CCZT Certificate of Competence in Zero Trust (CCZT) Questions and Answers

To respond quickly to changes while implementing ZT Strategy, an organization requires a mindset and culture of continuous risk evaluation and policy adjustment. This means that the organization should constantly monitor the threat landscape, assess the security posture, and update the policies and controls accordingly to maintain a high level of protection and resilience. The organization should also embrace feedback, learning, and improvement as part of the ZT journey.

References =

• Certificate of Competence in Zero Trust (CCZT) prepkit, page 7, section 1.3
• Cultivating a Zero Trust mindset - AWS Prescriptive Guidance, section “Continuous learning and improvement”
• Zero Trust architecture: a paradigm shift in cybersecurity - PwC, section “Continuous monitoring and improvement”

The rule-based security policies configured on the Policy Decision Point (PDP) are designed to define rules that specify how information can flow within an organization's network. These rules are integral to implementing the principle of least privilege and ensuring that data is accessed only by authorized entities under strict conditions. By controlling information flow, the PDP helps in mitigating the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access, reinforcing the Zero Trust model's emphasis on stringent access control and continuous verification of trust.

In Zero Trust Architecture, collecting logs from various sources is vital for supporting security investigations, creating comprehensive dashboards, and making informed policy adjustments. By maintaining integrity-protected logs of all security-related events and proofs, organizations can analyze patterns, detect anomalies, and respond to incidents more effectively. This continuous logging and analysis support the Zero Trust principle of never assuming trust and always verifying, enabling a dynamic and responsive security posture that can adapt to emerging threats and changing conditions​​.

Data and asset classification is a prerequisite action to understand the organization’s protect surface clearly because it helps to identify the most critical and sensitive data and assets that need to be protected by Zero Trust principles. Data and asset classification also helps to define the appropriate policies and controls for different levels of data and asset sensitivity.

References = Certificate of Competence in Zero Trust (CCZT) - Cloud Security Alliance, Zero Trust Training (ZTT) - Module 2: Data and Asset Classification

ZTA planning can improve the developer experience by streamlining access provisioning to deployment environments. This means that developers can access the resources and services they need to deploy their applications in a fast and secure manner, without having to go through complex and manual processes. ZTA planning can also help to automate and orchestrate the access provisioning using dynamic and granular policies based on the context and attributes of the developers, devices, and applications.

References = Certificate of Competence in Zero Trust (CCZT) - Cloud Security Alliance, Zero Trust Training (ZTT) - Module 10: ZTA Planning and Implementation

A critical product of the gap analysis process is the implementation’s requirements, which are the specifications and criteria that define the desired outcomes, capabilities, and functionalities of the ZTA. The implementation’s requirements are derived from the gap analysis, which identifies the current state, the target state, and the gaps between them. The implementation’s requirements help to guide the design, development, testing, and deployment of the ZTA, as well as the evaluation of its effectiveness and alignment with the business objectives and needs.

References =

• Zero Trust Planning - Cloud Security Alliance, section “Scope, Priority, & Business Case”
• The Zero Trust Journey: 4 Phases of Implementation - SEI Blog, section “Second Phase: Assess”
• Planning for a Zero Trust Architecture: A Planning Guide for Federal …, section “Gap Analysis”

During the monitoring and analytics phase of ZT transaction flows, organizations should collect statistics and profile the behavior of transactions to support a continuous assessment of all transactions. A continuous assessment of all transactions means that the organization constantly evaluates the security posture, performance, and compliance of each transaction, and detects and responds to any anomalies, deviations, or threats. A continuous assessment of all transactions helps to maintain a high level of protection and resilience in the ZTA, and enables the organization to adjust and improve the policies and controls accordingly.

References =

• Zero Trust Planning - Cloud Security Alliance, section “Monitor & Measure”
• The role of visibility and analytics in zero trust architectures, section “The basic NIST tenets of this approach include”
• Move to the Zero Trust Security Model - Trailhead, section “Monitor and Maintain Your Environment”

 The protect surface in a ZTA is the collection of sensitive data, assets, applications, and services (DAAS) that require protection from threats1. One benefit of the protect surface in a ZTA for an organization implementing controls is that it allows the controls to be moved closer to the asset and minimize risk. This means that instead of relying on a single perimeter or boundary to protect the entire network, ZTA enables granular and dynamic controls that are applied at or near the DAAS components, based on the principle of least privilege2. This reduces the attack surface and the potential impact of a breach, as well as improves the visibility and agility of the security posture3.

