A CISO's Guide to Universal Zero Trust Network Access

Unfortunately, too many vendor-centric definitions of UZTNA are confusing the market. This is nothing new in Zero Trust. “The term ‘Zero Trust’ has become excessively used and misapplied, leading to significant confusion among organizations. For many security leaders, it has become a source of frustration due to inconsistent messaging and aggressive marketing tactics,” finds Gartner^®.

Despite the recent introduction of UZTNA, some vendors have already done a disservice by doing one or more of the following:

• Defining traditional ZTNA as Universal ZTNA
• Minimizing UZTNA’s importance by identifying it as a subset of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
• Promoting the routing of all traffic through a single cloud, creating a single point of failure
• Suggesting architectures that introduce significant network latency
• Ignoring industrial control systems and other operational technologies (ICS/OT)

This guide explains in clear terms: what Universal Zero Trust Network Access is, why it is needed, how to reach a best-in-class version, and the gaps you can close in today’s ZTNA.