Six steps to a Zero Trust architecture with Microsoft

Step 1: Identify and delineate critical access points

What are critical access points? The first step in a Zero Trust architecture is to identify the critical access points within your organization: users, devices, applications and data. The goal is to understand who has access to what data and systems, and what access needs to be restricted or reviewed.

Microsoft Solutions: Use Microsoft Entra ID for identity and access management. Conditional Access Policies let you create detailed access rules depending on factors such as user location, device status and risk levels.

License Requirements: Conditional Access requires at least a Microsoft Entra ID Premium P1 license. More advanced capabilities, such as Identity Protection and risk-based Conditional Access, require a Premium P2 license.

Step 2: Verify identity continuously, not once

Strong Authentication: Zero Trust requires identities to be verified anytime, anywhere, not just at login time. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) plays a crucial role here.

Microsoft solution: With Microsoft Entra ID, you can enable MFA for all users, requiring a second authentication method, such as a text code or authenticator app. You can also use Identity Protection to detect and automatically block high-risk logins.

License Requirements: MFA is available in the Microsoft Entra ID Free license, but for more advanced security features such as risk-based MFA and Identity Protection, a Premium P1 or Premium P2 license is required.

Step 3: Limit access rights to the minimum

Least Privilege Access: In a Zero Trust model, it is essential that users have access only to the data and applications they need to do their jobs. The principle of least privilege prevents malicious or compromised accounts from accessing sensitive information.

Microsoft solution: With Microsoft Entra ID Privileged Identity Management (PIM), you can provide access to administrative roles temporarily, and revoke it immediately after use. This ensures administrators have access only when needed and prevents abuse.

Licensing requirements: Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is available to users with a Microsoft Entra ID Premium P2 license.

Step 4: Monitor and evaluate user and device behavior

Monitor behavior, not just access: In a Zero Trust environment, not only the initial access is monitored, but also the behavior of users and devices during their session. This means that anomalies in behavior must be detected and analyzed quickly.

Microsoft solution: With Microsoft Defender for Identity and Microsoft Sentinel, you can monitor behavior patterns and detect anomalies. This helps identify suspicious activity and respond quickly to potential threats.

Licensing requirements: Microsoft Defender for Identity is available to organizations with a Microsoft 365 Defender subscription, which is required for advanced threat detection. Microsoft Sentinel, a cloud-native SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solution, requires a separate subscription.

Step 5: Automate your response

Automate security measures: Zero Trust requires that your security measures can respond to threats quickly and efficiently. This can be achieved by automating incident response and policy changes.

Microsoft solution: With Microsoft Sentinel, you can create automated workflows to quickly respond to threats, such as blocking suspicious accounts or terminating dangerous sessions. You can also implement automated security standards with Azure Security Center.

Licensing requirements: Microsoft Sentinel requires a separate license based on the volume of data collected (data ingest). Organizations must also have a Microsoft Defender license for security automation integration.

Step 6: Ensure transparency and reporting

Security reporting and compliance: A Zero Trust architecture requires transparency to ensure that all access points and security measures meet compliance requirements and best practices.

Microsoft solution: Use Microsoft Compliance Manager and Azure Security Center to regularly generate reports and evaluate how well your Zero Trust security policies are performing. This not only helps maintain compliance, but also identifies potential vulnerabilities in your architecture.

Licensing requirements: Basic Compliance Manager functionality is available in Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Enterprise subscriptions. Advanced compliance functionality may require you to have Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft Defender subscriptions.