References =

• Zero Trust Architecture | NIST
• Zero Trust Architecture Explained: A Step-by-Step Approach - Comparitech
• What is Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)? - CrowdStrike

To detect and stop malicious access attempts in real-time within a Zero Trust Architecture, comprehensive audit logging and continuous monitoring are essential. These measures provide visibility into all access attempts and activities within the network, allowing for the early detection of suspicious behavior. By analyzing logs and monitoring network traffic, security teams can identify and respond to potential threats in real-time, preventing unauthorized access and minimizing the impact of any security incidents.

ZT project implementation requires prioritization as part of the overall ZT project planning activities. One area to consider is prioritization based on risks, which means that the organization should identify and assess the potential threats, vulnerabilities, and impacts that could affect its assets, operations, and reputation, and prioritize the ZT initiatives that address the most critical and urgent risks. Prioritization based on risks helps to align the ZT project with the business objectives and needs, and optimize the use of resources and time.

References =

• Zero Trust Planning - Cloud Security Alliance, section “Scope, Priority, & Business Case”
• The Zero Trust Journey: 4 Phases of Implementation - SEI Blog, section “Second Phase: Assess”
• Planning for a Zero Trust Architecture: A Planning Guide for Federal …, section “Gap Analysis”

The third step in the SDP onboarding process is to onboard and authenticate the initiating hosts, which are the clients that request access to the protected resources. The initiating hosts connect to and authenticate with the SDP gateway, which acts as an accepting host and a proxy for the protected resources. The SDP gateway verifies the identity and posture of the initiating hosts and grants them access to the resources based on the policies defined by the SDP controller.

References =

• Certificate of Competence in Zero Trust (CCZT) prepkit, page 21, section 3.1.2
• 6 SDP Deployment Models to Achieve Zero Trust | CSA, section “Deployment Models Explained”
• Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) and Zero Trust | CSA, page 7, section 3.1

ABAC is an access control method that uses attributes of the requester, the resource, the environment, and the action to evaluate and enforce policies. ABAC allows for fine-grained and dynamic access control based on the context of the request, rather than predefined roles or privileges. ABAC is suitable for SaaS and PaaS, where the features within a service may vary depending on the customer’s needs, preferences, and subscription level. ABAC can help implement ZT by enforcing the principle of least privilege and verifying every request based on multiple factors.

References =

• Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) Definition
• General Access Control Guidance for Cloud Systems
• A Guide to Secure SaaS Access Control Within an Organization

For a successful implementation of Zero Trust security, planning and aligning incident and response management processes with existing access procedures are crucial. These processes ensure that the organization is prepared to effectively respond to security incidents and breaches, minimizing potential impacts. Aligning these processes with Zero Trust principles enhances the organization's resilience and ability to quickly adapt to threats, maintaining the integrity and availability of its systems and data​​.

ZTA is based on the principle of never trusting any user or device by default, regardless of their location or ownership. ZTA policies can use various methods to verify the identity and context of third-party users and devices, such as tokens, certificates, multifactor authentication, device posture assessment, etc. ZTA policies can also enforce granular and dynamic access policies that grant the minimum necessary privileges to third-party users and devices for accessing specific resources, while hiding all other assets from their view. This reduces the attack surface and prevents unauthorized access and lateral movement within the network.

In a ZTA, policies should be created in the control plane, which is the logical component that defines and manages the policies for accessing resources. The control plane consists of policy entities, such as policy administrators, policy engines, and policy decision points, that are responsible for crafting, maintaining, evaluating, and enforcing the policies1. The control plane interacts with the data plane, which is the logical component that handles the data transmission and processing, and the network, which is the physical or virtual component that provides the connectivity and transport for the data plane1. The endpoint is the device or system that requests or provides access to a resource1.

References =

• Zero Trust Architecture | NIST