ZTX Framework Diagram Source: Forrester Blogs The ZTX framework maps technologies and solutions to various framework pillars: ZTXВ aims at beingВ application of the Zero Trust framework to the enterprise it is a data-focused version of Zero Trust that more easily enables direct mapping of technology purchases and strategic decisions to the execution of a Zero Trust strategy. Zero Trust eXtended (ZTX) is a framework for Enterprise IT Security, developed and promoted by Dr.

Even after providing the application-level access to relevant resources for authenticated and authorized parties from devices compliant with the corporate policy, the connections should not be considered as trusted, meaning that every action performed by the accessing party should be analyzed, audited, and, if it is being considered as risky or dangerous, it should be subjected to a granular contextual security policy.

Network Connectivity should never be provided, instead, accessing parties will only obtain Application-level Connectivity, allowing them to use the required functionality, but not to leverage anything on the network level.

Security Posture of the device used by the accessing party should be assessed as a part of a decision making on whether to provide the access or not.

Instead, an only relevant connections will be able to reach the protected resources. This means that IT resources will not accept network connections (and then try to authenticate the connecting parties) as in a traditional network setup.

All accessing parties must undergo Authentication and Authorization prior to connection.

This assumes no public IP addresses or open ports willing to accept connections.

There is no mechanism that would allow discovering and attempting a connection to a resource prior to authentication and authorization.

All resources are cloaked from unauthorized parties.

While subject to multiple interpretations, generic principles of a high-level Zero Trust Network are: Kindervag's approach has developed into a number of applied directions in IT Networks Security, including micro-segmentation, Software-Defined Perimeter, Zero Trust eXtended and more.

Zero Trust approach suggests to treat all network traffic as 'untrusted', unless proven otherwise. Unlike traditional enterprise IT networks, where access control is applied at the networking level, resulting in devices located in 'trusted' networks being able to access various corporate services, Zero Trust stipulates access control based on a strongly verified identity of the accessing party paired with least privilege principle, providing access only to specific services and capabilities, rather than to networks hosting the services. Zero Trust Network concept was pioneered by John Kindervag, during his time as an analyst working for Forrester research. This article describes different terms associated with Next Generation Access and Network Architecture solutions, referencing the origins of each term and summarizing its approach.