Zero Trust and PI Crust: Eliminating Implicit Trust

Mar 14, 2022
4 minutes
... views

As the cyber threat landscape continues to change, enterprises are transforming to accommodate the hybrid workforce, data center modernization, cloud migration and SOC transformation. Zero Trust defines today’s cybersecurity agenda, and taking a Zero Trust approach has never been more critical to enterprises worldwide.

Zero Trust is an approach to cybersecurity that seeks to eliminate implicit trust throughout the enterprise by continuously validating all digital transactions. ​​The concept behind Zero Trust is simple: implicit trust is a vulnerability. Trust nothing in the digital environment and verify everything. In every situation, the user, location, access method and security becomes one single use case with extreme cybersecurity checks.

To celebrate this year’s Pi Day, learn how KHIPU Networks leverages Palo Alto Networks products, trusted methodologies and guidance to define their customers’ Zero Trust journey.

In the latest episode of the NextWave P.I.E. podcast, Maria Dalasio, Partner Experience Content Manager, Palo Alto Networks, spoke with Jola Tkacz, Head Of Professional Services, KHIPU Networks, about how she bakes our recipes into customer conversations in an effort to remove implicit trust across cloud identities, devices and workloads, access and transactions to help customers kick off their Zero Trust journey.

Here are a few of our takeaways from the interview.

Security Is Never “One Size Fits All”

If cybersecurity is important to you and your enterprise has not started implementing Zero Trust best practices, the time is now to start the journey. Zero Trust starts with applying controls that map to each organization and its overarching digital transformation initiatives. Implementing Zero Trust isn’t as easy as pie, but getting started shouldn’t be difficult either. Consider which current controls can be immediately leveraged.

Tkacz told us that once your Zero Trust foundation is established, you can utilize Palo Alto Networks products to help you achieve what’s next: "Take a step back and think about your long-term security goals and use Palo Alto Networks products and the guidance they provide to plan your journey."

Implementing the strategy is not something you do once and copy from network to network – each environment is different, so each architecture must also be unique. Strategy is business-specific, and the security strategy must be specific to protecting what’s important to your particular business.

Zero Trust Is a Continuous Journey

When embarking on a Zero Trust journey, an organization first needs to define a unified security policy, identify critical assets, and deploy a Zero Trust architecture with strict, least-access policies across users, applications and infrastructure. Tkacz emphasized the importance of a step-by-step strategy, starting small and expanding over time as you gain visibility into what's most critical to secure.

Just like a baker who continues to develop a recipe based on audience feedback, Zero Trust is a continuous process, not an immediate transformation. It requires continuous evolution and refinement as business needs and technology shifts occur. Continuous monitoring should be a core requirement in any Zero Trust journey.

"The last step to a zero trust architecture is a step that never ends because it's all about monitoring, maintaining, learning and limiting that default trust," Tkacz said.

Additionally, monitoring needs to go beyond any single security tool to broaden visibility.

Learn more about Palo Alto Networks approach to Zero Trust.

Learn More

Listen to our full interview with Jola Tkacz and get more insights on how Palo Alto Networks can help implement Zero Trust with zero nonsense in the latest NextWave P.I.E. podcast episode.

Get a slice of Jola's success and walk away with actionable steps you can take to get your Zero Trust enterprise baking in just 15 minutes.


Subscribe to the Blog!

Sign up to receive must-read articles, Playbooks of the Week, new feature announcements, and more.