Why is SDP the most effective architecture for zero trust strategy adoption?

Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) is the most effective architecture for adopting a zero trust strategy, an approach that is being heralded as the breakthrough technology for preventing large-scale breaches, according to the Cloud Security Alliance.

“Most of the existing zero trust security measures are applied as authentication and sometimes authorization, based on policy after the termination of Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates,” said Nya Alison Murray, senior ICT architect and co-lead author of the report.

“Network segmentation and the establishment of micro networks, which are so important for multi-cloud deployments, also benefit from adopting a software-defined perimeter zero trust architecture.”

SDP improves security posture

A zero trust implementation using SDP enables organizations to defend new variations of old attack methods that are constantly surfacing in existing network and infrastructure perimeter-centric networking models.

Implementing SDP improves the security posture of businesses facing the challenge of continuously adapting to expanding attack surfaces that are, in turn, increasingly more complex.

Network security implementation issues

The report notes particular issues that have arisen that require a rapid change in the way network security is implemented, including the:

• Changing perimeter, whereby the past paradigm of a fixed network perimeter, with trusted internal network segments protected by network appliances such as load balancers and firewalls has been superseded by virtualized networks, and the ensuing realization that the network protocols of the past are not secure-by-design.
• IP address challenge, noting that IP addresses lack any type of user knowledge to validate the trust of the device. With no way for an IP address to have user context, they simply provide connectivity information but do not get involved in validating the trust of the endpoint or the user.
• Challenge of implementing integrated controls. Visibility and transparency of network connections is problematic in the way networks and cyber security tools are implemented. Today, integration of controls is performed by gathering data in a SIEM for analysis.