Project Zero Trust

Chapter 5The Identity Cornerstone

A man in a black suit and black tie was sitting at the conference room table in the briefing center with his hands steepled. The Zero Trust team was gathered around the table, and Brent was standing at the video wall in front of a picture of the MarchFit data center.

“Bob clearly is a rogue insider, but he was more than that; he was a ronin. A ninja,” Brent said, gesturing to the ceiling tiles along the row of cabinets. “He must have trained all his life in both ninjutsu and the dark arts of hacking. He would have had to sneak into the data center through the air ducts, then descend down through the vents and put the USB drive hidden inside his katana into the server.”

“Bob is a terrible name for a ninja,” Harmony observed.

“No one would expect a ninja named Bob,” Brent agreed. “Which is what makes it the perfect name for a ninja.”

The man in the black suit spoke up. “That's cute. Would you like to make it interesting?”

“Sure, wise guy,” Brent said.

“How about a coffee?” the suit responded.

Brent looked at the coffee machine in the lobby of the briefing center and shrugged. “Deal. What's your theory?”

The man in the black suit stood up, went to the video wall, and pulled up a picture of Bob. “Bob Paulson was one of the original employees of MarchFit. His stock had finally vested, and he left the company voluntarily over the summer to move to another startup. He would have had a lot to lose from the company experiencing a breach, but that by ...