Never Trust, Always Verify: The Key To Superior Cybersecurity
Maxwell Alles
Picture this: Old-school cybersecurity is like a castle with a moat. Once the drawbridge has been lowered, someone is allowed inside and trusted to roam freely. It’s a hacker’s dream. With cloud apps, remote workers and IoT devices, the castle walls are crumbling.
This is where zero-trust architecture (ZTA) has become a non-negotiable. ZTA flips the script with a simple rule: Never trust, always verify. No one—employee, vendor or device—gets a free pass. Every access request is checked, every time.
While traditional models rely on firewalls and VPNs to secure a defined network boundary, ZTA enforces continuous authentication, authorization and validation for every access request. “In the world of zero trust, we are all suspects until proven otherwise,” says Joe Shenouda.
Breaches On The Rise
Zero trust is the way to protect your business in a world where breaches are dramatically on the rise. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, reported losses from cybercrime in the U.S. in 2024 exceeded $16 billion, a 33% increase from the previous year. And the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Consumer Sentinel Network took in more than 6.47 million cybercrime reports in 2024, with 40% related to fraud and 18% to identity theft.
And it’s not just major corporations that fall victim to cybercriminals. Some small companies go out of business within months of suffering a data breach or cyberattack. Cyber threats are getting smarter and smarter. Ransomware, insider leaks and supply chain attacks exploit trust in ways old defenses can’t handle.
The Enemy Within
Insider threats—whether it’s a disgruntled employee or a careless contractor—can be a nightmare. They’ve got legitimate access, which makes them tough to spot.
According to Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, "Breaches involving partners, vendors, and service providers have doubled year over year, increasing from 15% to 30%, with this trend cutting across all industries." Sometimes insiders are simply careless; some are malicious. Both are dangerous.
ZTA tackles this by enforcing least-privilege access, meaning people only get access to what they absolutely need. If someone tries to snoop beyond their role, they’re stopped cold.
Think of it like a hotel: Every room needs a keycard, and you can’t just wander into someone else’s suite. This approach has saved companies from massive breaches by limiting what insiders can touch. If there is a breach, the blast radius is contained to a very small area.
The Challenges Of ZTA Integration
Implementation of ZTA is complex and resource-intensive, often requiring significant investment in time, technology and expertise to integrate with existing systems. Organizations may face compatibility issues with legacy infrastructure, leading to costly upgrades or replacements.
And cultural resistance is common, as employees may find constant verification intrusive, necessitating comprehensive training and change management.
In the world of zero trust, we are all suspects until proven otherwise.
How To Make Zero Trust Work
Multi-cloud setups are powerful but messy, with data scattered everywhere. You may be juggling a variety of solutions. ZTA keeps it all secure without slowing you down. Here’s how to get started:
- Make identity your fortress. Use multifactor authentication (MFA) across the board. Tools like identity and access management systems can automate identity checks, catching risky logins before they cause trouble. Audit roles regularly—don’t let a former employee’s access linger. As some have said, “Identity is the new perimeter.”
- Slice and dice your network. Micro-segmentation is your friend. It’s like putting walls between every department in your office. It's a good idea to use software-defined perimeters to enforce granular controls across clouds. This stops attackers from jumping from one cloud to another.
- Keep eyes on everything. Continuous monitoring is non-negotiable. AI-driven analytics can spot anomalies instantly, acting like a security guard who never sleeps. Pair this with security information and event management (SIEM) tools to track every move across your clouds.
- Automate, automate, automate. Manual security checks won’t cut it. “Security teams will increasingly leverage AI-powered analytics to detect anomalous behavior, automate threat containment and perform predictive risk analysis,” predicts the Cloud Security Alliance. Automate policy enforcement and threat responses to stay ahead of hackers.
- Encrypt like your business depends on it. Encrypt all data, whether it’s sitting in the cloud or moving between servers. End-to-end encryption to block eavesdroppers is essential.
- Test and train. Use security validation tools to simulate attacks and see where your defenses need work. And don’t forget your team—train them to think “zero trust” to avoid slip-ups.
Final Thoughts
As the perimeter disappears, the stakes rise. With insider threats, supply chain attacks and multicloud complexity converging, zero trust is a business imperative.
Implementation takes time, investment and change management, but the cost of inaction—both financial and reputational—could be far greater. Organizations that delay zero-trust adoption could be actively increasing their risk exposure.
It’s important to note that zero trust doesn’t mean you distrust your people. It means you respect your data, and you understand that in cybersecurity, assuming a breach is no longer paranoia. It’s good strategy.
(Originally posted for Forbes Business Council)
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