Adoption of Zero Trust Networking with Twingate – Part 2

Overview

Traditional network designs have difficulty adapting to today’s ubiquitous threat environment and design parameters. Organizations want a VPN solution that ensures the security of critical resources while simplifying network management and increasing user experience. Twingate’s safe access solution, based on Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) principles, enables organizations to migrate away from VPNs without impacting their existing infrastructure.

When switching to ZTNA, a replacement for a traditional VPN that doesn’t interfere with an expansive, sophisticated network. For scalable, automated provisioning and maintenance of secure access control, businesses would choose Twingate.

This article will brief you about TwinGate Zero Trust as a security paradigm and the state of adoption and implementation.

Introduction to TwinGate Zero Trust

Decoupling secure access: – Access control has historically been closely linked to the physical network. Twingate separates access control from other services, simplifying implementation and maintenance. Routers and gateways do not transmit changes to access rules. The same applies to network modifications; they do not affect access rules. The software-based technique used by Twingate produces a flexible network overlay that can accommodate a sizable user base with various access requirements. Users may be based in the office or working from home, while protected resources may be on-premises or distributed throughout the cloud.

Software architecture for Twingate: – Between secured resources and the firewall, the Twingate design uses proxies. These proxies, often known as connectors, hide resources from any network, public or private. Client apps implement all security regulations at the network’s edge, and route protected traffic over encrypted tunnels to approved Connectors.

Streamlining organization Zero Trust: – The enterprise transition to Zero Trust Network Access is streamlined by Twingate. Before user devices connect to protected resources, Twingate’s Client app explicitly evaluates each access request and enacts least-privileged access controls.

Twingate vs. Traditional VPNs

Despite the efforts of VPN providers, many remote access solutions are built on an outdated design incompatible with contemporary networking. Cyberthreats are seemed to be unpredictable. Modern cloud-based infrastructure has reduced the centralization of both resources and workforces. Because of the outdated technology used by legacy remote access solutions, VPN-based access is costly, flimsy, and unsafe.

Twingate’s approach to secure access addresses the numerous shortcomings of VPNs.

Visibility: For distant users to use VPN gateways, they must be publically discoverable. VPN gateways are easy targets for online attackers due to their visibility. Protected resources remain undetectable thanks to Twingate’s software-defined perimeters, even to an infiltrated network.

Permissiveness: Site-to-site networks via the internet at a reasonable cost were the initial purpose of business VPNs. Remote access VPNs use the same model. The user’s device grows with the secure network. As a result, hacked VPN gateways or leaked credentials allowed hackers to move about the network unnoticed. Twingate manages access on a user-by-user, resource-by-resource basis without granting any user access to the underlying network.

Network Bandwidth: VPN gateways allow remote traffic to private networks, even if it is intended for the cloud. Twingate establishes direct tunnels between each user and resource, allowing users to access cloud resources via the internet securely.

Latency in the network: Backhauling remote cloud access via a VPN gateway puts user traffic on a four-leg round trip, which increases latency and degrades the user experience. Twingate lowers latency by routing traffic via the most direct and efficient path.

Segmentation: Accessing segmented networks through VPN enhances security at the expense of cost and manageability. Each segment requires a specialized VPN gateway, which businesses must install and manage. Enterprises use Twingate to deploy Connectors to establish software-defined network segments.

How does Twingate Work?

Twingate was developed with a thoughtful approach to security in mind from the beginning. A crucial characteristic of Twingate’s architecture is that no component may decide to enable traffic to pass to another component or Resource in your Remote networks. Depending on the importance of choice is granted, authorization for user access or data flow is always checked with a second—or even a third—component. By delegating user authentication to a third-party Identity Provider (IdP), you may extend that separation of concerns even further, giving an extra layer of protection to your Twingate network.

Twingate is built on four components: the Controller, Clients, Connectors, and Relays, which work together to guarantee that only authenticated users may access the resources they have been authorized to access.

Source: www.twingate.com

Authorized users can connect to any Resource using its FQDN or IP address—with addressing local to the Resource on the Remote network—after Twingate has been completely setup, without needing to be aware of the underlying network configuration or even what Remote network the Resource is located on.

Before going on to how Clients and Connectors safely register with your Twingate network and the whole connection flow, let’s look at each of Twingate’s components individually.

1. Controller: The Controller serves as Twingate’s main hub for coordination. It is a multi-tenant component that, among other things, registers Connectors, issues signed authorizations to Clients submitting connection requests, and stores configuration changes via the admin console. The only component that doesn’t engage in any data flow interaction.
2. Client: The Twingate Client software (client) is installed on users’ devices. The Client’s purpose is to act as a proxy for user requests for private Resources that combines authentication and authorization functions. In a Twingate network deployment, most decisions are made at the Client level. All network routing and authorization choices are made on the Client’s side.
3. Connector: The Connector is the mirror component to the Client and has a more straightforward set of duties. The Connector is designed to be installed behind a private Remote network’s firewall.
4. Relay: The Relay is the Twingate architecture’s simplest element. No data-carrying connections are severed at the relay, and no data or network-identifiable information is stored there. Regarding WebRTC terminology, the Relay can be equivalent to a TURN server.

Conclusion

With the help of Twingate’s cutting-edge Zero Trust Network Access technology, businesses can easily enhance security and accessibility where it is most highly needed. Twingate’s scalability and simple management allow businesses to gradually roll out Zero Trust without redesigning their worldwide networks. You will better secure your organization’s valuable resources using TwinGate, replacing brittle, costly infrastructure with a simple, easily-managed software solution.

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