Once authenticated, ZTNA creates a micro-segmented network with extremely limited access. Since ZTNA assumes that everything inside or outside the network perimeter is not to be trusted, every transaction and connection is authenticated for every access.

Today, computing devices and access are greatly distributed with cloud, mobile, edge, and IoT, components that have blurred the demarcation points thus making it increasingly difficult to defend the perimeter. This approach often granted users and devices ‘inside’ the network perimeter broad access, so that a device on one network segment could see all the other network segments within the corporate network perimeter. Traditionally, network security was defined by a perimeter that had clear demarcation points between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the corporate network. Zero Trust network architecture addresses two weaknesses that have evolved as network topologies and usage have changed. Thus, Zero Trust requires mutual authentication to confirm the identity and integrity of devices regardless of location to grant access based on the confidence of device identity, device health, and user authentication combined. Gone are the days of a network perimeter or VPN-only access today’s increasingly mobile workforce and growth in the work-at-home movement demand new security methods be considered for users, while the increasingly distributed nature of computing with containers and micro-services means that device-to-device connections are increasing as well. This has become necessary because of the changes in how network resources are accessed.

Zero Trust identity authentication and authorization use the principle of least privilege (PoLP), which grants the absolute minimum rights required for a given function – before a single packet is transferred. Zero Trust enforces the use of stringent security controls for users and devices before they can gain access to protected resources.

Vmware vs virtualbox security