What is Cybersecurity Architecture Mesh?

In an era where a wide majority of organizations are shifting towards multi-cloud computing and remote work, cybersecurity risks are perpetually increasing. Data is becoming less centralized leaving more points of vulnerabilities open to exploitation and different cloud providers have their own security policies in place, leading to inconsistent security standards.

Currently, many companies have deployed a security system consisting of multiple integrated security solutions; increasing the complexity of their entire security architecture. This leads to complications while monitoring for cybersecurity risks is extremely difficult to manage and extend and is costly to maintain.

One of the most recently popular solutions proposed by Gartner called “Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture” seems to be well suited for today’s security needs; promising scalability and protection with minimal costs. 

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What is Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA)?

Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture or CSMA in short is a concept of security architecture proposed by Gartner. The CSMA is a distributed architectural approach to scalable, flexible, and reliable cybersecurity control as described by Gartner. Cybersecurity Mesh provides a foundational layer that enables a dynamic security environment by enabling multiple distinct security services to work together. It mainly focuses on a modular security approach, where each security tool is carefully integrated into a larger framework. 

CSMA presents a collaborative approach for distributed security services to provide a force multiplier to gain a more cohesive security posture with fewer resources. 

CSMA has a unique approach to achieving this; it provides four foundational layers to configure and manage distinct security services which are: 

1. Security analytics and intelligence: 

The first layer primarily focuses on the collection and analysis of security data provided by various security tools within a company’s security ecosystem. This data can later be passed through Security information and event management (SIEM) software to provide real-time threat analytics with automated security event notifications. 

2. Distributed identity fabric: 

This layer prepares and provides the security framework with decentralized directory services which are key to a zero-trust model. These include adaptive access, identity proofing, decentralized and user entitlement management. 

3. Consolidated policy and posture management: 

This layer helps in the configuration of individual security tools by translating a central policy into the native configuration constructs. This allows consistent and standardized security policies across various different security systems. Can also be used as an advanced alternative to dynamic runtime authorization service. 

4. Consolidated dashboards: 

The integration of disconnected security tools often requires switching between multiple dashboards; impeding operations. This layer offers an effective single pane dashboard to view and manage the entire security ecosystem of an organization. 

A short overview of the four foundational layers of the Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture.

CSMA provides the basis on which people and machines can communicate securely over multiple locations across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, channels, and diverse sets of applications while still maintaining the security of all the organization’s digital assets. To get a better idea of how cybersecurity plays an important role in maintaining the integrity of an organization’s digital assets, be sure to check out information security courses. 

CSMA and the Zero Trust Strategy:

Cybersecurity mesh is at the core of a ‘zero-trust’ strategy, i.e., devices and users requiring access to an organization’s data and applications are deemed untrustworthy unless verified by the security protocol. Therefore, by utilizing a distributed “mesh” approach along with the zero-trust model, security perimeters can be defined around users further protecting the network layer and reducing overall vulnerabilities.

While the mesh ensures that all the security components are considered, the zero-trust model ensures that all requests for access are untrusted by default. 

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Main Benefits of CSMA

1. Support for Identity and Access Management Requests (IAM): 

Gartner predicts implementing CSMA will support a majority of IAM requests and enable a more robust access management model. This holds great importance for organizations with distributed digital assets that need to be properly safeguarded and have a more reliable approach to guard their access points than the usual security perimeters.

2. Full leverage of third-party services: 

The way Gartner describes how CSMA is designed would suggest easy communication between the implemented third-party services. This would create a much more flexible security environment across all networks.

3. Easy implementation of identity proofing tools: 

According to Gartner, 30% of major enterprises will implement new identity proofing tools by 2024. This is due to the increasing number of remote interactions in an organization, making proper distinguishment of valid users from hackers often difficult. With CSMA, fitting in new identity proofing tools inside the security framework would be much more streamlined and flexible.

4. Decentralized identity standards:

Ensuring the privacy of identity data is to be carried out by a decentralized approach coupled with block chain technology. Currently, most organizations employ a centralized approach to managing identity data, leaving points vulnerability. By 2024, Gartner predicts most organizations would move towards a true global, portable, decentralized identity standard. 

5. Streamlined Deployment and Management: 

CSMA provides an infrastructure that streamlines the integration of new security tools. The flexibility and adaptability of the architecture enables it to deploy and manage new security solutions with ease, making a business adapt to evolving security standards much easier than before.

How to Implement Cybersecurity Mesh

While Cybersecurity Mesh is a concept by Gartner, a few steps can secure an organization’s critical access points and help with building a more connected and meshed network of security infrastructure. These are:

1. Interoperability should be one of the main priorities with selecting security solutions for your cybersecurity infrastructure. Invest in building an integrated framework of compatible security tools that can work together to provide a more synergetic effect. 
2. Selecting tools that work as part of a larger framework instead of an independent silo. Priority should be given to vendors with an open policy framework, enabling policy decisions to be made outside the tool. 
3. Utilize access control measures like multi-factor authentication and Zero Trust Network Access with a proper audit procedure for each access request. Controlling access to data can ensure only authorized users have access to assets, while monitoring each request independently to assess any malicious activity. 
4. Selecting vendors with a good track record of updating to the latest security standards and are quick to embrace any new changes.
5. Transitioning from traditional VPN services to reliable and secured zero trust network access integrated with an access management tool. 

Impact of the Cybersecurity Mesh on IT Development

Today’s IT organizations have complex security demands, making the already existing security architectural approaches obsolete. This rapidly growing digital landscape requires a newer approach to security so to eliminate any security risk and operational overhead. Implementing CSMA would lead to a much better and stable security infrastructure, one that benefits both administrators and end users.

For example, current identity and security implementations include many tools which are not fully integrated (for example, they might be only loosely coupled by supporting federated authentication) which often results in overlap between multiple tools; causing incompatibility. Implementing these tools in a security framework usually requires multiple separate dashboards, some administrative policy points and maintaining many special integrations. This problem is highlighted as a new set of security tools need implementation. 

For IT organizations, CSMA provides them with a model that reduces deployment times drastically and reduces the impact of security failures while increasing agility and resilience. CSMA is gaining vast trend in the IT sector and will have a massive impact on the future development of the IT sector. To learn more about the latest trending cybersecurity tools and concepts, check out our Ethical Hacking course details. 

Conclusion

Organizations are investing heavily in many different solutions to individually secure each device and endpoint in their environment, making their security infrastructure complex and costly to manage. Existing approaches to identity and security architectures are failing to meet the rapidly advancing and demanding cybersecurity needs. Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture helps provide a common, integrated security framework to secure all assets, whether they’re on-premises, in data centers or in the cloud. CSMA allows stand-alone security tools to collaborate and work together in complementary ways to improve overall security by standardizing the way the tools interconnect.

Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture is Gartner’s Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022. By 2024, Gartner predicts that organizations that have successfully adopted a CSMA approach will reduce the financial impact of individual security incidents by an average of 90%.