As the business community faces down cyber threats, one medical office is defending itself with a Zero Trust approach to cybersecurity
Physicians have always been at the front of the line when it came to technology integration. Among the first to realize the benefits wearing a pager, having a cell phone, using a tablet, and essentially digitizing their business, doctors and researchers are typical early adopters of mobile, Cloud and IOT systems.
As attacks on the healthcare industry make weekly news, personal information (PII) floods the black market, and steep fines take their toll,doctors and practice administrators wonder what they can do differently.
A holistic strategy, a Zero Trust approach to cybersecurity means that you:
1) Verify Explicitly 2) Use Least Privilege 3) Assume Breach
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Confusion about Zero Trust is making it harder to implement
As we detailed in our business case exploring the Zero Trust, at its core, ZT is a concept and shift in how organizations approach the idea of security and data privacy.
It’s not one product or piece of software, rather an approach that assumes breach and secures your organization by requiring users prove they are who they say they are and be granted gated access accordingly.
As explained in a recent article from WIRED, “What is Zero Trust” the approach eliminates the old moat & castle networking model and instead of trusting particular devices and assuming what’s inside your walls are safe, a Zero Trust methodology uses verification, network segmentation and least privilege to protect the enterprise.
Eliminate the moat & castle model of cybersecurity
Under the old model, all the computers, servers, and other devices physically in an office building were on the same network and trusted each other. Your work computer could connect to the printer on your floor or find team documents on a shared server. Tools like firewalls and antivirus were set up to view anything outside the organization as bad;everything inside the network didn’t merit much scrutiny.
However, the explosion of mobile devices, cloud services,and remote/hybrid work have radically challenged those assumptions. Organizations can’t physically control every device its employees use anymore. And even if they could, once an attacker slipped by perimeter defenses, the network would instantly grant them a lot of trust and freedom. “Outside bad, inside good.”
“Zero Trust is a concept, not an action.”
Ken Westin, Security Researcher
Instead of trusting particular devices or connections from certain places, Zero Trust demands that people prove they are who they claim and should therefore be granted access. Typically, that means logging into a corporate account with biometrics or a hardware security key in addition to usernames and passwords to make it harder for attackers to impersonate users. And even once someone gets through, it’s on a need-to-know or need-to-access basis. If you don’t invoice contractors as part of your job, your corporate account shouldn’t tie into the billing platform.
Zero Trust isn’t a single piece of software you can install or a box you can check, but a philosophy, a set of concepts, a mantra,a mindset.
You still must implement things like device and software inventory, network segmentation, access controls.
Confusion about the real meaning and purpose of Zero Trust makes it harder for people to implement the ideas in practice. Proponents are largely in agreement about the overall goals and purpose behind the phrase, but busy executives or IT admins with other things to worry about can easily be led astray and end up implementing security protections that simply reinforce old approaches rather than ushering in something new.
Here at OWG, we work with our partner clients and help them engineer a true Zero Trust methodology throughout their IT ecosystem. If you have questions or would like to see if we can help your organization better protect its most critical data, email partnerwithus@overwatchgrp.com or click here to set a time to speak.i
As organizations across the country begin to adopt the Zero Trust approach, federal agencies will do the same.
As part of a new cybersecurity strategy released Wednesday, the administration outlines its vision for moving government agencies towards a “zero trust” architecture — a cybersecurity model where users and devices are only given permissions to access network resources necessary for the task at hand and are authenticated on a case-by-case basis.
The key document was published as a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the administration’s policy arm, and addressed to the heads of all executive departments and agencies. According to the memorandum, shifting towards a zero trust architecture will require the implementation of stronger enterprise identity and access controls, including more widespread use of multi-factor authentication — specifically hardware-based authentication tokens like access cards, rather than push notifications or SMS. Agencies were also instructed to aim for a complete inventory of every device authorized and operated for official business, to be monitored according to specifications set by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“In the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the Administration is taking decisive action to bolster the Federal Government’s cyber defenses,” said acting OMB director Shalanda Young in a statement. “This zero trust strategy is about ensuring the Federal Government leads by example, and it marks another key milestone in our efforts to repel attacks from those who would do the United States harm.” The White House’s announcement cited the Log4j security vulnerability as “the latest evidence that adversaries will continue to find new opportunities to get their foot in the door.” The vulnerability, one of the most serious and widespread cybersecurity threats for years, first began to be exploited in December 2021. At the time, government agencies were instructed by CISA to immediately patch vulnerable assets or take other mitigation measures. The FTC also subsequently warned companies in the private sector to remediate the vulnerability to avoid potential legal action for putting consumers at risk. “As our adversaries continue to pursue innovative ways to breach our infrastructure, we must continue to fundamentally transform our approach to federal cybersecurity,” said CISA director Jen Easterly. “Zero trust is a key element of this effort to modernize and strengthen our defenses. CISA will continue to provide technical support and operational expertise to agencies as we strive to achieve a shared baseline of maturity.” An initial draft of the strategy was released in September 2021 for public comment and since then has been shaped by input from the cybersecurity industry as well as other fields of the public and private sector. With the final strategy now released, government agencies have been issued 30 days to designate a strategy implementation lead within their organization and 60 days to submit an implementation plan to the OMB.
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