Whether you own a tech company or another type of business, you may need to access your information from anywhere. If you have some sensitive information, that can lead to a variety of problems.
Luckily, zero trust can help protect your company data by restricting access to the bare minimum.
Keep reading to learn about how you can switch from a system like VPN to a zero trust network.
VPN Problems
VPNs are popular for businesses, and for a while, they were also the most secure option. However, as new technologies develop, like zero trust, VPNs aren't as powerful as newer technologies, like zero trust security.
If you want to protect your business while allowing remote access, you may want to rethink a VPN. With a VPN, you may encounter slow connections and software updates that affect your productivity.
Before you select a VPN, consider a few problems. Then, you can decide if it's worth the risk or if you should look into zero trust network access instead.
Less Productivity
One of the biggest issues with VPNs, especially those on the more secure side, is that they can negatively affect productivity. The more secure the VPN is, the more hoops you have to jump through to access the network.
A VPN can have a slower connection, and your software may not run as smoothly. Your VPN has to spend time encrypting your data any time you make changes to your network.
When making small changes, it may not seem like a huge deal. But if you have a big company and all of your employees are editing documents and accessing files, it can add up.
You and your team may notice that your computers aren't running as fast as they could. And while security is important, you don't want to lose productivity just to get that extra security.
Security Issues
Even decent VPNs can have some security issues. You don't have control over the VPN's host country, and different countries have unique regulations regarding VPNs.
Sometimes, you may choose an excellent VPN, but you won't have control over updates and changes. If a VPN provider updates their software and doesn't eliminate loopholes, your data may be at risk.
Also, if you need to work on a personal device, you may accidentally grant your personal software access to your company network. If your computer has issues, then those could leak into your company network.
Meanwhile, a zero trust network won't have those issues. The network starts by not trusting any device or user. If you need to work on your home computer, you'll have to prove to the system that you aren't a threat.
That can protect your company data even when working remotely, so you won't have to worry about these issues.
Speed and Performance
If everyone in your company needs secure access to files simultaneously, you may have some problems. A VPN requires a lot of power, so it can slow down your internet connection.
And when an entire department tries to remotely access a file at once, the speed can go down even more.
A VPN with a faster connection will cost a lot more. And if you need to add the VPN to a lot of devices, you'll have to pay for each device over a certain number.
While VPNs can provide some layer of security, their performance isn't fast enough to handle the work of a large company. And when it comes to getting work done, you need the best of the best.
Moving to Zero Trust
You may be thinking that you're out of luck when it comes to securing your company resources. However, zero trust is a newer option for protecting your information.
Its name describes how the system works because it starts by not trusting anything or anyone. The system treats all new devices and users as threats to the overall security.
With other security concepts, new devices are trustworthy until they do something bad. This can make it easy for hackers to get into a corporate system and access confidential information.
Zero trust security focuses on identity and access management. You have to prove to the system that you're trustworthy before you get clearance.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when switching to a zero trust model.
Know the User
When starting a zero trust network, you need to restrict access as much as possible. Don't grant secure access to machines, users, IP addresses or other things.
However, you'll need to grant access to some users and devices. In that case, the system needs to recognise the user or device.
The system needs to determine if the user or device has access or not. Then, the system will grant permission accordingly.
Knowing the users on your system is crucial with a zero trust network. If you don't program the system to recognise someone, you could accidentally lock an employee out of the network.
But it will also help protect you from hackers and malware.
Technology and Process
Zero trust uses a variety of technologies to determine who and what can access your network. Here are a few non-exhaustive ways the system can recognise safe devices and users.
- Using a Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) architecture
- Separating the control plane from the data plane
- Using a unified client to access applications hosted on-premise, in private & public clouds and those consumed as SaaS
- Secure Access policy control and management
- Ensuring mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) encryption for the data path
- File system permissions
- Multi factor authentication
- Analytics
- Identity and access management (IAM)
A zero trust network grants secure access with a variety of tools. It will also grant a user only as much access as they need.
For example, someone in your marketing department doesn't need to access your accounting or billing information.
To do this, the system uses network segmentation and smaller firewalls to protect certain areas of your network. That way, your employees can do their jobs without compromising network security.
A More Secure System
Zero trust can seem scary and new, but it's a great way to protect your company data. You can use the system to track secure access and grant permission to the right users.
It's more secure than other systems, like VPNs, so you won't have to worry as much about malware or other issues.
Do you want to switch to a zero trust network? Contact us to see how we can help today.