How Zero Trust Architecture is Shaping the Future of a Passwordless Society

The world is witnessing a paradigm shift in adopting cutting-edge technologies for digital transformation, and the same goes for the cybersecurity landscape.

We’ve inched closer to adopting stringent security standards and mechanisms that ensure robust security and eventually deliver a rich consumer experience in the past decade.

Yes, security balanced with the consumer experience is undeniably the key to business success, especially when cybersecurity threats and consumer expectations are soaring exponentially.

And when we talk about user experience with security, going passwordless is the new trend that’s helping businesses stay ahead of their competitors by delivering a perfect harmony of usability with security.

However, to lay the foundation for a robust passwordless ecosystem, businesses need to combine the potential of Zero Trust architecture with passwordless capabilities.

Let’s understand how businesses can leverage the true potential of passwordless coupled with Zero Trust architecture.

What is Zero Trust Architecture? How does it help Businesses go Passwordless?

Zero trust architecture can be defined as the security concept that believes an enterprise shouldn’t automatically trust any individual or machine, whether outside or inside its perimeters. It must stringently verify the identity before granting access.

The zero trust architecture is based on the “don’t trust anyone” principle and ensures all access points are cut until adequate verification is done and proper trust is established.

Talking about the passwordless approach, the zero Trust architecture removes the need for passwords for authentication and sign-in purposes.

For instance, a user lands on a website and wishes to sign up for their services. They enter their email address or mobile number and then click on a one-time authentication link or provide the one-time password (OTP) for authentication and get access.

Alternatively, they can utilize their social media platform for authentication purposes or use biometric authentication to sign in to their account.

Hence the zero trust architecture lays the foundation of passwordless authentication since it ensures proper trust is established before offering the access.

Why is Zero Trust Becoming the Need of the Hour?

Since the zero trust model believes that everything inside a network is secure and outside requires authentication, the chances of data breach bypassing corporate firewalls seem an uphill battle for cybercriminals.

Hackers are unable to sneak into a network that always demands stringent authentication. Moreover, zero trust architecture coupled with multi-factor authentication (MFA) leaves no chances for cybercriminals to intrude into a network.

Hence, businesses today require a whole new way of thinking about access management that shuns any chances of compromised data by any bad external actor.

Business Advantages of Incorporating Zero Trust Architecture for the Next-Level of Passwordless Authentication

#1. To safeguard sensitive business information and maintain brand repute

Since the top priority of any business is to safeguard sensitive business information and consumer information, incorporating the zero trust architecture gives more power to businesses to enhance security.

Also, data privacy regulations across the globe are becoming more stringent. This means businesses collecting sensitive consumer information need to comply with the regulations while storing, managing and processing information. Failing to which could entitle them to hefty fines.

Adding a zero trust approach could help businesses increase their brand reputation and build lasting consumer trust without losing compliance.

#2. Greater visibility

Since the zero trust architecture never relies on or trusts anyone, businesses can decide what data, activity, or resources they need to add to their security strategy, enhancing visibility and monitoring across every process.

With this approach, all information on the network remains secure since every user requiring access needs to go through a robust authentication process to get access to the needed resources.

Once businesses have set up adequate security and monitoring covering all the resources and activities, they gain complete visibility into their network and the know-how and who is accessing it.

In a nutshell, the zero trust approach offers precise data monitoring concerning time, location, devices, and applications involved in every step. And the overall security mechanism enables businesses to flag suspicious activity or behaviors through real-time monitoring.

#3. Reinforces remote workforce’s security

The global IT landscape has been facing a paradigm shift amid the global pandemic where remote working and work from home ecosystems swiftly became the new normal.

The sudden shift to distributed workforce scenarios introduced new vulnerabilities and challenges related to weak firewalls and phishing attacks that require immediate attention to avoid data breaches and identity thefts.

With a zero trust architecture in place, every user, application, and device seeking access is monitored in real-time to ensure the highest level of security for business information and users’ identity.

Zero trust reduces the dependencies on firewalls that are now considered outdated and ensure that a workforce spread across the globe can securely access resources within a secure network.

The Bottom Line

With the changing IT and cybersecurity landscape, businesses must understand the importance of incorporating more innovative and reliable systems that can help them win consumer trust and ensure the highest level of security.

When it comes to delivering a flawless user experience through passwordless authentication and managing security, nothing can beat the zero trust architecture in the long run.