The Cyber Defense eMagazine November Edition for 2023

How do you create a zero-trust environment?
Here are some steps for creating a successful zero-trust environment in a financial services company:
1. Define your perimeter: Today, the complexity of FIs, M&A activity, and cloud computing make
them even more so, means we must define what is and isn’t within the remit of the company’s
zero-trust policy.
2. Microsegmentation: Segmenting your company’s digital operations into segments is useful when
using zero-trust. If a company is compromised by a malware attack but the data is encrypted,
then its damage can only spread so far.
3. Continually monitor devices: Devices used by FIs are constantly being connected / reconnected
and are made up of dozens (if not hundreds) of components and many third parties may not have
security practices. Thus, every device needs to be continually monitored, even after it has passed
security checks.
4. Data inventory: You need to categorize your company data by its importance and allocate
appropriate levels of protection, while ensuring it’s still made available to those who need it. There
will need to be strong governance protocols so that going forward every new piece of data can be
classified.
5. Implement security controls: Finally, systems can be put in place that enable the zero-trust
system, deciding what methods of verification are appropriate for each ‘checkpoint’, where to use
multi-factor authentication, which types of encryptions to use for what data and how to adapt to
future threats like quantum computing.
Hardware and software systems which encrypt data and manage the digital keys are the foundations of
a zero-trust environment since they allow each user and device to access the parts of the system that
they are supposed to access – but nothing more.
Organizations that are best placed to deploy a zero-trust environment usually have the experience of a
partner that has been building and integrating these systems for over 40 years.
Cyber Defense eMagazine – November 2023 Edition 90
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