Zero Trust

Traditional security drew a hard perimeter: inside the network, you were trusted; outside, you weren't. Zero Trust discards this model. With employees working remotely, applications in the cloud, and attackers regularly breaching perimeters, "inside the network" no longer means safe.

Zero Trust replaces perimeter trust with continuous verification: every request — regardless of where it comes from — is authenticated, the device is checked for compliance, and access is granted only to the specific resource requested, not the entire network.

In practice this means: MFA on every authentication, device health checks before granting access, least-privilege access policies, and network segmentation that limits lateral movement if something is compromised.

The five pillars

CISA (the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) defines Zero Trust around five areas:

• Identity — strong authentication, least-privilege access, ongoing verification
• Devices — only managed, compliant devices can access sensitive resources
• Networks — segmentation and access controls aligned to specific applications and workloads
• Applications — access controls built into the application layer, not just the network
• Data — classifying and protecting data based on sensitivity, not just location

Zero Trust is a journey, not a product

No single product makes you Zero Trust. It's a framework applied across your identity, device management, network, and application layers over time. JumpCloud, Entra ID, and Okta handle the identity pillar. MDM and device trust handle the devices pillar. Firewalls with application-aware policies and 802.1X handle the network pillar.

For most SMB organizations, a practical starting point is: enforce MFA everywhere, implement device trust for sensitive applications, and segment your network so a compromised endpoint can't reach everything.