In this episode of “Life of a CISO,” hosted by Dr. Eric Cole, Dr. Cole discusses the concept of Zero Trust in cybersecurity. Zero Trust is all about minimizing access, controlling access, and information, focusing on designing and building environments that contain and control any potential breaches. Zero Trust involves segmentation at various levels to ensure that if any entity gets compromised, it can’t impact any other entities. Dr. Cole emphasizes that embracing the reality of potential breaches is crucial and highlights the importance of both ultra segmentation and mega detection in implementing Zero Trust. He explains how implementing micro-level Zero Trust by running applications in separate virtual machines can significantly reduce the risk of ransomware. Additionally, he discusses the importance of isolating computers on separate VLANs and deploying internal firewalls for high-level segmentation. Monitoring and tracking data outbound is also a key aspect of Zero Trust. Dr. Cole urges cybersecurity professionals to focus not only on inbound prevention but also outbound detection. He challenges listeners to assess their environments and consider where they can apply Zero Trust principles to enhance security.

In this episode:

  • 1:00Introduction to Zero Trust Concept
  • 3:00– Importance of Motivation
  • 6:00– Recognizing Unused Capabilities
  • 8:00– Realizing Your Potential
  • 10:00– The Fastest Way to Kill a Dream
  • 13:00– The Stonecutter’s Story
  • 15:00– 100% Security Doesn’t Exist
  • 17:00– Revisiting the Concept of Breaches
  • 18:00– The Truth About Breaches
  • 20:00– Zero Trust Principles
  • 24:00– Cybersecurity’s Human Element
  • 27:00– Learning and Growing in Cybersecurity
  • 31:00– The Need for Cybersecurity Professionals