How to Validate Zero-Trust Networks

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Validating zero-trust networks with real-world traffic and attack emulation

Validating zero-trust networks requires re-creating real-world traffic conditions, user behavior, and cyberattacks. Zero-trust networks utilize a mix of tools, software, policies, and micro-segmentations to authenticate users and grant them access. Therefore, security operations teams need to ensure each of these components work individually and as part of an end-to-end, perimeter-less network deployment. Emulating authenticated and unauthenticated traffic is essential for testing access protocols under a range of conditions, while cyberattack emulations can assess if security tools are capable of stopping an attack from an authenticated user.

The first stage of testing a zero-trust network is verifying network tools and policies are performing individually. For example, make sure micro-segmentations, VPN tunnels, and secure web gateways are granting the appropriate levels of access for authenticated traffic. At the same time, ensure security tools are denying access if an authenticated user is infected with malware. After verifying all components perform individually, validate them as part of an end-to-end deployment to ensure real-world functionality. Simulating network traffic at peak loads can also help identify performance drags and bottlenecks — revealing opportunities to improve user experience by fine-tuning zero-trust policies.

Zero-trust validation solution

Validate zero-trust network policies by emulating cyberattacks and application traffic from authenticated and unauthenticated sources. Keysight CyPerf re-creates realistic workloads across various physical and cloud environments, and it can be used to measure both security and quality of service. CyPerf delivers deep insights into end-user experience, security posture, and performance bottlenecks of distributed and hybrid network deployments.

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