Why Zero-Trust is a pre-requisite for cloud-native architectures

Over the past decade, the global tech industry has shifted to being service-oriented. We find every product being offered as a service by external vendors, and businesses across the world are adopting these services, often in the form of SaaS and IaaS offerings, due to their cost-effectiveness and easy manageability. Cloud-native architecture has become an absolute necessity to deliver products and services which can scale globally.

Cloud-native architecture encompasses applications and services built and developed exclusively for cloud platforms. It is designed to utilize the advantages of cloud computing model capabilities like scalability, mobility, accessibility, and flexibility to the fullest. Applications built and run in cloud-based architecture are highly resilient to changes.

Traditional monolithic architecture enlisted sequential steps to develop and modify applications. In this architecture, updating the code or features requires the whole process to be repeated at each stage. This process is highly time-consuming and expensive, often requiring updates to be rolled out each week. The digital disruptions brought by the evolution of the cloud has pushed businesses to deliver services quicker and more consistently. Thus, cloud-native architectural designs have moved from monoliths to microservices.

Cloud-native architectural design is powered by microservices which are several hundreds or thousands of individual elements loosely coupled together to communicate and deliver a united service. They are deployed in different containers and can be individually updated without causing any disruption to other elements, significantly reducing the overall impact on the application usage and resulting in minimal downtime.

Cloud-native security: A growing concern

The global cloud revenue is estimated to reach $474 billion in 2022. With the widespread adoption of cloud-native services, there is also a rising concern regarding their security capabilities. An industry survey states that 75% of enterprises find cloud security issues to be a top concern. Adding to that, unauthorized access is deemed to be one of the top concerns by around 58% of businesses.

Cloud-native architecture is difficult to govern and secure as it is structured differently and challenges the traditional castle-and-moat security model. Driven by microservices, cloud-native architectures have a distributed structure and can operate simultaneously at different locations and on different networks. If businesses continue to rely on traditional security practices, they will not be able to run their cloud-native applications in a secure manner. One of the main reasons is that the traditional security controls are perimeter-based and assumes that the attacker is someone on the outside. Also, they do not factor in the employees accessing organizational resources from outside the perimeter as in remote work scenarios. Even the traditional VPN model fails as it does not have capability to limit reach within the network once the access is breached. With cyberattackers deploying identity-based attacks, the cybersecurity landscape is threatened more than ever.

As cloud-native computing replaces physical servers, security must be deployed at the right points to maximize defenses and mitigate risks without affecting the end-user experience. Today, 94% of all enterprises use cloud-native or cloud-based services in some form. As most of these services are provided by third-party vendors, organizational data is now spread out across locations and it becomes difficult to track user access and data sharing. Thus, organizations are forced to use multiple security measures like VPNs for on-premise data centers, software-defined perimeter for cloud services, and so on. This complicated mix can result in a shattered network architecture which is not streamlined uniformly. Rightly so, 9 out of 10 cybersecurity.experts are concerned about cloud security.

Zero Trust: An urgent necessity

In cloud-native environments, processes are widely distributed and deployed globally. Cloud security controls need to be quick, effective, and continuous throughout each session. Also, in a microservice architecture, upgrades and deployments are a continuous process. It becomes crucial to consider the security aspect right from the development stage to create applications and platforms that are secure to the core. In cloud-native environments, it becomes difficult to ensure end-to-end monitoring at all times. Just like infrastructure, security controls need to be dynamic and scale in real time to detect possible attacks at any step. This must be achieved without disrupting the performance of the structure.

Zero Trust is a security framework that completely eliminates the idea of "trust". No network, user, or device, is trusted by default irrespective of their location. Zero Trust operates in contrast to the traditional perimeter-based security model which only treats the outside of the perimeter as unsafe. In Zero Trust, all assumptions are removed and all assets are presumed to be untrustworthy. Zero Trust also enables the implementation of an organization-defined, single, unified security policy across all users, devices and network.

Implementing a Zero Trust environment is a holistic approach towards securing the cybersecurity environment. Zero Trust operates on the idea that both internal and external threats can exist in a cybersecurity environment and so every user, device, and network must be authenticated and authorized. It also ensures the uniform implementation of security policies throughout the organization. With cloud-based security measures, Zero Trust provides a seamless, secure user experience irrespective of their location, and it reduces the potential attack surface by limiting user access based on least privilege access policies.

Creating a Zero Trust cloud-native architecture

In order to incorporate Zero Trust into a cloud-native architecture, multiple security activities need to be performed on a continual basis. Some of them are:

• The different types of data, resources, and applications used by the organization must be identified to secure the critical assets.
• The least privilege method must be used to grant access to preserve the confidential resources.
• A unified Zero Trust security policy must be defined to enforce control on the user access based on least privilege principles.
• Employees must be trained to understand the importance of maintaining cyber hygiene and the role they play in improving the organization's security posture.
• The Zero Trust environment must be continuously monitored and all user activities must regularly be logged to identify any possible suspicious activity and to take immediate action.

In a Zero Trust environment, the key is to detect fast and react faster. In case of cyberattacks, the system should be able to detect the breaches quickly so that the impact can be minimized and contained. The key is to prevent a system-wide attack resulting in high-level data loss. If attacked, acting locally and recovering as quickly as possible gives the system the best shot to survive.

As we can observe from the infamous cyberattacks across the world, misplaced trust is a leading cause for many of these attacks. Embracing a Zero Trust model is no longer an option but a necessity. Creating a Zero Trust environment cannot only prevent possible cyberattacks, but also limit the attack surface in case of breaches. Zero Trust can help businesses manage their globally distributed workforce by deploying a robust, secure cloud-native architecture.