Zero-trust security for IoT: Establishing rigorous device defenses

Zero trust is a key security trend today, and for good reason. Zero-trust security provides a level of access control that cannot be matched by more conventional security models.

Zero-trust security is a concept that centers on the belief that organizations should not automatically trust anything inside or outside their perimeters and must verify any user or device that tries to connect to its systems before granting access.

As popular as zero-trust security might be however, it’s challenging to implement. After all, zero-trust security is a model — it isn’t a product that you can buy, or a security setting that you can turn on. Zero trust is a desired end result it’s And each organization has to identify how best to achieve that result.

Because of this, zero trust can mean different things depending on the context. Consider the difference between applying zero trust to users as opposed to device-level zero trust. Even at that, organizations may have differing ideas about what is needed for a user or device to prove its trustworthiness. In other words, there is no universal standard that defines what it means for an organization to use zero-trust security. Additionally, it is almost certain that of the principles of zero-trust security will evolve over time.

As organizations work to implement zero-trust security for their IT resources, they will inevitably have to consider how best to create a zero-trust model for their IoT devices. However, adopting zero-trust security for IoT devices can be an extraordinarily difficult challenge. Most IoT devices offer relatively few configurable security settings, and the IT community has not yet created a lot of prescriptive guidance for those who need to implement zero trust for IoT devices.

Thankfully, bringing zero trust to your IoT devices is not an impossible endeavor, but it does require a bit of creativity.

Strategies to Bring Zero Trust to IoT – MAC Device Identity

As previously noted, the key to implementing zero trust is defining what it is that you hope to achieve and what it means for a particular device to operate in a zero -trust configuration. When it comes to IoT devices, you have to consider the device types and the security options that exist for those devices. Remember though, zero trust is less about configuring a device’s security settings than it is about proving the device’s trustworthiness. From an IoT prospective, you may be able to achieve zero trust by focusing your efforts on proving a device’s identity before allowing it to participate on a network.

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