Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) is no longer a task that can be pushed to tomorrow—it's best practice to begin implementing it today.
Understanding that moving from theory to practical implementation can be challenging, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published Special Publication 1800-35 to provide real-world, actionable patterns to guide organizations through their Zero Trust journeys.
We've distilled five actionable ZTA patterns from NIST’s comprehensive guide, so that it’s easy to take immediate, impactful steps towards strengthening your organization's security posture.
1. Identity-Driven Access Control
What NIST recommends:
Identity should be the primary basis for access control decisions, ensuring users and devices are continually authenticated, authorized, and verified for compliance with security policies (Section 5).
Implement Today:
Pomerium Advantage:
Pomerium inherently supports identity-driven access with built-in SSO, MFA integration, and robust policy-based authorization, continuously validating each user's identity and context.
Read more on How Pomerium Secures Access for Human, Service, and Agent Identities
2. Contextual, Per-Request Authorization
What NIST recommends:
NIST advises performing continuous, dynamic assessments of the risk of each access request, considering factors like endpoint health, user behavior, and location to maintain secure access (Section 5).
Implement Today:
Pomerium Advantage:
Pomerium evaluates every single request dynamically, using contextual data like user identity, device posture, and real-time behavioral analysis for precise, granular access control.
Discover How Pomerium Enforces Real-Time, Context-Based Access
3. Secure Remote Access Without Traditional VPNs
What NIST recommends:
Secure direct access to private enterprise resources through secure tunnels driven by policy enforcement, eliminating the need to route all traffic through traditional VPNs (Section 5.2).
Implement Today:
Adopt Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solutions.
Provide precise, direct access to specific applications rather than entire networks.
Pomerium Advantage:
Pomerium replaces traditional VPNs with an identity-aware gateway, providing secure, application-level access, significantly reducing exposure and complexity.
Explore How Pomerium Secures SSH Access with Zero Trust
4. End-to-End Auditing and Compliance
What NIST recommends:
NIST emphasizes that maintaining comprehensive real-time auditing and logging capabilities is essential for effective Zero Trust implementations (Section 8.1).
Implement Today:
Pomerium Advantage:
Pomerium automatically logs every access attempt, providing audit-ready documentation of authorization decisions, facilitating compliance and incident investigation.
Learn How Pomerium Makes Access Audit Ready and Turns It Into a Source of Truth
5. Minimal Trust, Short-Lived Access
What NIST recommends:
Implement short-lived credentials and session management to significantly limit exposure, regularly re-authenticating and reassessing permissions (Section 5).
Implement Today:
Pomerium Advantage:
Pomerium supports ephemeral, certificate-based credentials that expire quickly, automatically limiting exposure and improving security posture significantly.
Understand Why Per-Request Authorization Is the Foundation of Zero Trust
Taking the Next Step Toward Zero Trust
NIST SP 1800-35 offers a detailed, actionable framework to help organizations effectively adopt Zero Trust principles. By embracing identity-driven access control, continuous contextual authorization, modern remote access solutions, comprehensive auditing, and ephemeral access credentials, you position your organization strongly against modern cyber threats.
Solutions like Pomerium align directly with these recommendations, offering a practical, efficient path to Zero Trust security. Take the next step and see how Pomerium can seamlessly transform your security posture.
Try Pomerium Today.
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