Zero-Trust Network Access in a Modern, Connected World

The term “zero trust” is attributed to a security analyst at Forrester Research. Zero trust is relatively simple in concept: Don’t trust anyone. It doesn’t matter what title they hold or rights they have been granted, verify everyone and anything attempting to connect to your systems, regardless of how insignificant that system may be. Zero trust is not making a system trusted. It is about eliminating trust. Zero trust is not a technology; it’s a mindset. A new way of thinking. Zero trust makes networks and data much more secure than the legacy approach and provides better traceability if things do go wrong.

So, what does this mean for network access in a connected world?

Implementing a zero-trust network access model involves both the right technology and consistent management to give the right people access to the correct information. No company is expected to implement a complete zero trust security solution overnight—it’s important to have help from a trusted advisor.

Managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs) are just the people to help their clients understand where they have security gaps and how to navigate implementing zero-trust network access. For starters, MSPs/MSSPs can help their customers identify one area of their network, or even just one system, and build from there. Partners can help their clients plan out the approach of shutting everyone out, and then start creating authentication criteria to allow access accordingly. The process will be slow at first, but once policies and practices take hold, a zero-trust network access model will quickly take shape.

Delivering modern, zero-trust security

Exium is excited for our new partnership with ConnectWise to deliver a bold new access model as a solution within their cybersecurity portfolio. You will now have the ability to leverage Exium’s modern, cloud-based security technology to provide your clients complete protection across all connected devices, at all places, to help stop attacks from bad actors or suspicious networks. To that end, we look forward to working with you on the following points of focus:

• An underlying principle of zero trust is a governance policy giving users the least amount of access they need to accomplish a specific task. Before someone can gain access to any part of your clients’ infrastructure, they have to know who they are, which endpoint they are coming from, the security level and status of that endpoint, and what they are trying to access. No exceptions.
• Customers have multiple entry points to their networks and countless endpoints shared in an ever-expanding world-wide internet. Helping them implement zero trust network access is critical. Authentication and authorization must be enforced at every entry point of their networks to ensure visitors, welcomed or not, are screened and validated before any request is granted.
• New ways of thinking and strict constraints need to be built around and within their networks. No system exists in isolation. Companies today have applications on-premises and some in the cloud with employees, partners, and customers accessing data from a range of applications and devices from multiple locations. For partners who host and manage all of their customers computing infrastructure needs, you know well how the days of isolated corporate data centers serving a contained network of systems are long gone.

When allowing access, less is more. Limiting access strengthens security. If we want ubiquitous security, we have to start thinking about it differently. Together with ConnectWise, we look forward to working with you in the days ahead to help your customers transform their view of security in today’s modern, connected world.

ABOUT EXIUM

Exium delivers a full suite of network security offerings from a unified platform that securely connect users, locations, and devices to applications in the cloud or private data centers. The two core offerings are Secure Internet Access (SIA) which protects users from threats when they are online and Secure Private Access (SPA) which replaces legacy VPNs with zero-trust private access with granular access controls. Exium makes security easier for users by delivering multiple layers of protection through a single client.  It is also easy to deploy and manage because it unifies multiple security services into a single platform and tightly integrates with ConnectWise.