LISA17 - Clarifying Zero Trust: The Model, the Philosophy, the Ethos

Evan Gilman; Doug Barth, Stripe

The world is changing, though our network security models have had difficulty keeping up. In a time where remote work is regular and cloud mobility is paramount, the perimeter security model is showing its age—badly.

We deal with VPN tunnel overhead and management. We spend millions on fault-tolerant perimeter firewalls. We carefully manage all entry and exit points on the network, yet still we see ever-worsening breaches year over year. The Zero Trust model aims to solve these problems.

Zero Trust networks are built with security at the forefront. No packet is trusted without cryptographic signatures. Policy is constructed using software and user identity rather than IP addresses. Physical location and network topology no longer matter. The Zero Trust model is very unique, indeed.

In this talk, we'll discuss the philosophy and origin of the Zero Trust model, why it's needed, and what it brings to the table.