Background: black triangle with geometric security diagram

Zero Trust, Identity-based Security

Trust Nothing. Authenticate and Authorize Everything.

Customers Who Trust This Solution

U.S. CEOs place cybersecurity as their No. 1 business worry, ahead of new competitors and a recession.

2019 CyberSecurity Ventures Cybercrime Annual Report

The migration to cloud means teams and organizations are rethinking how to secure their applications and infrastructure. Security in the cloud is being recast from static and IP-based – defined by a perimeter – to dynamic and identity-based – with no clear perimeter. This idea is known as zero trust security.

Zero trust security is predicated on securing everything based on trusted identities. Machine authentication and authorization, machine-to-machine access, human authentication and authorization, and human-to-machine access are the four foundational categories for identity-driven controls and zero trust security.

The transition from traditional on-premises datacenters and environments to dynamic, cloud infrastructure is complex and introduces new challenges for enterprise security. There are more systems to manage, more endpoints to monitor, more networks to connect, and more people that need access. The potential for a breach increases significantly, and it is only a matter of time without the right security posture.

Securing traditional datacenters required managing and securing an IP-based perimeter with networks and firewalls, HSMs, SIEM, and other physical access restrictions. But those same solutions are no longer sufficient as companies move to cloud.

Securing infrastructure in the cloud requires a different approach.

As companies move to the cloud, the measures they took to secure their private datacenters start to disappear. IP-based perimeters and access are replaced by ephemeral IP addresses and a constantly changing workforce with the need to access shared resources. Managing access and IPs at scale becomes brittle and complex. Securing infrastructure, data, and access becomes increasingly difficult across clouds and on-premises datacenters, requiring lots of overhead and expertise. This shift requires a different approach to security, a different trust model. One that trusts nothing and authenticates and authorizes everything.

Because of the highly dynamic environment, organizations talk about a "zero trust" approach to cloud security. What does “zero trust” actually mean and what’s required for you to make it successful?

Challengesof multi-cloud zero trust secrurity

Managing access by IPs

Traditional solutions for safeguarding infrastructure, data, and access are rooted in the need to secure based on IP addresses. Applications talking to databases, users accessing hosts and services, and servers talking across clouds — traditionally these have all been protected by allowing or restricting access based on IP addresses. Managing access to this same infrastructure and data as companies migrate to the cloud becomes significantly harder and operationally complex as IPs are more dynamic and change frequently.

Securing machine connectivity

Machine-to-machine access is a core element of a cloud-first organization. Legacy ITIL-based methods requiring conventional ticket systems are slow, burdensome, and not flexible enough to meet the rigorous security demands of today’s dynamic cloud environments.

Scaling with demand

Traditional access and identity management with manual processes is slow, inefficient, and ineffective. Security measures like tokens, key cards, and passwords require direct IT intervention which requires significant resources and time, especially when required for hundreds or thousands of individual users and machines.

Enablingscalable, dynamic security across clouds

At HashiCorp, our security model is predicated on the principle of identity-based access and security. In order for any machine or user to do anything, they must authenticate who or what they are, and their identity and policies define what they’re allowed to do. Here’s how the HashiCorp offerings can help you with each pillar and make zero trust security truly work:

Machine Authentication & Authorization

HashiCorp Vault enables enterprises to centrally store, access, and distribute dynamic secrets like tokens, passwords, certificates, and encryption keys across any public or private cloud environment. Unlike burdensome ITIL-based systems, HashiCorp solutions issue credentials to both people and machines in a dynamic fashion, creating a secure, efficient, and truly multi-cloud solution suited to today's increasingly insecure world.
Machine-to-machine access

HashiCorp Consul enables machine-to-machine access by enforcing authentication between applications and ensuring only the right machines are talking to each other. Consul codifies authorization and traffic rules with encrypted traffic while automating identity-based access for maximum scale, efficiency, and security. With Consul, organizations can discover services, automate network configurations, and enable secure connectivity across any cloud or runtime using Consul service mesh.
Human access and authorization

Companies use different identity platforms for federated systems of record. Leveraging these trusted identity providers is the principle of identity-based access and security. HashiCorp products have deep integration with the leading identity providers.
Human-to-machine access

Traditional solutions for safeguarding user access used to require you to distribute and manage SSH keys, VPN credentials, and bastion hosts, which creates risks around credential sprawl and users having access to entire networks and systems. HashiCorp Boundary secures access to applications and critical systems with fine-grained authorizations without managing credentials or exposing your network.
Automating identity-based security and access

Automate identity-driven controls across machines, users, and networks with HashiCorp's suite of security tools and products.

Business impactof multi-cloud security

HashiCorp’s approach to identity-based security and access provides a solid foundation for companies to safely migrate and secure their infrastructure, applications, and data as they move to a multi-cloud world.