Virtual Credit Framework in the Remote Work Era

Traditional corporate device and network security principles and threat modeling are largely based on the physical location of a device. It poses significant challenges in the new-norm of remote work era since employees’ devices are no longer confined within company’s physical perimeter. Employees are accessing critical corporate resources from anywhere with corporate-issued devices. Zero Trust networks is a promising solution since it provides a unified network security framework regardless of its location. However, it is challenging to implement Zero Trust networks due to the lack of standard technology and interoperable solution. In this paper, we propose a framework to materialize Zero Trust networks efficiently by introducing a novel concept - virtual device credit. Based on the proposed virtual credit concept, Zero Trust network can be materialized in a seamless way allowing reuse of existing network security and access control technologies.