The traditional notion of a secure network perimeter no longer exists thanks to the rise of cloud technologies that enable staff to work from anywhere. With no fixed perimeter, cybercriminals have more places to hide. The subsequent rise in cyber breaches has forced the hand of organisations to implement alternative security frameworks.
Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) focuses on verifying every user and device, both inside and outside an organisation's perimeters, before granting access. However, any security framework is only as good as its access controls.
That's where Identity and Privilege Access Management comes in. Here, we discuss the importance of each concept and why they are integral to preserving network security in a Zero Trust model.
Any security framework is only as good as its access controls
Identity Access Management – The first stage of Zero Trust
Identity Access Management (IAM) is a framework of business processes, policies and technologies that covers all digital identities within a network. If IAM isn't in place before adopting a Zero Trust model, there is the risk that an unauthorised user can move across the network and target vulnerabilities.
Visualising the network is the first stage of implementing ZTA. It involves accumulating the information of all the users and machines that connect to the network. After establishing these identities, organisations need to provision each user account with suitable levels of access based on the user’s job role. This least privileged approach ensures that users only have access to the resources required for their day-to-day jobs, limiting the number of entry points across the network.
Monitor user access and network activity
In a perfect world, you would implement an IAM framework and that would be the end of it. However, IAM is something that needs to be constantly monitored and updated. For example, if the user account of a former employee is still active, it would expose an entry vector that cybercriminals could exploit. Therefore, Active Directory Management of user roles is a critical element of IAM.
This means that all network activity needs to be analysed closely. However, network administrators are fighting a losing battle in trying to manage every single connection – there are just too many of them. This is where AI-powered anomaly detection comes in, designed to ease the burden of network security professionals by taking care of the monitoring and creating alerts of any irregularities in user activity.
For example, if a user connects to a resource from the office and then swiftly accesses the same resource from a different location, this will trigger an alert and deny the user access. As cybercriminals utilise AI as part of their campaigns, network security professionals need to embrace the same technology to counter this threat.
Whereas IAM provides the blanket coverage, PAM is specifically designed to safeguard all business-critical functionality.
Privileged Access Management – Administering the administrators
It cannot be understated how important IAM is, but there is a similar concept that provides granular security for critical resources. Privileged Access Management (PAM) reinforces the ‘Trust No One’ stance by controlling access to privileged user accounts such as database administrators. Whereas IAM provides the blanket coverage, PAM is specifically designed to safeguard all business-critical functionality.
If IAM is only applied to a Zero Trust framework, that could leave coverage gaps as privileged accounts have elevated access rights to normal users. PAM mitigates the risk associated with privileged accounts through strict controls, including stringent auditing and session management policies that record keystrokes of privileged users. Password rotation and credential vaulting also feature heavily in PAM, adding more security levels to gatekeep privileged passwords in an encrypted vault.
The importance of Identity and Privilege Access Management
If network security professionals are serious about implementing a Zero Trust model, they need to prioritise IAM and PAM controls. All identities that connect to the network need to be accounted for by the network security team, with each individual user account being forensically analysed in terms of level of access.
Cybercrime has never been more prevalent, with hackers now having access to an array of tools that can identify weaknesses across the network and exploit vulnerabilities. Organisations understand the importance of ZTA in combating the increased threat. However, a Zero Trust strategy is only as strong as its access controls, which is why IAM and PAM are going to be your best friends.