Cybersecurity Mesh: A Distributed and Modular Approach to Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is one of the most critical challenges facing organizations and individuals in the digital era. As the world becomes more connected and complex, the traditional perimeter-based security model becomes inadequate and ineffective. The rise of remote work, cloud computing, edge devices, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies has created a distributed and dynamic network environment, where assets and users are located anywhere and everywhere. This poses new risks and vulnerabilities for cyberattacks, as well as new demands and expectations for security solutions.

To address these challenges, a new approach to cybersecurity is emerging: cybersecurity mesh. Cybersecurity mesh is a collaborative ecosystem of tools and controls that secures a modern, distributed enterprise. It builds on a strategy of integrating composable, distributed security tools by centralizing the data and control plane to achieve more effective collaboration between tools. Cybersecurity mesh enables organizations to apply security policies and controls at the individual level, rather than at the network level, creating a more granular and adaptive security posture.

In this article, we will explain what cybersecurity mesh is, how it works, what are its benefits and applications, and how to start building a cybersecurity mesh architecture.

What Is Cybersecurity Mesh?

Cybersecurity mesh is a term coined by Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, to describe a composable and scalable approach to extending security controls, even to widely distributed assets¹. It is based on the principle of identity-centric security, which means that security is applied to the identity of a person or thing, regardless of where they are or what they are accessing. This allows for more flexible and resilient security across the network, as well as more consistent and efficient policy management.

Cybersecurity mesh consists of four key components:

Identity fabric: This is the foundation of cybersecurity mesh, which provides a unified view of all identities (human or machine) across the network, as well as their attributes, roles, permissions, and contexts. Identity fabric enables authentication, authorization, auditing, and orchestration of security policies for each identity.
Security intelligence: This is the layer that collects, analyzes, and correlates data from various sources (such as logs, events, alerts, threat intelligence, etc.) to provide visibility, insight, and guidance for security operations. Security intelligence enables detection, prevention, response, and remediation of security incidents.
Security policy: This is the layer that defines the rules and standards for security across the network, as well as the mechanisms for enforcing them. Security policy enables governance, compliance, risk management, and reporting of security performance.
Security services: This is the layer that implements the actual security functions and capabilities for each identity or asset. Security services include encryption, firewalling, antivirus, endpoint protection, VPNs, DLPs (Data Loss Prevention), etc.

These components work together to create a cybersecurity mesh architecture (CSMA), which is a collaborative ecosystem of tools and controls that secures a modern distributed enterprise ².

How Does Cybersecurity Mesh Work?

Cybersecurity mesh works by decentralizing security functions and capabilities from the network perimeter to the individual level. Instead of relying on a single or monolithic security solution that covers all assets and users within a predefined boundary (such as a firewall or VPN), cybersecurity mesh leverages multiple security services that can be deployed and managed independently for each identity or asset. This creates smaller and individual perimeters around each access point (such as an endpoint device or an application), which can be dynamically adjusted according to the context and risk level.

For example, suppose an employee wants to access a cloud-based application from their home laptop. In a traditional security model, they would have to connect to the corporate network via a VPN (Virtual Private Network), which would provide them with a secure tunnel to access the application. However, this approach has several drawbacks:

It creates a single point of failure or compromise for the entire network.
It adds latency and complexity to the user experience.
It does not account for the different levels of trust or sensitivity between different applications or data.
It does not protect against insider threats or compromised credentials.

In contrast, in a cybersecurity mesh model,

The employee would authenticate themselves using their identity credentials (such as username/password or biometrics).
The identity fabric would verify their identity attributes (such as role or location) and grant them access to the application based on their permissions.
The security intelligence would monitor their behavior and activity for any anomalies or threats.
The security policy would enforce the appropriate rules and standards for accessing the application (such as encryption or multifactor authentication).
The security service would provide the specific security function or capability for securing the connection between the employee’s laptop and the application (such as firewalling or antivirus).

This way,

The security is applied at the individual level, rather than at the network level, creating a more granular and adaptive security posture.
The security is distributed across multiple security services, rather than centralized in a single security solution, creating a more resilient and scalable security environment.
The security is integrated and coordinated by the identity fabric, security intelligence, and security policy, creating a more consistent and efficient security management.

