Question

Difficulty: MediumZero Trust Architecture Principles

A municipal transit authority is modernizing its distributed traffic management system and fleet maintenance stations to align with Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) principles. Which of the following architectural decisions directly fulfill core Zero Trust tenets? (Select TWO.)

  1. Enforcing continuous policy re-evaluation using real-time contextual risk signals for every resource request, regardless of network location.Answer
  2. Creating granular microsegments around enterprise workloads to isolate network traffic and strictly limit lateral movement.Answer
  3. C
    Designating the internal corporate LAN as a trusted zone where authenticated devices are exempt from granular resource authorization checks.
  4. D
    Treating successful identity verification during initial user login as implicit authorization to access all downstream database services.

Answer

The zero trust design must continuously re-evaluate policy decisions based on real-time risk signals regardless of network location, and implement workload microsegmentation to prevent lateral movement.
Zero Trust Architecture relies on assuming breach, explicit continuous verification, and microsegmentation. Enforcing continuous policy re-evaluation ensures access is dynamically granted based on real-time posture and risk context rather than static attributes or network origin. Simultaneously, establishing microsegments around workloads enforces least privilege access and restricts an adversary's ability to move laterally across the enterprise network.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Evaluate the core tenets of Zero Trust Architecture according to NIST standards.
Identified key tenets: continuous explicit verification, least privilege access, microsegmentation, and assuming breach across all network segments.
Zero Trust operates under the premise that no network segment is inherently trusted.
2
Analyze each option against Zero Trust requirements versus traditional perimeter defense practices.
Continuous contextual verification and workload microsegmentation adhere to Zero Trust principles, whereas trusting the internal LAN or granting broad authorization upon initial login violates them.
Perimeter reliance and conflating authentication with broad authorization represent legacy security fallacies.

Key Concept

Zero Trust Architecture Core Tenets
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