Zero trust, sometimes called “Zero,” is an emerging security model focused on eliminating untrusted actions and elements from a company’s internal systems. Instead of trusting all entities, with zero trust users are granted only limited access to systems and resources based on their identity and associated risk level. This authorization is continually verified via advanced analytics, network segmentation and user recertification. As a result of this heightened security approach, organizations can control user access accordingly and reduce the chances of an attack or data breach.
This document will discuss how two cloud-based companies, Cloudflare and CrowdStrike, benefit from Zero Trust Security. We’ll first delve into Zero Trust Security and its benefits for organizations today before focusing on these two cloud giants and how they can use Zero Trust implementations to harden their cybersecurity environments against cyber threats. Before offering our final thoughts, we’ll discuss best practices for implementing Zero Trust Security.
Cloudflare, CrowdStrike Expand Partnership on Zero Trust Security
Zero Trust Security focuses on data security and is becoming increasingly popular with businesses to protect their cloud-based resources and keep their data safe.
In this article, we will explore Zero Trust Security, how it works, and how two tech giants, Cloudflare and CrowdStrike, can benefit from implementing this security strategy.
Benefits of Zero Trust Security
Zero trust security is a revolutionary approach to cybersecurity that eliminates the idea of users and devices being automatically trusted because of their access to the company’s internal networks. Instead, each user and device must be authenticated and validated using multiple methods before access is granted.
Zero trust security provides various benefits for organizations like Cloudflare and CrowdStrike who are increasingly relying on public cloud services for their business operations and data needs. Adopting a zero trust security model can help these organizations protect their assets by not trusting devices or users until verified. Here are some of the key benefits:
-Increased Protection: Zero trust essentially enforces least privileged access—only granting access to resources once identity is verified—affording advanced protection against threats such as malicious actors and advanced persistent threats (APTs). Companies like Cloudflare and Crowdstrike can better maintain data integrity while dramatically reducing exposure to advanced attacks by limiting who, what, when, where, and how connections are established.
-Reduced Exposure: Centralizing identity management with a zero trust security framework reduces exposure because only identified users receive access. This reduces an organization’s attack surface dramatically as unknown or malicious actors cannot employ credentials stolen from one environment into another due to the user verification process accompanying all access requests.
-Simplified Visibility & Audit Trails: Achieving visibility needed for compliance comes much more naturally with a zero trust approach. All communication passes through protected tunnels so companies can have greater confidence in the accuracy of audit logs and knowledge that capture data stays safe from unauthorized users even in an attack or breach incident since privilege levels remain so low under this process.
-Improved Operational Efficiency: By automating portions of identity checks with machine learning techniques, manual efforts required by IT personnel monitoring network traffic can be minimized significantly enabling them to focus on other important tasks within their operations related portfolio. In addition, trends in user behavior can be detected quickly, allowing IT teams to respond proactively instead of waiting for an incident before taking action, making zero trust operations much more cost effective than traditional security approaches where controls come after an incident has already occurred.
Cloudflare and CrowdStrike Partnership
Cloudflare and CrowdStrike have recently announced an expansion on their Zero Trust Security initiative. Both companies are coming together to better protect their customer’s resources and data from external threats.
This partnership is a major step for both companies, with many benefits. Let’s examine the advantages this partnership will bring to Cloudflare and CrowdStrike.
Overview of the Partnership
Cloudflare and CrowdStrike have partnered to bring their respective security solutions together for a comprehensive and effective “Zero Trust” approach to cloud security. This partnership combines Cloudflare’s web application firewall (WAF), distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, multi-CDN delivery network, reverse proxy, and DNS services with CrowdStrike’s Falcon Endpoint Protection Platform™.
Together these cutting-edge security systems provide customers with powerful defense against malicious actors and end-users with a secure online experience.
By combining their technical expertise, Cloudflare and CrowdStrike are making cybersecurity more applicable and actionable by providing comprehensive management capabilities to securely connect enterprise cloud deployments. This includes the ability to monitor activity on the internet on both enterprise networks and connected devices in real time, detect cyber threats such as malware or phishing attempts, apply policy controls such as rate limiting of malicious traffic or blocking suspicious IP addresses, prevent and mitigate DDoS attacks at any scale, secure user identities across all endpoints devices with single sign-on (SSO) integration, inspect incoming traffic for malicious payloads using machine learning models, deploy customized application whitelisting rules based on customer policy preferences.
These features come packaged together in a zero trust architecture that enables organizations to proactively defend their digital assets from attack from all angles.
Advantages for Cloudflare and CrowdStrike
Cloudflare and CrowdStrike have teamed up to provide a more robust security strategy for cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) customers. By combining forces, the two companies can help customers gain greater protection from advanced cyber threats by leveraging Zero Trust Firewall and Insider Threat Protection capabilities.
Cloudflare customers will benefit from improved cloud-based secure application access with Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), new device identity management capabilities, a full-spectrum analytics platform, and enhanced DDoS protection designed for mid to large enterprises. Similarly, CrowdStrike customers will get secure access to cloud applications using Zero Trust Access with host/device data visibility and better control over data flow between applications/workloads on hybrid cloud environments.
This partnership also allows both companies to detect, respond faster to, and mitigate malicious activity more effectively through advanced analytics such as machine learning giving their customers comprehensive security coverage previously unavailable due to siloed technology vendors. Additionally this joint venture will enable Cloudflare’s customers access to enhanced threat visibility dashboard enabling deep data insights into attack landscapes while offering actionable insights into potential incidents or misconfigurations proactively avoiding damage or costly outages. Similarly CrowdStrike customers now have access to deeper threat hunting capabilities enhancing their ability to make more informed decisions about their security posture.
Conclusion
The zero trust security approach is an important consideration for Cloudflare and CrowdStrike. By closely examining their current security posture, they can ensure that their systems are better protected against even the most sophisticated threats. In addition, by analyzing the risks associated with their environment and the tools available to mitigate them, both organizations can benefit from increased visibility, improved compliance, and reduced risk of data breaches.
For maximum security effectiveness, Cloudflare and CrowdStrike must implement policies and practices beyond traditional perimeter-based approaches to fully embrace a zero-trust security model. This strategy should also employ tools such as identity management solutions, access control protocols, micro-segmentation strategies, and advanced authentication procedures. Furthermore, the organizations should monitor internal and external activity for potential malicious activity or unauthorized access attempts. This will enable them to promptly identify any signs of intrusion or data manipulation within their networks before it leads to more severe consequences.
By leveraging the power of zero trust security solutions with other measures designed to protect networks from modern day threats Cloudflare and CrowdStrike will be better equipped to keep their customer data safe while preventing malicious actors from accessing confidential information or performing damaging activities on their networks.
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