What Are the Benefits and Applications of Cybersecurity Mesh?

Cybersecurity mesh offers several benefits and applications for organizations and individuals in the digital era. Some of them are:

Improved security performance: Cybersecurity mesh enables organizations to secure their assets and users more effectively and efficiently, by providing more visibility, flexibility, scalability, and collaboration across the network. Cybersecurity mesh can help organizations to detect and respond to cyberattacks faster, prevent data breaches and leaks, comply with regulations and standards, and reduce costs and complexity of security operations.
Enhanced user experience: Cybersecurity mesh enables users to access any digital asset securely, regardless of where the asset or the user is located. Cybersecurity mesh can help users to enjoy more convenience, productivity, and privacy, by providing more seamless, personalized, and context-aware access to applications and data.
Increased innovation and agility: Cybersecurity mesh enables organizations to embrace digital transformation and adopt new technologies and business models more easily and confidently. Cybersecurity mesh can help organizations to leverage cloud computing, edge devices, IoT technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, etc., by providing more modular, composable, and interoperable security solutions.

Some of the use cases or scenarios where cybersecurity mesh can be applied are:

Remote work: Cybersecurity mesh can enable organizations to support remote work securely and efficiently, by providing more granular and adaptive access control for remote workers, as well as more visibility and collaboration for security teams.
Cloud migration: Cybersecurity mesh can enable organizations to migrate to the cloud securely and smoothly, by providing more consistent and scalable security policies and controls for cloud-based assets and services.
Edge computing: Cybersecurity mesh can enable organizations to secure edge computing devices (such as sensors or cameras) more effectively and resiliently, by providing more distributed and modular security services that can operate independently or collaboratively.
IoT ecosystems: Cybersecurity mesh can enable organizations to secure IoT ecosystems (such as smart homes or smart cities) more comprehensively and dynamically, by providing more identity-centric and context-aware security for IoT devices and data.

How to Start Building a Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture?

Building a cybersecurity mesh architecture requires a strategic approach that involves several steps. Some of them are:

Assess your current security posture: The first step is to evaluate your existing security environment, including your assets, users, threats, risks, vulnerabilities, policies, tools, processes, etc. This will help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, gaps, opportunities, and priorities for improvement.
Define your security goals and objectives: The next step is to define your desired security outcomes and metrics, based on your business needs and expectations. This will help you align your security strategy with your business strategy and measure your progress and performance.
Design your cybersecurity mesh architecture: The third step is to design your cybersecurity mesh architecture based on your assessment results and your defined goals. This will involve selecting the appropriate identity fabric, security intelligence, security policy, and security services for your network environment. You should also consider the integration and interoperability of these components with each other and with your existing systems.
Implement your cybersecurity mesh architecture: The fourth step is to implement your cybersecurity mesh architecture according to your design plan. This will involve deploying, configuring, testing, validating, optimizing, monitoring, maintaining, updating, etc., of your selected components. You should also ensure the compliance of these components with your defined policies and standards.
Evaluate your cybersecurity mesh architecture: The final step is to evaluate your cybersecurity mesh architecture based on your defined metrics. This will involve collecting feedback from stakeholders (such as users or customers), analyzing data from sources (such as logs or reports), benchmarking against best practices or industry standards (such as NIST or ISO), etc. You should also identify areas for improvement or enhancement based on your evaluation results.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity mesh is a distributed and modular approach to cybersecurity that allows users to access any digital asset securely regardless of where the asset or the user is located. It is based on the principle of identity-centric security which applies security policies and controls at the individual level rather than at the network level. It consists of four key components: identity fabric which provides a unified view of all identities across the network; security intelligence which provides visibility insight guidance for security operations; security policy which defines rules standards for security across the network; security services which implement actual security functions capabilities for each identity or asset.

Cybersecurity mesh offers several benefits such as improved security performance enhanced user experience increased innovation agility for organizations individuals in the digital era. It can be applied in various use cases such as remote work cloud migration edge

Cybersecurity Mesh: A Distributed and Modular Approach to Cybersecurity