Northern Beaches Council Adopts Zero Trust

Zero trust helps simplify complex security infrastructure

Northern Beaches Council oversees the fourth most populous local government area in New South Wales, an amalgamation of three formerly separate councils. When these councils merged, they were using different security solutions and had a wide attack surface. Zero trust security helped the new council simplify its complex legacy architecture and improve its security posture.

“Security was difficult to manage and our risk to threats was increasing,” said Michael Turner, Chief Technology Officer at Northern Beaches Council. “Retiring legacy solutions with a unified platform like Zscaler has been an empowering step on our zero trust journey."

Zscaler consolidates and modernizes legacy appliances

Fragmented, legacy security solutions made work more challenging for staff, provided disjointed visibility to threats, and increased costs and administrative complexity for Turner and his team.

Northern Beaches Council chose the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange to help consolidate and modernize that legacy infrastructure. The unified, cloud native Zscaler platform delivers comprehensive security as a service from the world’s largest security cloud—across any locations or devices. Zscaler technology also simplifies security administration by eliminating the need for myriad hardware and point solutions, including virtual private networks (VPNs) and firewalls.

“Zscaler is a global leader in zero trust technology with an impressive list of customers across many industries,” shared Turner. “Other Australian government agencies had deployed the platform successfully before us, and that proof point confirmed that Zscaler would be the best partner to help guide our zero trust transformation.”

Zscaler protects staff and community residents on the web

Secure internet connectivity is a top priority for Northern Beaches Council, and not just to protect its employees. As part of a commitment to accessible services, the council offers free Wi-Fi to residents across various community locations. In addition to 1,600 council employees connecting daily, there can be upwards of 500 community internet users at any time.

Inherited appliances didn’t provide adequate filtering or the scalability necessary to inspect fluctuating volumes of internet traffic inline. This left the council more vulnerable to threats.

Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) brokers fast, direct connections to the internet and SaaS applications for council employees and guest users across any location. Powered by the world’s largest inline security cloud, the Zero Trust Exchange includes built-in functionality for DNS and IPS security, URL filtering, highly scalable TLS/SSL inspection, and advanced threat protection. Zscaler protects the council against malware and data loss in real time and at scale while eliminating the need for multiple outbound security solutions.

“With Zscaler, we can apply more consistent web filtering rules across our distinct user groups,” explained Turner. “Employees and community residents alike are protected under the same zero trust umbrella whenever and wherever they use our internet.”

Zero trust network access keeps private applications secure

The council supports a hybrid workforce, so enabling employees to access private applications and resources securely from anywhere—the office, home, or various community sites—is essential.

When the council was initially formed, Turner was working with stacks of existing VPN appliances. Traditional VPNs can’t provide zero trust security because they inherently give attackers opportunities to access a network and move laterally within. Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) enables Northern Beaches Council to retire legacy VPNs and provide comprehensive protection for private resources with zero trust network access (ZTNA).

Zscaler hides applications behind the Zero Trust Exchange, blocks inbound connections, and links users directly to private applications. This prevents users from getting around the corporate networks, keeping private applications safe from threat exposure, and reduces the attack surface. In addition, user identity and device posture are verified before any internal connection, while private application traffic is inspected inline to actively mitigate cyberattacks.

“Zscaler ensures that we maintain the same zero trust approach for securely connecting all users, both internal and external, to our private applications,” said Turner. “Users can easily access the resources they need from any location through the Zero Trust Exchange, and our networks are protected by comprehensive zero trust security.”

Securing users, devices, and OT/IoT with Zscaler

Installing Zscaler Client Connector™ on all council-supplied devices helps ensure that any user, in any location, is protected by the Zscaler platform optimally and seamlessly. Whether it’s a remote staff laptop or a PC available for community resident use at a local library, all Northern Beaches Council devices are backed by Zscaler zero trust protection.

Maintaining a network of optical surveillance equipment, like security cameras and motion sensors, across council-managed properties helps ensure public safety and enable rapid response to various potential environmental issues. The Zero Trust Exchange protects outbound and inbound access to Northern Beaches Council security cameras. Zscaler helps prevent security footage data leakage and eavesdropping from bad actors by extending zero trust protection and access control policies to the council’s surveillance system.

“From our server network down to our security cameras, Northern Beaches Council is protected across the Zero Trust Exchange,” confirmed Turner.

Zscaler integrations and AI features offer deeper insights

The Zero Trust Exchange is seamlessly, natively integrated with other cloud service providers and technology partners, so Northern Beaches Council can easily deploy additional security solutions that complement its evolving zero trust approach. The council currently uses the powerful combination of CrowdStrike and Zscaler to further enhance its threat detection and response capacity.

“Zscaler provides useful insights into all of our traffic,” explained Turner. “We can more easily identify the transactions that are getting blocked and, more importantly, identify why they are blocked with greater certainty. We also benefit from a more granular understanding of how the community is using our services.”

Northern Beaches Council also makes use of the AI-driven Zscaler Sandbox to assist in analyzing any potential threats that are detected. This is especially important to Turner because his user group includes community residents as well as staff.

A better security platform enables safer community services

The multitenant, cloud native Zero Trust Exchange is purpose-built for easy management, which allows Northern Beaches Council to maintain a more robust security edge with less administrative overhead—not to mention a significantly lighter tech stack. 

Simplified infrastructure plus a stronger security posture is an ideal combination for Turner and his team—allowing them to focus more on serving the community while worrying less about security threats. 

In a period of just three months, the Zero Trust Exchange processed more than 1 billion transactions and nearly 78 TB of traffic for Northern Beaches Council. Zscaler helped the council prevent 3 million policy violations and block more than 9,700 security threats.

“The services we provide to the community can be complex, but making sure those services are secure and reliable doesn’t have to be,” concluded Turner. “Zscaler has helped us simplify our technology estate and our security processes while at the same time enhancing our security posture.”