Why is Zero Trust needed in a modern endpoint deployment? Traditional perimeter defences are no longer sufficient, especially as remote work and cloud technologies have expanded the potential attack surface. For IT administrators and managers, embracing Zero Trust for endpoints is key to mitigating risks. But how do you measure your environment against Zero Trust standards, and what can happen if you don’t?
The Core of Zero Trust Endpoint Security
Zero Trust is built on the principle of “never trust, always verify.” It ensures that no device, user, or application can access your network without continuous validation. This approach contrasts with older security models that assume trust once inside the network. Zero Trust for endpoints demands several key elements:
Identity Verification: Ensuring that devices and users are authenticated continuously.
Least Privilege Access: Granting the minimum permissions needed for a task.
Microsegmentation: Limiting lateral movement within the network.
Endpoint Lockdown and Detection: Actively detecting and mitigating threats as they occur.
Examples of recent cyber attacks
If organizations can stick to these principles, they can avoid breaches and attacks. Examples of attacks in 2024 alone include several high-profile organizations that, due to poor endpoint security practices, suffered significant data breaches.
Tangerine Telecom – In February 2024, Australian ISP Tangerine experienced a data breach involving over 200,000 customer records. The breach was traced back to the compromised login credentials of a single contractor; demonstrating the dangers of insufficient access controls and poor endpoint management. Significantly, this shows the importance of authentication and least privilege-access to prevent a single contractor device from exposing all these records.
Trello – The popular project management platform Trello suffered a massive data leak affecting over 15 million accounts in January 2024. The breach was caused by exploiting a vulnerable open API endpoint that didn’t require a login, allowing hackers to match an existing database of 50 million emails with Trello accounts. This shows how even simple misconfigurations in endpoint access points, like APIs, can result in significant data exposure.
MITRE Corporation’s NERVE Platform – MITRE, a non-profit research organization, was hit by a foreign-nation-state attack in early 2024. The breach involved the exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti’s platform and the compromise of an admin account, leading to the establishment of backdoors. This shows the importance of securing privileged access and continuously monitoring endpoints for suspicious activity.
How to Measure Your Endpoint Security Against Zero Trust Standards
Device Compliance – Can your IT team continuously monitor and authenticate all devices in your network? IT asset management tools, central management, and patch management is important here. Endpoint lockdown and session isolation are also vital in controlling end-user activity, which is very important for compliance.
User Authentication – Are users able to access corporate resources from any device with only their credentials? Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) across all endpoints as well as contextual security. This allows your IT department to secure connected devices to meet its standards.
Microsegmentation – Review your network architecture. Can endpoints communicate freely across segments? What can each device still see from other devices? This is the reason to consider implementing microsegmentation to restrict the impact of a single breach and prevent it from growing out of control.
Regular Audits and Testing – Simulate breaches and run penetration tests to for the purpose of identifying weak points in your endpoint security posture. Audit your application and software and ensure it is ALWAYS as up-to-date as possible.
Conclusion
As cyber threats continue to evolve, organizations must embrace zero trust principles to protect their endpoints effectively. Breaches have been markedly increasing year-on-year and it is doubtful that 2024-2025 will be any different. Zero trust strategy is one of the best ways you can prevent and minimize data breaches in your own environment.
