Zero Trust is a principle of security architecture that assumes that devices, users, applications operating from the internal network perimeter are untrusted and potentially compromised until proven otherwise.

If you’re unfamiliar with the way security architecture has been run, here’s a handy image to illustrate the difference

Whereas traditional permimeter-based security was concerned with making only the absolute necessary available outside the network (via DMZ), with a host of appliances monitor network traffic, inspecting packets, Firewalls, Network Intrusion Detection systems promulagated to ensure only authorized connections were allowed. In essance these were the moat for the castle.

The Zero trust call to action here is to reimagine security as being built-in all the way through the computer network. Chiefly by leveraging automation systems to apply security postures quickly.

Concretely this takes the form of consolidating logins to all resources to a single identity provider. Enabling Single Sign On for users to have a single set of credentials access all their resources, and implementing Multi Factor authentication. For devices, this may take the form of configuring an endpoint management solution to authenticate a device based on sign-in frequency, location, and network connection patterns