Project Zero Trust

Chapter 2Zero Trust Is a Strategy

Dylan was walking quickly, trying to keep up with Aaron as he walked up the stairs to the executive briefing center. Dylan was carrying a backpack with all of the paper documentation he had received from Noor the day before. Behind them was a woman wearing jeans and a black hoodie and a tattered backpack whistling the opening riff from “Careless Whisper.” Following her was a woman wearing cat-eye glasses and a vintage 1950s dress and carrying a leather satchel. A tall man wearing a polo shirt and a short man wearing a red Arsenal football jersey loitered behind, heads bowed down looking at their cell phones.

The briefing center was at the end of the lobby that separated north MarchFit from south MarchFit. The conference center was a free-standing island of steel and glass that appeared to float above the rest of the headquarters building lobby.

The smell of freshly brewed espresso greeted them as they walked through the entrance. Isabelle was sipping from a tiny coffee mug watching them. She lifted her espresso mug in salute to the group as they swiped their badges to enter the suite.

The IT incident response teams had taken over the south side conference rooms, trying to complete the remediation of all the computers that had been ransomed but also trying to piece together how the ransomware got in at all. The north side conference rooms were all taken by lawyers and marketing teams discussing the potential responses to the lawsuits that the ...