When dealing with business computing, there are many situations where threats could potentially ruin the good thing you’ve got going. Today, a lot of businesses are getting much more serious about their IT security with what is known as a “zero-trust policy”. What exactly is a zero-trust policy? This month we will explain it.
Zero-Trust Means Just That
For the most part, businesses that make strides to secure their network and infrastructure have used the same methods for decades. They deploy software to help them secure the network, they manage access and make sure their staff knows how to create secure passwords and identify phishing emails. Zero-Trust doesn’t eliminate those, but what it does is take away any space for error. Any device hooked into the network is treated like a stand-alone foreign entity and every user, a foreign user; there is no inherent trust.
What Does Zero-Trust Look Like?
While this seems like a solid practice when it comes to your business’ IT security, it just isn’t right for some companies. First of all, you have productivity to account for and many workers simply get frustrated when their aim is to do their job, but are interrupted by a lot of hoops to jump through just to gain access. Every business is different and has different needs and some companies simply have far too many moving parts to make a dedicated zero-trust policy work for them.
Consider businesses that have vast computing infrastructures that span several locations. The cost alone to secure so many devices is prohibitive in setting up this policy. So if you are thinking about doing zero-trust security, you may want to implement it on certain systems and not on others. This can lead to convolution, and anyone that knows IT security at all knows that the simpler it is on administrators the more successful it will be. Since businesses might have to acquire new hardware and services, train technicians, and frequently update all of this technology to keep up with security standards, it could just be a lot for an established company.
Despite Those Concerns There Is Immense Security Value
There are significant hurdles involved with zero-trust, but here are five reasons why the strategy does make sense for certain organizations:
- You gain greater control over data means delegation to appropriate users.
- Provides a construct for stronger authentication and authorization policies.
- It can provide a much cleaner user experience (single sign-on).
- Every action and device is subject to policy, leaving nothing to chance.
- Mandates the need for comprehensive access logs.
Build a More Secure Computing Infrastructure
Network security is a big concept and needs big action to do it right. The IT professionals at North Central Technologies can help you set up your business’ IT in a lot of different ways, and zero-trust is one that a lot of businesses are moving toward with the major risks that come with all the cyberthreats out there at this time. Give us a call today at 978-798-6805 to learn more about how we can help you build a robust and secure computing infrastructure.
