthorized users and misuse of resources.
 

Zero Trust companies offer a range of products and services that support a Zero Trust environment.

Identity and access controls
Identity and access management technology helps to automate the task of continuous authentication and the application of security policies throughout the network. Role-based and attribute-based access controls help to balance security with performance concerns, while technologies like multi-factor authentication (MFA) stop unauthorized access by threat actors.

Endpoint verification solutions
Endpoint security technologies validate devices as they connect to the network to ensure a legitimate user or process controls them.

Data security technology
Data security solutions protect sensitive information with encryption and allow only users and processes with a legitimate business need to access it.

Application security solutions
Application and workload solutions enhance both Zero Trust cloud security and on-premises security. These technologies protect each application and compute container to prevent unauthorized access across the network.

Network security services
Network security includes segmentation technologies to create subnetworks and Zero Trust Network Access solutions that provide secure remote connections for workers from any location.

Automation and orchestration
To simplify management, security teams need automated Zero Trust security tools to minimize human error, increase scalability and enhance efficiency while orchestrating incident response.

Real-time monitoring
A superior Zero Trust platform will provide a dashboard that delivers extensive visibility into all security processes and analytics that deliver crucial insights into the activities of users and systems.
 

Forcepoint is a leading cybersecurity company, providing comprehensive security solutions that understand digital identities and cyber behaviors to protect employees and critical data everywhere. As a premier Zero Trust vendor, Forcepoint provides an array of essential Zero Trust security products.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
Forcepoint Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) provides remote users with a fast, secure connection to data and applications on an organization’s network. In addition to identity-based access control, Forcepoint ZTNA provides real-time data inspection to stop malware from compromising internal resources and prevent sensitive data from leaving the organization.

Zero Trust Content Disarm & Reconstruction (CDR)
Forcepoint Zero Trust CDR automatically blocks malware, zero-day attacks and other known and unknown threats within documents, images, emails and other files. Where other solutions use malware detection to attempt to identify threats within these files, Zero Trust CDR assumes that every file is compromised and automatically rebuilds it to eliminate the threat. When a user receives or requests access to a document or image, Zero Trust CDR extracts the valid business information within the file. It builds a new, fully functional, pixel-perfect, threat-free file for users in near-real time.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Forcepoint DLP supports a Zero Trust framework by blocking unauthorized access to data and preventing it from being maliciously or inadvertently leaked. This Forcepoint solution monitors data flowing in and out of the domain and uses security policy to identify and block sensitive data from leaving the organization. Forcepoint DLP also delivers comprehensive visibility that helps security teams to discover, classify and monitor data throughout the IT environment.

Remote Browser Isolation (RBI)
Forcepoint Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) enables users to interact with risky or compromised websites by rendering them safely in an isolated view. It provides employees the flexibility and freedom to surf the web with low latency, and security teams the comfort knowing that users will be protected from known and unknown malware.