"15 years ago, while working as an analyst at Forrester Research, I introduced the zero trust security model. At the time, cybersecurity professionals still relied on the flawed idea that they could trust everything inside the network. But real-world breaches told a different story: attackers were exploiting a broken trust model, bypassing defenses with ease, and then moving laterally to their objectives."
"The adoption journey, however, can feel daunting. That's why I often use the image of the wooden staircase in Sunnfjord, Norway, near where my grandfather was born. It's the longest staircase in the world, with 4,444 steps carved into the mountainside by workers who hauled concrete and steel for a hydroelectric plant more than a century ago. No one climbed all those steps in a single stride; they took them one at a time."
"From the beginning, zero trust was never a tool or a feature; it was a strategy. It remains the world's only cybersecurity strategy. You don't buy it; you build it. And it rests on one core principle: never trust, always verify. Over the years, vendors have tried to package and sell it. But zero trust isn't a SKU. It's a way of designing systems that contain threats and limit damage the moment an attack begins."
Zero trust emerged roughly 15 years ago as a response to breaches that exposed the failure of perimeter-based trust. The core principle is never trust, always verify. Zero trust functions as a strategy rather than a product and must be built incrementally, not bought as a SKU. The approach designs systems to contain threats and limit damage as attacks begin, aligning defenses to adversary behavior rather than outdated perimeter assumptions. Adoption proceeds iteratively, beginning with lower-value systems to learn and practice before protecting crown-jewel assets. Segmentation, not identity alone, provides the tactical foundation for isolation.
Read at Securitymagazine
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