Implementing Zero Trust Architecture: An Enterprise Guide

By Umair Akbar

Recognize the ways in which Zero Trust security can and should be implemented in your company. This book goes into the complexities of business settings and provides the practical principles and requirements that your security team will need to develop and execute a successful Zero Trust path while maximizing the value of your present enterprise security architecture. After reading this book, you will be ready to construct a credible and defendable Zero Trust security architecture for your company, as well as a step-by-step road to significantly improved security and operational efficiency.

Zero-trust security has become a popular business practice, but its ramifications are yet unknown. The goal of Zero Trust is to fundamentally change the underlying philosophy and approach to enterprise security by moving away from archaic and demonstrably ineffective perimeter-centric tactics and toward a dynamic, identity-centric, and policy-based approach.

It may be challenging to make such a transformation. It may be difficult to change direction if your company has already implemented and operationalized enterprise security assets such as directories, identity and access management systems, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and SIEM. Zero Trust Security is unique in its coverage of enterprise security and information technology architectures, providing valuable architectural support and technical analysis to help your company get to Zero Trust faster.

 

You will master the following:

• Understand why Zero Trust security concepts are important and why they must be implemented.
• Consider the security and operational benefits of Zero Trust.
• Make informed decisions about the best places, timeframes, and approaches to adopt Zero Trust security architectures.
• Determine the impact of your organization's and security architecture on the route to Zero Trust.
• Prepare to sketch out your road to Zero Trust while looking for measures that will enhance your company's security right away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Umair Akbar
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201040444

Umair Akbar

Umair received his education from the University of Houston in Biomedical Sciences in 2017; he was accepted to medical school, however, ultimately, he resigned at the end of his second year in favor of "tech bro" job. He obtained his Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance with a 4.0 GPA from Western Governor's University. He is currently employed full time and has plans to receive thirteen additional Master's degrees.  As a seasoned cloud system architect and cloud engineer, Umair has worked extensively on designing highly scalable, cost effective Cloud solutions to meet stringent requirements of businesses ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 50 companies. Umair has the expertise to architect, design, and implement on leading cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, and Azure. He has architected large scale web applications in the domain of healthcare, education, and financial industries. He has a proven track record in delivering quality enterprise-grade cloud infrastructures for his clients. Accreditations: • Master of Science (M.S.) in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance • AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP-C01) • AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C02) • Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) • Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) • Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) • Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer

Book preview

Implementing Zero Trust Architecture

Umair Akbar, CISA, CDPSE, GCP-NE, AWS-SAA, CEH, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Security Problem ........................................................................................................................................... 6

Background Information About The Problem .............................................................................................. 6

A Root Cause Analysis Of The Problem ...................................................................................................... 7

A Description Of The Stakeholders .............................................................................................................. 9

An Analysis Of Systems, Processes, Or Both ............................................................................................. 10

A Description Of The Project Requirements .............................................................................................. 11

The Data Available Or The Data That Needs To Be Collected To Support The Project ........................... 12

The Industry-Standard Methodology You Used To Guide And Support The Solution’s Design And

Development ............................................................................................................................................... 13

Deliverables Associated With The Design And Development Of The Technology Solution .................... 14

The Strategy For Implementing The Solution And Anticipated Outcomes From The Project, Including

Phases Of The Rollout, Details Of Project Launch, And Training Plan For Users .................................... 15

The Quality Assurance Plan For The Solution, Including Formative And Summative Evaluation Plans

And Plans For Revision .............................................................................................................................. 16

Assessment Of Risks Associated With The Implementation ...................................................................... 17

The Technology Environments, Tools, And Any Related Costs, As Well As The Human Resources, That

Are Necessary To Execute Each Project Phase .......................................................................................... 18

A Projected Timeline, Including Milestones, Start And End Dates, Duration For Each Milestone,

Dependencies, And Resources Assigned To Each Task ............................................................................. 20

The Framework That Will Be Used To Assess The Success Of The Project And Assess If The Security

Solution Meets Stakeholder’s Needs, Including Test Cases And Acceptance Criteria .............................. 20 Design and develop a technology-supported security solution that addresses your identified business

problem or organizational need................................................................................................................... 22

Your solution must contribute to at least one of the following major security areas: Systems Security,

Security Planning and Management ........................................................................................................... 24

