State and local governments hold vast amounts of sensitive citizen data that they are responsible for securing and protecting – from personal health data to vital records. Zero trust provides a cybersecurity framework that requires all users, whether inside or outside of the network, to be continuously validated to access the data. Zero trust operates under the assumption that breaches to IT systems are inevitable and focuses on minimizing their potential damage by continuously validating and verifying every entity attempting to access a network or the data and applications on it.

By adopting zero trust, state agencies can ensure that their access controls and security measures meet or exceed existing compliance requirements for their citizens. Zero trust becomes especially important when you think about the many state IT systems that need to access federal ones – like the health insurance exchanges and Social Security – because the federal systems fall under a zero trust mandate.

Getting Started Starts with a Mindset Shift

When it comes to zero trust, the first step is understanding that zero trust really is a journey and that it encompasses technology, policy and culture. Assessing your current systems and security environment can inform the development of a robust roadmap that will guide your next steps. A good reference roadmap is the zero trust maturity model released by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA.

As states begin to act on their roadmap and modernize their systems and cybersecurity programs, they must approach each decision with a zero trust mindset. The right partner can bring understanding of the required capabilities with proven experience in developing this framework for other agencies, bringing understanding of maturity models to create a customized plan for your needs.

Implementation Challenges: Road Bumps, Not Roadblocks

Without question, challenges will arise. The most important – and hardest – part of zero trust implementation is cultural. Employees, for example, need to be informed about the critical importance of continuous verification, least-privilege access and data protection. This will instill a security-conscious culture within the organization and contribute to the ultimate success of any zero trust initiative.

Cost can be another challenge. Initially, implementing zero trust may require new investments in technology and training, but by leveraging your existing investments in secure IT environments and reconfiguring existing tools teams can minimize those costs and drive efficiencies, with the understanding that it will pay dividends down the road.

Five Areas of Focus Along the Way

While every organization’s zero trust journey will be different, states can focus their resources on five general areas when navigating their path to a zero trust environment.

1. Focus on identity and access management.

2. Divide networks into smaller, more manageable segments with controlled access.

3. Encrypt sensitive data both at rest and in transit.

4. Deploy monitoring tools for real-time threat detection.

5. Update infrastructure and systems to support a zero trust architecture.

Implementing zero trust is a journey that requires commitment, collaboration with technology and cyber partners and a phased approach. That’s why it is so often referred to as a journey.

Today’s data-rich, multi-threat, ever-evolving landscape means the importance of securing government IT systems has never been greater. State and local governments will see enormous value in better securing their system and protecting citizen data by embracing this cybersecurity framework, and the time is now to start embracing zero trust approach to secure IT enterprises.