Project Zero Trust

Foreword

When my friend George Finney told me he was going to write a novel about Zero Trust, my initial response was, “Why?” The idea that anyone would want to read a novel about Zero Trust, let alone write one, was a bit of a head-scratcher. Gratifying, to be sure, but still bizarre. You see, when I first created the concept of Zero Trust, folks thought I was crazy. Not just quirky crazy, like so many of us in IT and cybersecurity, but genuinely insane crazy.

I have spent many years trying to convince people to be open-minded enough to consider building Zero Trust environments. The notion that someone wanted to write a book of fiction revolving around an idea I had created was mind-blowing. So that's how George ended up sitting on my living room sofa while I told him the story of how Zero Trust came to be.

To understand Zero Trust, you must first understand the origins of cybersecurity. “Cybersecurity” is a relatively new term. Before that, we called it “information security”—a much better name (what's a cyber and why should it be secured?). And before that, there was network security, because networks were the first type of Internet technology that needed securing. For years, networks were being built in universities and the occasional rogue, cutting-edge company, but there were no threats—hence, no built-in security. In fact, TCP/IP v4, which we all know and love, wasn't developed until 1983. Therefore, there were all these researchers and visionaries salivating about how ...