{"id":162479,"date":"2022-06-08T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/?p=162479"},"modified":"2022-06-01T12:22:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T19:22:41","slug":"balance-zero-trust-journey-with-the-speed-of-the-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/balance-zero-trust-journey-with-the-speed-of-the-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Balance the Zero Trust Journey with the Speed of the Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

It's been over a year since President Biden signed the Executive Order on Improving the Nation\u2019s Cybersecurity<\/a>, and we see many federal agencies making significant progress on their Zero Trust journey. Some are well-positioned to accelerate their efforts because of investments in digital transformation, which include rebuilding and improving their security approach. But, even these federal agencies are feeling more pressure to speed their Zero Trust journey, following the January release of the federal Zero Trust architecture strategy from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget<\/a>. The federal Zero Trust architecture strategy outlines aggressive Zero Trust implementation deadlines over the next two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

To protect government networks, infrastructure and data from growing digital threats, we\u2019re working with Booz Allen Hamilton<\/a> to assist federal agencies with implementing a Zero Trust roadmap and transforming how their users securely protect their data in a way that\u2019s tailored to the agency\u2019s mission and unique needs.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s explore the concept of Zero Trust <\/a>and considerations for IT leaders in the federal space.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Zero Trust: A Complete Reevaluation of Security<\/h2>\n

Zero Trust is a strategic approach to cybersecurity, not a single product. It secures an organization by eliminating implicit trust and continuously validating every stage of a digital interaction. By adopting Zero Trust principles and architecture, organizations can build resilience into their IT networks and environments, simplify risk management, and improve operational efficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cZero Trust is becoming especially critical in distributed, multicloud environments, and IT leaders across government are starting to take a security-first approach to all parts of implementation and architecture,\u201d explained Imran Umar, director of Zero Trust at Booz Allen. But, Imran cautions that Zero Trust isn\u2019t a solution that you apply or a technology that you adopt. Zero Trust covers everything from policy to operations, allowing the approach to truly permeate an organization.<\/p>\n

Applying a consistent, robust policy that secures users and data wherever they reside ensures overall safety from our digital society to our nation\u2019s security. In order for any organization to strengthen the protection of its most critical assets, it must accept that a compromise or breach is not an if<\/em>, but a when<\/em> reality. They must focus on limiting the impact of that risk.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Zero Trust isn\u2019t a \u201cflip-the-switch\u201d effort to enhance cybersecurity. It will take time. And in truth, it\u2019s a continual journey. The good news is that your agency can start implementing the Zero Trust process anywhere, and you can use existing tools and capabilities to establish a starting line.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Where to Start Your Multiyear Zero Trust Journey<\/h2>\n

As an organization adopts additional and more diverse cloud and mobile technologies, the defined \u201cperimeter\u201d that is core to a traditional, perimeter-based, defense-in-depth strategy evaporates. Instead, the organization is left with a collection of many smaller surfaces to protect.<\/p>\n

By extending current firewall policies to the edge to support cloud and mobile users, organizations can migrate to a new Zero Trust architecture more seamlessly. Palo Alto Networks helps organizations integrate and unify advanced security into their cloud infrastructure, so users don\u2019t have to go through on-premises functionality.<\/p>\n

Booz Allen\u2019s Imran Umar recommends starting with a Zero Trust maturity assessment to understand the current state of your security and determine which key areas to tackle first. By conducting an audit of the tools and capabilities that your agency has now, then optimizing those products and solutions, you can jump-start your Zero Trust journey. If you have Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall<\/a>, for example, turn on relevant features to get full visibility into users, devices and apps. Broad visibility is a must for implementing a Zero Trust strategy and best practices.<\/p>\n

Many of our customers in the federal government are also currently looking at Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access SASE solution<\/a> as an easy entry point into Zero Trust. We\u2019re generally seeing increased interest throughout the federal government in adopting innovative solutions, like secure access service edge (SASE). More agencies are starting to shift away from a point-product perspective and adopt unified platforms that provide many services with reduced administrative overhead.<\/p>\n

<\/a>How to Balance the Move to Zero Trust with the Speed of the Mission<\/h2>\n

Having a clear roadmap for the Zero Trust journey and a maturity model to measure progress against is vital for federal agencies to help ensure continued leadership support for the journey. By leveraging the technical acumen of a combined Palo Alto Networks and Booz Allen Hamilton team, we can help agencies create both through a Zero Trust Professional Services engagement<\/a>. We can help with discovery and asset identification, your first Zero Trust implementation, process improvement and more. A Professional Services engagement can help condense the timeline of your agency\u2019s move to Zero Trust and provide several benefits:<\/p>\n