Universal ZTNA: Zero Trust Anywhere network access is coming of age

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Corporate security and IT teams have faced challenges in providing secure access to the resources needed to perform their work. First, there was a rapid shift to remote work, with outdated virtual private networks unable to handle the surge in connections. Next, cybercriminals ramped up their ransomware and phishing attacks to exploit growing security vulnerabilities and target individuals, who have become the primary focus of these attacks. Now, the challenge is figuring out how to adequately secure access for hybrid workforces connecting from anywhere to hybrid workloads distributed across multiple locations.

However, a ray of hope in recent years is that many organizations that have had to weather cybersecurity storms have turned to the proven security, operational, and business benefits of Zero Trust Network Access (Zero Trust Network Access). In fact, companies are rapidly deploying universal ZTNA across their entire enterprise network as this revolutionary secure access solution reaches maturity.

What is Universal ZTNA?

ZTNA isn't limited to secure remote access use cases; it has evolved to support users and devices on campus and on-premises, including IoT. What is Universal ZTNA or, as we like to call it, Zero Trust Network Access anywhere ?

Universal ZTNA, a term coined by Gartner, is the most effective method of secure access available. Unlike the “permission-by-default” approach of VPNs, network access control (NAC) solutions, and firewalls, universal ZTNA is based on Zero Trust principles, which adopt a “denial-by-default” approach to digital resources. However, not all ZTNA solutions are created equal. The most effective ZTNA solutions go beyond remote access—which many security solution providers initially viewed as the only factor to consider and are now desperately trying to pivot their architecture and capabilities to also address the universal ZTNA challenge. Many of these same vendors have also built architectures that support only cloud access, making it even more difficult to address the issue of on-premises users and devices.

On the other hand, comprehensive universal ZTNA solutions protect access across your entire ecosystem of users, use cases, workloads, and your entire corporate network—not just the parts located in the cloud. They will easily adapt to your digital transformation and cloud initiatives, as well as to unforeseen external forces of change. As users and employees return to the office after a pandemic, they expect the same level of ease of use they experienced while working remotely, and security teams want to enforce the same level of access policies in the office.

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Why universal ZTNA, and why now?

With both on-site and remote employees, as well as a mix of legacy, on-premises, and multi-cloud workloads and IoT devices, organizations face numerous security challenges.

  • Traditional cybersecurity systems were designed for trust-based, perimeter-centric environments, making them ill-suited to protect the vast and ever-changing attack surface created by work-from-anywhere policies and dispersed IT environments.
  • Legacy workloads running on midrange and mainframe systems are difficult to secure using modern security measures and costly to refactor, yet they must remain accessible.
  • Unmanaged or compromised devices that act as unwitting attack vectors and lack strict controls (e.g., BYOD, IoT, and OT devices).
  • The notoriously complex nature of cloud environments leads many IT teams to adopt permissive default policies.

It’s important to remember that security and IT teams are often overburdened, and they need modern, secure access solutions that simplify administration, reduce complexity, and enable business agility. Remote, on-premises, and third-party users must be able to easily connect to highly diverse on-premises, legacy, and cloud environments without delays or interruptions. Providing all users with a unified and seamless experience, regardless of their work location or the location of resources, improves productivity and reduces the volume of support tickets.

To be clear, universal ZTNA is not new. The term is new and allows the industry to move beyond the notion of ZTNA as a solution intended solely for remote access. As organizations expand their Zero Trust programs—typically starting with remote users as a logical and vulnerable entry point—universal ZTNA, the Zero Trust Network Access anywhere , is a key term for reinforcing the importance of extending Zero Trust principles to on-premises networks and branch offices.

Key reasons to adopt ZTNA

The Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)market isbooming because organizations are tired of cobbling together traditional security solutions that are insecure, generate support tickets, and do not adhere to Zero Trust security principles and the principle of least privilege. What are the main reasons you should consider implementing Zero Trust Network Access anywhere and everywhere across your hybrid infrastructure?

  • ZTNA (universal) is identity-centric: ZTNA (anywhere) allows us to gather as much information as possible about a user and/or device before allowing them to connect to the network, such as: 
  • The user's context
  • The device he uses
  • The device's safety position
  • The user's location
  • It is adaptable and scalable: The universal ZTNA manages access and adapts based on the user’s context, device, and security conditions. It integrates with enterprise and security systems and provides an individual micro-perimeter for each user, granting specific access and visibility only to the network resources the user needs to perform their work.
  • Applies Zero Trust principles: A central tenet of Zero Trust security is that access is never granted based on implicit or assumed trust. It requires that trust be earned through proactive device inspection, identity validation, and contextual analysis that is continuously reassessed using a context- and risk-based approach.

What should you look for in a universal ZTNA solution?

Although "ZTNA anywhere " is the goal, not all Zero Trust network access solutions are designed to handle the complexity required to cover both remote and campus networks. In fact, in a recent report, Gartner identified several issues that could apply to a limited ZTNA solution, such as:

  • Lack of protocol support
  • Securing headless devices, such as IoT devices
  • Lack of support for bidirectional security rules

More specifically, the key benefits of advanced universal ZTNA solutions should include:

  • Secure, simultaneous access for all users, devices, and workloads, regardless of where they are located
  • Hiding resources until a user is authenticated
  • Maintaining policy synchronization with dynamic infrastructure
  • Micro-segmentation to provide secure 1:1 access for users, devices, networks, and resources
  • Customization through a comprehensive set of features, including APIs, aligned with the requirements and processes of central IT
  • A single framework and a consistent configuration to unify access and minimize administrative tasks
  • The ability to secure network access, including on-premises networks, IoT/OT, WANs, and campus networks.

Questions to ask when selecting a ZTNA provider:

Here are a few questions to include in your request for proposal (RFP) when selecting a universal ZTNA solution provider, to ensure that the provider is up to the task of delivering Zero Trust network access anywhere:

  1. Does your ZTNA solution work for users in the office?
  2. Does your ZTNA solution protect both legacy infrastructure and modern cloud-native microservices?
  3. Does your ZTNA solution require connections to go through the provider’s cloud, or do you have a choice of deployment models for your specific situation?
  4. How scalable is your ZTNA solution? Will it be able to meet my needs in six months or a year?
  5. What API integrations are available to ensure seamless integration with our current technology and security stack?
  6. We have an identity and access management (IAM) platform. Can your universal ZTNA solution work with it?
  7. Does your ZTNA solution continuously monitor and dynamically adjust connections as risks change?
  8. What is the process for verifying user identity and permissions in your ZTNA solution?
  9. How does your ZTNA solution manage and enforce unified policies for users or IoT devices connecting to on-premises and cloud resources?
  10. How do policy changes work? Does your universal ZTNA solution reduce complexity by eliminating redundant or outdated policies?
  11. How does your product protect against lateral movements in the network?
  12. Does your solution provide a unified and seamless experience for users who work remotely today and in the office tomorrow?
  13. What does network monitoring look like? What kind of visibility will it provide to my administrators?

Source: Appgate

HTBS helps you secure your organization using the Zero Trust approach, which allows you to protect and secure all components of your infrastructure while also providing comprehensive visibility into your attack surface.

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