What is the Zero Trust Security Approach and is it Relevant to a Small Business?

By Rob Ashcraft, CISO at KeyStone Solutions

The Zero Trust security approach is an approach (or model) built on the principle of “never trust, always verify.” Unlike traditional security models that assume everything inside your network is safe, Zero Trust operates on the assumption that threats can exist both inside and outside the network perimeter. This means that every user, every device, and every application, regardless of location, must be authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated before being granted access to resources. This approach challenges the conventional “trust but verify” method, mandating stricter policies and permissions for all system and accounts access.

So you may ask, “how is this relevant for my small business”? Let’s face it, small businesses are being attacked more and more, as they are seen as easy targets by cybercriminals (due to limited cybersecurity resources and on-staff expertise). A Zero Trust approach can significantly reduce your attack surface and the risk of data breaches for these businesses. By properly implementing granular access controls, small businesses can ensure that employees, devices, and applications only have access to the data and resources they need to perform their jobs or function, limiting the potential damage from compromised accounts. Moreover, Zero Trust supports compliance initiatives and simplifies audits by making user and workload connections invisible from the open internet.

Adopting a Zero Trust framework offers numerous benefits for small businesses as it provides seamless, secure, and reliable access to applications and data. It enables secure connectivity to cloud assets as well as protects systems on premise. Zero Trust also facilitates stronger security in remote access and site-to-site connectivity for partners and work-from-home users by continuously monitoring and validating access.  All of this adds up to a reduction of risk exposure as Zero Trust greatly limits your organization’s “attack surface” and will lessen the impact if there is a successful attack.

Proper implementation is the key to ensuring the successful adoption of the Zero Trust approach. Key steps would include assessing your business operations and data flow, determining logical points for segmentation of the network, implementing strong identity and access management, ensuring appropriate security controls on devices, and continuously monitoring and analyzing activity of the computing environment. Employee security awareness training on zero trust principles also plays a part in the Zero Trust approach. There are many online resources available to do your research on a Zero Trust approach. Also, you might consider working with an information security provider that is experienced in implementing Zero Trust in small business environments. I will close by mentioning that KeyStone Solutions specializes in implementing Zero Trust security strategies for small and medium-sized organizations, and we are glad to speak with you about what would be involved and how it would reduce risk for your computing environment.