What Is Zero Trust Security? A Guide for Businesses

Warren Bennis, a leading expert on leadership, once made a profound statement regarding trust:

"Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work."

Clearly, Mr. Bennis didn't work in cybersecurity. 😬

In fact, being too trusting of activity happening in your IT or managed environments is downright dangerous.

Recent cyberattacks prove that a breach or exploit can cost a business far more than money. Reputation and credibility are often permanently tarnished as fingers are pointed following an attack. In the long run, it's easier (and less expensive) to scrutinize, question, and verify the validity of everything happening in your network.

There's a name for that approach to cybersecurity: Zero Trust.

"Zero Trust is a security model, a set of system design principles, and a coordinated cybersecurity and system management strategy based on an acknowledgment that threats exist both inside and outside traditional network boundaries."

"The Zero Trust security model eliminates implicit trust in any one element, node, or service and instead requires continuous verification of the operational picture via real-time information fed from multiple sources to determine access and other system responses."

In simpler terms, the Zero Trust Security Model disregards implicit trust and reverses the philosophy of trust, then verify. In the Zero Trust Security Model, trust must be earned across all people and devices, whether they're internal or external to a network.

At first glance, it may seem like Zero Trust is almost too mindful of threats. No user or device inherits implicit trust. Why all the extra concern?

There are quite a few good reasons to adopt a Zero Trust approach to security.

Not being cautious enough is far more expensive than being overly cautious.