4 Tips To Get Buy-in From Your IT Team for Zero Trust

Accelerated digital transformation efforts and workforce shifts amid COVID-19 have caused the network perimeter of many organizations to evolve and become challenging to define. As a result, enterprises are increasingly turning to a Zero Trust security model to validate authentication and ensure authorization controls are required for every application, device and user, regardless of whether they are connecting within the network perimeter. Here are four tips by James Carder, CSO, LogRhythm, for gaining buy-in from IT on implementing Zero Trust. 

In mid-May, President Biden signed an executive order that stated Zero Trust adoption would become a security requirement for all federal agencies. This declaration was also a wake-up call for many businesses in the private sector on the need to implement this architecture model for their own systems. 

However, Zero Trust can be tricky to execute since it is a framework. There is also no one-size-fits-all approach or an all-encompassing Zero Trust technology that businesses can buy and implement. This means methods of adoption will vary depending on the industry, business goals, culture, the type and complexity of legacy systems and processes the companies currently rely on to operate their business. 

Security teams can’t implement Zero Trust components effectively without partnering with the IT team, who will be responsible for deploying agents and software, pushing configurations and controls, monitoring for vulnerabilities, issuing timely patches and responding to and troubleshooting any support tickets. Here are four tips for gaining buy-in from IT on implementing Zero Trust.

1. Achieving Risk Reduction

As with any significant technology and software shift, the IT team must have the capacity and understanding to execute new processes and offer assistance with the software and hardware required to support a Zero Trust architecture. 

Security and IT teams share a common goal — continually mitigating risk for the company. While decreasing risk may seem like a somewhat obvious advantage to Zero Trust, security teams should get more granular and start looking beyond the security benefits as there are equally important advantages for IT. Zero Trust can create, supplement and automate overall IT processes. It can also create efficiencies or minimize additive work, which can open up additional capacity to tackle more complex business and technology challenges. 

One example would be when any system, user, device or software is compromised, IT and security teams must drop other projects to immediately complete tasks. These involve disabling the user, taking the affected machines offline, getting a new one ready to go, transferring the employee’s data, implementing containment actions, altering procedures and more. Therefore, contextualizing the benefits of the Zero Trust model’s risk reduction capabilities as a means for saving time, money and resources for the IT team is crucial. 

Learn More: Is Zero Trust the Catalyst for a Successful Digital Transformation?

2. Simplifying the Technology and Compliance 

Implementing a Zero Trust architecture can also help organizations flatten out their technology stack, standardizing and consolidating how the IT team can confront application and hardware challenges. 

This type of model allows organizations to reduce dependencies and maintenance expenditures and licensing on software such as VPNs or perimeter firewalls, which can help subsidize the cost of more efficient technologies that enhance IT processes.

Implementing a Zero Trust model also helps IT with compliance assessments. Auditors will have a clearer picture of the data architecture, workflows and workloads of the users, systems, applications and data, which can save time throughout the auditing process and ensure you are meeting the requirements of the regulation you are being audited against.

3. Better Manage BYOD Amid Continued Remote and Hybrid Work

The rise in remote and hybrid work during the pandemic and resulting upsurge in the use of personal devices to connect to the company network isn’t going away any time soon. Having a Zero Trust framework in place allows security and IT teams to better manage and enforce bring your own device (BYOD) policies and keep employee and customer information secure by only allowing validated and trusted users, devices and roles to access the appropriate systems, applications and data.

The ability to get more granular about what applications and data are being accessed by which employees and devices will ensure that people have what they need to do their jobs. This is while keeping the rest of the company, data and resources safe from unnecessary exposure, legitimately (from the actual employee using trusted devices and credentials) and illegitimately (from an attacker potentially leveraging stolen credentials, a compromised user account or stolen device).

Learn More: 5 Things To Think About When Shifting to Zero Trust

4. Cut Maintenance Expenses

CIOs are commonly measured on the level of process efficiency and standardization they can deliver to cut the total cost for the organization (people, process and technology). Although there is an upfront cost when deploying Zero Trust infrastructure that may need to happen prior to halting the use of legacy technology, it is important to highlight the ability to reduce total costs and empower revenue growth for the IT team. 

Adopting a Zero Trust model involves fundamental changes in mindset and shifts in the operation and management of security and IT technologies. Therefore, it is critical to have a complete understanding, alignment and buy-in from both the security and IT teams. Once these teams are aligned on the many benefits of Zero Trust, implementation is far more feasible. Both departments will achieve desired results and align on key goals and objectives for the business. A strong relationship between security and IT will shore up resources and ultimately deliver risk reduction by ensuring the overall business and workforce are appropriately secured regardless of location.

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