Facilitates Development of Consensus-based codes of conduct ................................................................. 25

Promotes the Adoption of Standards and Practices .................................................................................... 26

Promotes Automation in Cybersecurity ...................................................................................................... 27

Improves and modernizes security assurance ............................................................................................. 28 Implements industry-standard security tools and infrastructure or environment ........................................ 28 collects digital evidence, including data for analysis or forensics .............................................................. 29

Provides cybersecurity plans, strategies, and policies and Implements confidentiality, integrity, and

availability................................................................................................................................................... 31 Mitigates cybersecurity threats ................................................................................................................... 33

Investigates cybersecurity incidents or crimes ............................................................................................ 34

Includes decision-support functionality ...................................................................................................... 36

Provides a training plan for users ................................................................................................................ 37

Analysis of the alignment of the solution with organizational cybersecurity initiative or regulatory

compliance .................................................................................................................................................. 37

Assessment of the solution’s implementation, including testing results and implemented revisions ......... 38

Applications, tools, installation, and user guides for any other environment used ..................................... 39

Assessment of the efficiency of the solution .............................................................................................. 39 Post-implementation systems and process analysis, including diagrams or descriptions of the environment

.................................................................................................................................................................... 40

Post-implementation risk assessment.......................................................................................................... 41

Analysis of the collected data and final output ........................................................................................... 42

Stakeholder impact analysis ........................................................................................................................ 43

Post-implementation and maintenance plans for the solution, including supporting resources and the

results from the solution testing and revisions ............................................................................................ 44 Domain: Cyber Risk Management and Oversight ...................................................................................... 45

Organization Chart ...................................................................................................................................... 45

Cybersecurity-related policies and procedures ........................................................................................... 46

Strategic plans ............................................................................................................................................. 46

Cybersecurity job descriptions .................................................................................................................... 47

Cybersecurity personnel qualifications ....................................................................................................... 47

Risk assessments ......................................................................................................................................... 48

Data loss prevention analysis ...................................................................................................................... 48

IT audit schedule, audit reports, correspondence and audit exception tracking ......................................... 49

Domain: Cybersecurity Controls ................................................................................................................ 52

Baseline security configuration standards and list of physical access controls (e.g., key cards, biometric

controls, video cameras) ............................................................................................................................. 52 Vulnerability or patch management policies and procedures ..................................................................... 53

Continuous monitoring strategy .................................................................................................................. 55

List of third parties and subcontractors and Third-party employee access reviews .................................... 56 Contracts governing all third-party relationships and inventory of all third-party connections ................. 57

Network topology/diagram ......................................................................................................................... 58

Independent reports on the service provider’s security controls ................................................................. 58

Vendor management policies and procedures ............................................................................................ 58

Remote access logs ..................................................................................................................................... 58

Domain: Cyber Resilience .......................................................................................................................... 62

Business impact analysis ............................................................................................................................. 62

Business or corporate continuity plan ......................................................................................................... 62

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 63

References ................................................................................................................................................... 65

Security Problem

Adoption of a Zero Trust security model, as well as the attitude required to install and run a system designed in accordance with Zero Trust standards, would assist cybersecurity practitioners in better preparing them to secure sensitive data, processes, and services as business networks evolve, fragment, and become more diverse. To name just one example of the increasing complexity associated with Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), consider the SolarWinds hack, which resulted in the compromising of more than 18,000 commercial customers, as well as the United States Government. There is little doubt that this breach is one of the most serious in modern history; an espionage effort of such scope that the consequences are still being felt months after the act took place. Threat actors were successful in infiltrating some of the most prestigious companies in the United States. If businesses adopt a Zero Trust approach, these issues can be mitigated, and the resulting damage can be contained. The Department of Defense's CISA arm recently released guidance advising businesses to begin implementing a Zero Trust strategy to their information systems. The implementation of a Zero Trust framework in a real-world scenario will be discussed in this paper. Prior to submitting this document, all confidential material was erased, and pseudonyms were employed to identify the various institutions

Reviews for Implementing Zero Trust Architecture

[Umair · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have never been so enthralled by a book before. Zero Trust is an incredible and detailed read that covers the human aspect of security through the lens of trusted people, not trusted systems. I found myself highlighting entire sections in this book because it was so insightful and there were a lot of great takeaway messages for me to apply to my work. This is a must-