Changing course is what organisations are doing concerning access management to their critical systems and data. This change is happening because the threat landscape keeps changing very fast, and so does the workplace. Identity and Access Management (IAM) is increasingly being complicated as a result of connecting users from various devices, locations, and networks for a long-term foundation stone for enterprises’ security. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): a new definition in securing network access defined completely changes and redefines identity and access management itself.
ZTNA and IAM should not be mutually exclusive in definitions but rather mutually complementary forces complementing each other to lay a well-founded approach to building secure-an agile-digital environment.
Understanding Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Traditionally, IAM systems were built on top of architecture-centred, perimeter-based models; that model is obsolete in today’s world of multi-cloud, mobile-first. The main characteristics of the IAM are: authentication, authorisation, provisioning, deprovisioning, and access governance and auditability
Authentication (i.e., what a person gets through passwords, biometrics, or multi-factor authentication) is basically about matters; in other words, Authentication is:
- Making barriers to help distinguish users’ needs from their requirements.
- Defining the job roles and permissions associated with them, thus providing authorisation.
- Provisioning and deprovisioning
- Access Governance and Auditability.
What is Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)?
The ZTNA paradigm is built on vastly changing the base assumptions of traditional security. For one, it does not inherently trust users from within the network; in ZTNA, access requests are viewed as inherently hostile, and security action is initiated.
Access permissions within ZTNA are governed by contextual information such as user identity, device posture and security level, physical location, and observed behaviour, accompanied by a persistent ethos of Never trust any request, always verify. Access is granted under ZTNA conditions met and then only to the necessary resources as specified.
How ZTNA Transforms IAM
Identity State as the Unclaimed Boundary
ZTNA introduces identity as the latest point of entry to access the network provided by primary control. More than just “inside” it requires the verification of every user for every connection attempt. Thus, elevating the role of the IAM from an internal tool to something mission-critical in enterprise security.
Discretionary Contextualised Authorisation
It means ZTNA will not only connect with the IAM but embed itself deeper regarding access decisions. It will process information from the user’s role and device health, geolocation, and time of request to develop adaptive risk-based access policies. This promises to augment any static IAM policy with more dynamic and precise access control.
Superior Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
In ZTNA, must-have MFA and continuous verification find themselves included with the already described goodness of protection in IA. It may also require additional nourishing acclimatisation of identity, not only at the moment of each performed access but also within a session if abnormal or minority behaviour is being displayed by the person.
Convenient Gateway Access to Cloud and SaaS
It is an access model that ZTNA provides that is transparent over cloud and SaaS applications concerning the use of federated identity protocols like SAML and OAuth. IAM systems can trust back to the ZTNA gateway to use and enforce access policies without creating a separate sign-on for every service.
Conclusion
Zero Trust Network Access is about changing the organisation’s considerations regarding identity and access. ZTNA moves that access control into a user’s identity and real-time context; thus, it extends and augments the traditional IAM systems and ameliorates what perimeter-based models leave out. Beyond being security models, ZTNA may be considered as an architectural identity-first platform for future-proof access strategies for modern enterprises as they develop security and identity bases to monitor a remotely, cloud-first world.
