Table of Contents
Lateral movement refers to how cyber attackers, once inside a network, stealthily explore, escalate privileges, and expand their footprint, often undetected, ultimately preparing for data theft or disruptive actions. This “silent spread” exploits gaps between fragmented access controls, inconsistent policies, and legacy remote access technologies. Hybrid and remote workforces, contractors, BYOD, and siloed security stacks further widen these blind spots for adversaries.
Today’s perimeter-based security models, anchored by VPNs, fall short. VPNs act as “all-access passes”, granting broad network access upon login, credentials and device checks only happen at initial connection, leaving attackers free to roam. Fragmented policies exacerbate risk, especially when different enforcement mechanisms apply to users, locations, or device types. This outdated model fails to deliver continuous validation or real-time threat inspection.
Deploy the SecureTrust stack, reduce lateral movement, and monitor every endpoint, fully managed for you.
Book a Meeting NowUnified ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) is an evolved security approach where every access request, by any user, device, or location, is continuously authenticated, authorized, and inspected based on dynamic risk context. Unlike basic ZTNA (which may only cover web traffic or trusted devices), unified ZTNA extends adaptive policies and security controls to all ports and protocols, regardless of source, covering contractors, remote or on-site, BYOD, and IoT endpoints.
Unified ZTNA thrives as part of converged SASE architectures, integrating ZTNA, SWG, CASB, FWaaS, DLP, and IPS in one cloud-managed platform for consistency and agility.
A single, adaptive policy engine applies least privilege and threat prevention to all users and devices, eliminating siloes and exceptions across environments.
Access decisions factor in identity, device health, network traffic, and application usage, synthesizing signals for real-time threat detection and automated response.
Inspection happens not just at login, but throughout the session, even after authentication, protecting against credential theft, rogue apps, and evolving tactics.
Microsegmentation divides the network into small, isolated zones where ZTNA policies precisely restrict traffic. SASE platforms converge these controls, offering granular boundary protection, simplified visibility, and rapid response to anomalies. The combination of microsegmentation with unified ZTNA greatly reduces attacker dwell time, scope, and chance of data exfiltration.
ZTNA verifies every access request and restricts users to only necessary applications, while VPNs allow broad, static network access after a single login.
Yes, advanced ZTNA platforms support all user types and device locations, eliminating policy gaps and blind spots.
ZTNA provides detailed, application-level access logs and policy enforcement, supporting compliance and rapid investigation after incidents.