Modern businesses need to protect employees, devices, applications and data wherever work happens. North Star provides SASE and ZTNA solutions — combining SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) — that help Colorado organizations replace broad network trust with identity-based access, least-privilege controls and proactive endpoint protection.
Our layered Zero Trust security approach combines secure cloud networking with application control, device protection, privileged-access management, data controls and continuous policy enforcement. It is designed for businesses with remote employees, multiple offices, cloud applications, on-premises servers and growing cybersecurity or compliance requirements.
Rather than relying on a traditional firewall and VPN alone, North Star can help your organization control:
Secure Access Service Edge, commonly known as SASE, combines networking and security services into a centrally managed, cloud-delivered architecture.
Traditional network security was designed around a physical office. Users connected to the corporate network, applications ran on local servers and a perimeter firewall separated trusted systems from the internet. That model is less effective when employees work remotely and business applications are spread across Microsoft 365, Azure, private data centers, branch offices and other cloud platforms.
A SASE solution allows security policies to follow the user instead of depending entirely on the user’s physical location. Employees can be authenticated and granted access according to their identity, device, location, department and business role.
This provides a consistent security framework for employees working from an office, home, hotel, customer location or another state.
Zero Trust Network Access, or ZTNA, is a security model based on the principle that no user, device or connection should be automatically trusted.
Instead of placing a remote user directly onto the entire corporate network, ZTNA grants access only to specifically authorized applications and resources. Access can be evaluated according to user identity, group membership, device posture, location and security policy.
For example, an accounting employee may receive access to the accounting platform and designated file resources without gaining visibility into engineering servers, administrative systems or unrelated network devices.
A properly designed ZTNA solution can reduce unnecessary access, limit lateral movement and provide better control than a traditional network-wide VPN.
North Star uses an enterprise-grade cloud-managed secure networking platform to provide the networking and secure-access layer of this solution.
The platform supports identity-based networking, secure access from different locations, Microsoft Entra ID integration, device-posture requirements and fine-grained policies based on users, zones, devices and locations.
North Star can use these capabilities to connect and protect:
Traditional access policies often depend on an IP address or the network to which a device is connected. Modern Zero Trust access can instead make decisions based on the authenticated user and that user’s assigned role.
Identity-based networking allows North Star to design policies around departments, job responsibilities and approved resources. Access can be changed as employees join the company, move between roles or leave the organization.
Integration with Microsoft Entra ID can also help align access policies with existing users and security groups. This is especially useful for Denver organizations already using Microsoft 365, Intune, Azure and multifactor authentication.
A valid username and password should not be enough to establish trust.
Device-posture policies can evaluate whether a connecting computer meets your security standards before access is granted. Depending on the environment and policy design, these requirements can include:
An unauthorized or noncompliant device can be blocked or restricted before it reaches sensitive company resources. The platform supports posture-based restrictions designed to prevent insecure or unauthorized hardware from joining trusted networks.
A cloud-delivered firewall allows organizations to apply consistent traffic policies across remote workers, offices and cloud environments.
Instead of maintaining unrelated firewall rules at every location, North Star can centrally define which networks, users and resources may communicate. Policies can be created around business needs and security zones rather than simply allowing broad connectivity.
This can help protect companies that have:
Segmentation divides a network into controlled security zones. Microsegmentation applies even more precise policies between users, applications, systems and individual resources.
North Star can design security zones for areas such as:
Access is then permitted only where a legitimate business need exists. This reduces the number of systems that a compromised account or device can reach.
Traditional VPNs frequently give users more access than they require. Once connected, an employee may be able to discover or communicate with a wide range of internal resources.
ZTNA provides a more precise VPN alternative. Users connect to approved applications and systems without necessarily being placed onto the broader corporate network.
A SASE and ZTNA solution can provide secure remote access for employees while limiting each person to the resources required for their role. Policies can also be created for vendors, contractors and temporary users without granting them unrestricted access.
Internet connectivity has become essential for Microsoft 365, cloud applications, VoIP, credit-card processing, remote desktops and daily business operations.
Software-defined wide-area networking can help organizations use multiple internet connections, improve routing and maintain connectivity when a primary circuit fails.
North Star can design an environment that uses:
This can help reduce disruption when a local internet provider experiences an outage.
Secure network access addresses only one part of the attack surface. Once a user connects, the endpoint itself must still be protected from malicious software, unauthorized applications, credential abuse and the misuse of trusted tools.
North Star complements its SASE and ZTNA services with a complete Zero Trust endpoint protection platform. This adds granular control over applications, scripts, administrative privileges, data access, external storage, network communication, configurations and suspicious endpoint activity.
The platform currently includes application allowlisting, application containment, privileged-access controls, storage protection, endpoint network controls, centralized configuration management and detection capabilities.
Application allowlisting uses a deny-by-default approach to software execution.
Instead of attempting to identify every possible malicious program, the organization defines which applications, executables, scripts and libraries are authorized. Software that is not approved is prevented from running.
This can help stop:
Deny-by-default application control can prevent unapproved code from executing, including unknown software that traditional signature-based tools may not yet recognize.
An application may be legitimate and still be exploited by an attacker. Application containment controls what an approved program is allowed to do after it launches.
North Star can restrict an application’s ability to:
For example, Microsoft Word may be permitted to open documents while being blocked from launching PowerShell. A line-of-business application may be allowed to reach its required server while being prevented from communicating with unrelated systems.
These controls help reduce attacks that misuse trusted applications or built-in operating-system tools. This capability is often called ringfencing, and it can restrict application access to other programs, files, the internet, registry locations and network resources.
