Interactive Explainer

🎯Key Takeaways

Zero Trust assumes the network may be compromised; every request is verified.

Identity, device health, and least privilege are key; location is not trusted.

Apply to users and services: no implicit trust based on "internal" network.

Zero Trust security

The "never trust, always verify" mindset for modern cloud and remote work.

~2 min read

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What you'll learn

Zero Trust assumes the network may be compromised; every request is verified.
Identity, device health, and least privilege are key; location is not trusted.
Apply to users and services: no implicit trust based on "internal" network.

The death of the trusted internal network

Traditional security models assumed an internal network was trusted and the internet was not. Once you were "inside" (VPN, office network), many systems stopped asking questions.

Zero Trust flips this: it assumes the network might already be compromised. Every request is verified-user, device, and context-no matter where it comes from.

❌

Never Trust

Assume network is compromised

✓

Always Verify

Check every request

🔒

Least Privilege

Minimum access needed

Traditional: Perimeter-Based

Once inside the firewall, trust is assumed. Internal network = trusted zone.

🏰

"Trusted Internal Network"

Once inside, no verification needed

Single point of failure (perimeter)

Doesn't work for remote/cloud

Zero Trust: Verify Everything

Every request is verified—user, device, context—regardless of network location.

Request

User

Device

Context

Access Granted

Every request verified, no matter the location

Works for remote, cloud, and hybrid

Assumes breach—defense in depth

Real-world scenario: remote workforce on public Wi‑Fi

Expert scenario

Scenario: An employee connects to a company database from a coffee shop Wi‑Fi using a personal laptop.

Decision: In a Zero Trust model, the network location is not trusted by default. Access is granted only if the user identity is strongly authenticated (for example, MFA), the device meets health checks (disk encryption, OS patch level), and the request is limited to the minimum data they actually need.

This way, even if the café network is hostile, each request is individually verified instead of relying on a "safe internal network".

How this might come up in interviews

Security and architecture interviews: expect to explain Zero Trust principles and how you would apply them (identity, device health, least privilege) in a given scenario.

Common questions:

What is Zero Trust and how is it different from perimeter security?
How would you implement Zero Trust for a remote team?
What does "never trust, always verify" mean in practice?

Key takeaways

Zero Trust assumes the network may be compromised; every request is verified.
Identity, device health, and least privilege are key; location is not trusted.
Apply to users and services: no implicit trust based on "internal" network.

Before you move on: can you answer these?

How does Zero Trust differ from traditional perimeter security?

Perimeter security trusts "inside" the network. Zero Trust never trusts by default; it verifies every request regardless of where it comes from.

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