Zero trust is ubiquitous in security conversations. Still, many organizations struggle to move beyond theoretical frameworks to actual implementation. Today, CISOs face a challenge: how do you transform zero trust from a concept into a concrete roadmap that aligns with business outcomes while managing multiple competing initiatives?
Creating a Zero Trust Strategy
The fundamental shift in thinking begins with understanding that zero trust is a security strategy, not a product you can simply purchase and deploy. While vendors provide essential technological capabilities, the real work lies in fundamentally rethinking how you approach your security architecture.
At its core, zero trust involves breaking down your attack surface into smaller, manageable protect surfaces that are prioritized based on business criticality. Security measures are then applied proportionally to each protect surface, ensuring your resources align with actual business risk rather than blanket policies that may over-invest in low-value assets while under-protecting critical ones.
DOWNLOAD NOW: Zero Trust: A Step-by-Step Guide
The five-step process provides a practical framework for implementation:
- Define the protect surface
- Map transaction flows
- Design a zero-trust architecture
- Build policy
- Monitor and maintain the system
Rather than attempting a wholesale transformation that may stall or lose executive support, start with less critical assets to build momentum and demonstrate tangible value. This process is iterative by design. Think of it as a training protect surface where your team learns the methodology, followed by a practice protect surface to refine your approach, before finally securing your crown jewels.
Building Zero Trust Beyond Network Security
Many organizations make the mistake of viewing zero trust purely through a networking lens. While transitioning from traditional VPNs to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is part of the journey, true zero trust extends beyond network segmentation.
Zero trust operates on an identity-based security model that eliminates implicit trust zones entirely. Access decisions become dynamic, adjusting automatically based on multiple attributes, including role, location, device posture, and behavioral patterns. This applies to both north-south traffic (entering and leaving your network) and east-west traffic (lateral movement within your environment), ensuring that compromising one system doesn't provide a foothold for broader network access.
READ MORE: How IANS Helped a Client Build a Zero-Trust Program
How to Benchmark Zero Trust with the ZTMM
To move from theory to practice, CISOs need a framework for assessing the current state and defining the target state. CISA's Zero Trust Maturity Model (ZTMM) provides exactly this structure. The model divides zero trust into five pillars—identity, devices, data, networks, and applications—along with three cross-cutting concerns: visibility, orchestration, and automation.
Each pillar is assessed across four maturity levels: traditional, initial, targeted, and advanced. This framework enables you to evaluate your current architecture, including application placement and connectivity patterns, then chart a realistic path forward that acknowledges resource constraints and competing priorities.
DOWNLOAD NOW: Zero Trust Maturity Model (ZTMM) Controls Guide
Integrating Zero Trust with Existing Initiatives
Organizations should look to integrate zero trust with parallel initiatives rather than treating it as yet another competing project. An enterprise’s ongoing Identity and Access management (IAM) implementation, for instance, isn't a distraction from zero trust—it's a foundational enabler.
Zero trust requires breaking down organizational silos and fostering collaboration across teams. When your IAM project is already forcing those conversations about identity governance, access policies, and cross-functional workflows, you're building the collaborative muscle memory that zero trust demands.
Similarly, cloud migrations and compliance initiatives like CMMC or NIST frameworks aren't obstacles—they're opportunities to embed zero trust principles into architectural decisions that are already being made. The key is viewing these initiatives through a zero trust lens rather than treating them as separate workstreams.
How to Navigate the Zero Trust Path Forward
For CISOs embarking on this journey, success requires three critical elements. First, communicate incrementally. Don't wait to announce success after a multi-year transformation. Share wins from each protect surface you secure, building organizational understanding and support along the way.
Second, embrace the iterative nature of the process. Your first implementation won't be perfect, and that's acceptable. Learning from a training protect surface is far less costly than discovering gaps in your crown jewels.
Third, align security outcomes with business outcomes. Zero trust isn't about achieving a theoretical security state—it's about protecting what matters most to your organization in a way that's proportional, sustainable, and demonstrable.
Zero trust is a continuous evolution of security architecture that adapts as the business evolves. Start small, learn continuously, and build from there.
READ MORE: How to Build a Successful Insider Threat Program: Focus on Intelligence
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