The zero trust model might be the answer to a world in which perimeters are made to be breached. Is it right for your organization?

If your network has a perimeter, it will someday be breached. That's both the lesson the "real world" works so hard to teach and the premise behind a key security model: zero trust. 

"Don't trust, and verify" might be a nutshell description of the zero trust model — "don't trust" because no user or endpoint within the network is considered intrinsically secure, and "verify" because each user and endpoint accessing any resources of the network must authenticate and be verified at every point, not just at the perimeter or large network segment boundaries.

This often-repeated authentication throughout the network and application infrastructure relies on the concept of "microsegmentation," in which boundaries are defined around individual applications and logical network segments. This kind of frequent check point can go a long way toward putting an end to lateral infection in malware outbreaks, and it doesn't have to be as cumbersome to users as it sounds — as long as technology is used to deal with some of the logins and authentications along the way.

While the concept behind the zero trust model is simple, implementation can be anything but. Before a company decides to invest in the technology and processes, it should understand what is involved in the model and its application. Dark Reading has identified seven issues to resolve before launching into a zero trust environment. 

If you have helped your organization move to a zero trust environment, we'd like to hear about your experience. Do you agree with our list? DId you find other issues more important? Let us know in the comments, below.

(Image: whyframeshot VIA Adobe Stock)

About the Author(s)

Curtis Franklin, Principal Analyst, Omdia

Curtis Franklin Jr. is Principal Analyst at Omdia, focusing on enterprise security management. Previously, he was senior editor of Dark Reading, editor of Light Reading's Security Now, and executive editor, technology, at InformationWeek, where he was also executive producer of InformationWeek's online radio and podcast episodes

Curtis has been writing about technologies and products in computing and networking since the early 1980s. He has been on staff and contributed to technology-industry publications including BYTE, ComputerWorld, CEO, Enterprise Efficiency, ChannelWeb, Network Computing, InfoWorld, PCWorld, Dark Reading, and ITWorld.com on subjects ranging from mobile enterprise computing to enterprise security and wireless networking.

Curtis is the author of thousands of articles, the co-author of five books, and has been a frequent speaker at computer and networking industry conferences across North America and Europe. His most recent books, Cloud Computing: Technologies and Strategies of the Ubiquitous Data Center, and Securing the Cloud: Security Strategies for the Ubiquitous Data Center, with co-author Brian Chee, are published by Taylor and Francis.

When he's not writing, Curtis is a painter, photographer, cook, and multi-instrumentalist musician. He is active in running, amateur radio (KG4GWA), the MakerFX maker space in Orlando, FL, and is a certified Florida Master Naturalist.

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