Practical zero trust framework: Investigation, implementation, and integration in established multinational enterprise

Abstract

The ever-evolving field of cybersecurity and the constant advancement of cyber-attacks has made the traditional network architecture insufficiently secure against modern sophisticated attacks. Companies are at greater risk than ever because once the threat actor is within their network, they have access to all of their resources. However, in 2010 the concept of the Zero Trust network architecture, led by the motto of “Always verify, never trust”, which always assumes breach was proposed. This approach forces the companies to secure their resources and verify every request, thus mitigating most cyberattacks which are possible within traditional perimeter-based networks. This thesis evaluates the viability, challenges, practical implications and benefits of implementing the Zero Trust architecture within Halton, an enterprise whose units are spread across tens of countries, most of which do not have significant capabilities in IT and security.