Adaptive network security using zero trust microsegmentation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12177262-B2
Application number	US-202418620734-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2024
Priority date	Apr 24, 2023
Publication date	Dec 24, 2024
Grant date	Dec 24, 2024

Abstract

Zero trust and micro-segmentation techniques may be collectively used to enhance network security. To establish, refine, and enforce a zero-trust least-privileged policy, the network may be segmented to put each device of the network into a respective network of one, which forces all network traffic to pass through a zero-trust gatekeeper. The gatekeeper may then monitor and analyze the traffic to establish, refine, and enforce the zero-trust least-privileged policy, which reduces network access to only a limited set of network actions and/or paths. Using the gatekeeper, network traffic may be monitored to progressively establish the policy as well as to continually refine the policy. Recommended actions may be determined based on the analysis of the monitored network traffic and provided to the user to allow user feedback on the communication rules of zero-trust policy.

First claim

We claim:

1. A zero-trust microsegmentation method comprising:
collecting, using a plurality of zero-trust agents, information associated with devices of a network, wherein each of the devices of network include a respective one of the plurality of zero-trust agents, the collected information being based on respective device traffic traversing the zero-trust agents, wherein each of the zero-trust agents is executing on its respective one of the devices of the network;
determining, using the plurality of zero-trust agents and based on the collected information, a plurality of network microsegments, wherein each of the devices are within at least one the plurality of network microsegments;
determining an initial zero-trust security policy in which communication permissions for the devices of the network are denied by default unless otherwise allowed, the communication permissions including one or more communication dimensions;
analyzing, using the plurality of zero-trust agents, network traffic traversing the plurality of zero-trust agents under the initial zero-trust security policy; and
adapting the initial zero-trust security policy, based on the analysis of the network traffic traversing the plurality of zero-trust agents under the initial zero-trust security policy, to adjust the communication permissions for the one or more communication dimensions to generate an adapted zero-trust security policy including one or more modifications to the one or more communication dimensions.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising enforcing, by the plurality of zero-trust agents, the initial and/or adapted zero-trust security policies on the network traffic traversing the plurality of zero-trust agents.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the devices, based on its respective one of the plurality of zero-trust agents, are its own atomic network.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing, using the plurality of zero-trust agents, network traffic under the adapted zero-trust security policy; and
adapting the adapted zero-trust security policy, based on the analysis of the network traffic under the adapted zero-trust security policy, to adjust the communication permissions for another of the one or more communication dimensions to generate a further adapted zero-trust security policy including one or more modifications to the other of the one or more communication dimensions; and
implementing, using the plurality of zero-trust agents, the further adapted zero-trust security policy.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising iteratively performing: the analyzing network traffic under the adapted zero-trust security policy, the adapting the adapted zero-trust security policy, and the implementing the further adapted zero-trust security policy.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more communication dimensions comprise:
an internet-intranet dimension defining a restrictiveness distinction between internet traffic and intranet traffic;
an input-output dimension defining a restrictiveness distinction between input traffic and output traffic;
a segment dimension defining a restrictiveness distinction between inter-segment traffic and intra-segment traffic;
a port dimension defining a port-based traffic restrictiveness distinction;
a path dimension defining a communication path-based traffic restrictiveness distinction;
a user dimension defining a user-based traffic restrictiveness distinction;
a user group-based traffic restrictiveness distinction;
an inter-group dimension defining am inter-group traffic restrictiveness distinction; and/or
an intra-group dimension defining an intra-group traffic restrictiveness distinction.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein adapting the initial zero-trust security policy comprises progressively increasing a restrictiveness of the one or more communication dimensions for the initial zero-trust security policy to generate the adapted zero-trust security policy, wherein between each progressive increase in restrictiveness, an incremental zero-trust security policy is implemented for a current progression, network traffic under the incremental zero-trust security policy is analyzed, and a next progression with increased restrictiveness is based on the analysis of the network traffic under the incremental zero-trust security policy.

8. A zero-trust network communication method comprising:
collecting, using a plurality of zero-trust agents, information associated with devices of a network, wherein each of the devices of network include a respective one of the plurality of zero-trust agents, the collected information being based on respective device traffic traversing the zero-trust agents, wherein each of the zero-trust agents is executing on its respective one of the devices of the network;
determining, using the zero-trust agents and based on the collected information, an initial zero-trust security policy including communication permissions;
analyzing, using the plurality of zero-trust agents, network traffic traversing the plurality of zero-trust agents under the communication permissions of the initial zero-trust security policy;
adapting one or more of the communication permissions, based on the analysis of the network traffic traversing the plurality of zero-trust agents under the initial zero-trust security policy, to generate an adapted zero-trust security policy including the one or more adapted communication permissions.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising iteratively performing: the analyzing network traffic, and adapting one or more of the communication permissions based on the analysis of the network traffic.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the initial zero-trust security policy is configured to deny network traffic for the devices of the network by default unless otherwise allowed.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein adapting the one or more of the communication permissions comprises removing the one or more of the communication permissions from the initial zero-trust security policy to generate the adapted zero-trust security policy.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining a suggested modification the one or more of the communication permissions based on the analysis of the network traffic.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the adapting the one or more of the communication permissions is based on feedback responsive to the suggested modification.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the feedback comprises acceptance or rejection of the suggested modification.

15. A zero-trust microsegmentation method comprising:
collecting, using a plurality of zero-trust agents, information associated with devices of a network, wherein each of the devices of network include a respective one of the plurality of zero-trust agents, the collected information being based on respective device traffic traversing the zero-trust agents, wherein each of the zero-trust agents is executing on its respective one of the devices of the network;
determining, using the plurality of zero-trust agents and based on the collected information, network microsegments, where each network microsegment includes one or more of the devices; and
providing, using the plurality of zero-trust agents, a zero-trust security policy in which communication permissions for network traffic traversing the devices of the network are denied by default, by the plurality of zero-trust agents, unless otherwise allowed.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
analyzing, using the plurality of zero-trust agents, the network traffi

Assignees

• Colortokens Inc

Inventors

• Akali Harish
• Tyagi Satyam
• Owen Wyn
• Kollimarla Surya
• Khazanchi Rajesh

Classifications

• H04L63/0263 Primary

  Rule management · CPC title

• H04L63/1425

  Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection · CPC title

• H04L63/0227

  Filtering policies (mail message filtering H04L51/212) · CPC title

• H04L63/205

  involving negotiation or determination of the one or more network security mechanisms to be used, e.g. by negotiation between the client and the server or between peers or by selection according to the capabilities of the entities involved (negotiation of communication capabilities H04L69/24) · CPC title

• H04L63/0236

  Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL · CPC title