Users should not require permanent local administrator rights simply because one application occasionally needs elevated permissions.
North Star can remove broad administrative privileges and allow approved applications to elevate only when required. Elevation can be:
This allows a standard user to update an approved business application without receiving unrestricted administrative access to the computer.
Application-specific elevation reduces dependence on shared administrator credentials and supports the principle of least privilege.
Data security requires control over more than network connections. Organizations also need to control which applications and users may access sensitive files and storage devices.
Storage policies can govern access to:
Policies may block removable storage completely, allow only approved devices or restrict access to specific users and applications. A backup application, for example, can be permitted to access a protected backup repository while other applications and users are denied.
Storage controls can apply granular policies to local storage, network shares and external devices.
Endpoint-level network policies can control the connections that an individual computer is allowed to make, regardless of where it is located.
This adds another security layer for laptops that leave the corporate office. Policies can limit inbound and outbound communication, close unnecessary ports and restrict connections to approved destinations.
Endpoint network controls can also help reduce lateral movement by preventing devices and applications from communicating where no legitimate business requirement exists.
Filtering operates at two levels in this architecture, and the combination matters more than either part alone.
At the network level, cloud-delivered DNS and content filtering applies the same policy to every device wherever it connects — office, home, hotel or customer site. Known phishing domains, malware distribution points and command-and-control infrastructure are blocked before a connection is established, and content categories can be restricted according to your acceptable-use policy. Because it is delivered from the cloud rather than an appliance in one building, coverage does not depend on the user being behind the corporate firewall. Query logs are retained, which supports both incident investigation and the audit evidence several frameworks require.
At the endpoint level, web control governs which applications may reach the internet and which destinations each is permitted to use. This closes a gap that DNS filtering alone cannot: an attacker abusing a trusted application can often reach a domain that looks entirely unremarkable. Restricting outbound access per application means a document reader, a scripting engine or an unexpected process is denied the path it needs to exfiltrate data or retrieve encryption keys, regardless of how legitimate the destination appears.
Together with application allowlisting and containment, this means an intrusion has to defeat what may run, what that software may do, and where it may connect — three independent controls rather than one.
Security settings are effective only when they remain consistently applied.
Centralized configuration management can help define and enforce approved security baselines across company computers and servers. This may include operating-system settings, firewall configurations, audit policies and other controls required by the organization.
North Star can use centralized policies to:
Preventive controls are the foundation of the solution, but organizations also need visibility into suspicious activity.
Endpoint detection capabilities can identify potentially malicious behavior and help isolate affected systems, and they pair with North Star’s managed threat protection and detection service for around-the-clock monitoring and response. This complements application control and containment by providing another layer for investigating and responding to activity that requires attention.
The objective is not to depend on detection alone. It is to combine prevention, containment, access control, monitoring and response.
North Star combines network-level and endpoint-level controls to create a broader Zero Trust architecture.
The secure networking layer controls:
The endpoint layer controls:
Together, these technologies help answer two critical security questions:
A properly implemented SASE and ZTNA solution with endpoint Zero Trust controls can help your organization:
North Star provides SASE and ZTNA solutions for organizations across the Denver metro area, including:
North Star supports organizations across Colorado’s Front Range, including:
Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Arvada, Westminster, Thornton, Northglenn, Broomfield, Commerce City, Brighton, Centennial, Greenwood Village, Englewood, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Parker, Castle Rock, Golden, Wheat Ridge, Colorado Springs, Monument, Fountain, Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor and Greeley, along with the surrounding communities and clients running remote and hybrid teams.
Technology alone does not create an effective Zero Trust environment. The policies must reflect how your employees work, which applications they use and which systems contain sensitive information.
North Star provides local planning, implementation and ongoing support for SASE and ZTNA solutions. These services are part of North Star’s managed security services, extending our broader cybersecurity and network health and security assessment offerings.
Our services include:
We design the solution around your organization rather than forcing every business into the same template.
SASE is a broader architecture that combines networking and cloud-delivered security capabilities. ZTNA is one component of that architecture and controls access to specific applications and resources based on identity, device posture and policy.
ZTNA can replace many traditional remote-access VPN use cases. Instead of providing broad network access, it connects an authenticated user to approved resources. Some specialized systems may still require a traditional VPN or another connectivity method.
Yes. Security and access policies can follow users when they work from home, travel or connect from another office. Access can be based on the user’s identity, device security and assigned role.
Yes. The secure-access platform can integrate with Microsoft Entra ID for identity management, authentication and group-based policies. If you would like North Star to secure and manage the platform itself, see our managed Microsoft 365 services.
No single security control should be treated as a complete replacement for every other layer. Application control, containment, ZTNA, antivirus, endpoint detection, identity protection, email security and backups serve different purposes and work best as part of a coordinated security strategy.
Yes. Approved applications can receive temporary or application-specific elevation without granting the user unrestricted local administrator privileges.
Yes. Policies can block external storage, permit only approved devices or restrict USB access according to user, computer or application requirements.
Yes. Access policies can be created around users, groups, zones, locations, devices and business roles. This allows each department to reach the resources it needs without providing unnecessary access to unrelated systems.
Your employees need reliable access to business systems, but they should not automatically receive broad access to your network, applications or sensitive data.
North Star can evaluate your current firewall, VPN, Microsoft 365 environment, endpoints, branch connectivity, cloud resources and security policies. We will identify opportunities to improve access control, reduce risk and simplify security management.
Contact North Star today to schedule a SASE and ZTNA assessment.
