Workplace technology is complex. New technologies have rapidly outpaced legacy cybersecurity methods based on perimeter and network security.

Today’s networks are interrelated, making it difficult to determine clear perimeters for security walls. And once hackers breach your network boundary, they will move through the system seeking weak links to exploit so they can infiltrate more restricted areas.

Cyber threats no longer come from hackers lurking outside enterprise networks, solely targeting data. Cybercrime happens inside and outside traditional network perimeters, often targeting networked resources along with data:

  • Remote employee user accounts
  • On-site employee user accounts
  • Contractor user accounts
  • Vendor user accounts
  • Printers
  • Computers
  • Legacy systems
  • Internet of Things (IoT) devices
  • Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices
  • Cloud-based services
  • Applications
  • Smart technologies, such as appliances, lights, and HVAC systems
  • Edge devices, such as firewalls, routers, integrated access devices, wide area networks, local area networks and metropolitan area networks

Enter zero-trust architecture (ZTA).

ZTA sees every user and system as a potential threat

In the past, entering your login credentials periodically was enough to grant access to a company’s network. Zero-trust architecture (ZTA) tears down the notion that having a username and password makes you trustworthy. Instead, it favors monitoring usage patterns and continuously vetting access requests as users progress through your company networks.

Four overriding principles of ZTA are:

  • Grant the least amount of privilege necessary.
  • Segment networks to reduce the zone a hacker has access to.
  • Verify and vet all access requests.
  • Monitor usage patterns and continuously challenge users.

ZTA follows users everywhere, regardless of their location on the network or the devices they’re on.

ZTA requires a deep dive into your network and system inventory

Business infrastructures often include software across multiple networks, assets and devices, such as:

  • Localized networks
  • Cloud services and providers
  • Remote employees on home networks
  • Employee devices
  • Company-owned assets
  • IoT devices
  • Software-as-a-service applications
  • Legacy systems
  • Managed and unmanaged software

Your internal or outsourced cybersecurity team can help you implement a ZTA adoption strategy. A solid adoption strategy starts with a tech inventory, especially apps, application programming interfaces (APIs) and plug-ins. Once inventoried, pare down network assets that no longer benefit your workflows. An inventory will also help you identify potential weak spots and focus on the best places to shore up your cybersecurity.

Goals of ZTA

ZTA operates on the premise that everyone and everything is a potential cybersecurity threat. It scrutinizes every request and user as a potential threat, whether it originated inside or outside your network. ZTA assumes:

  • The network is always compromised.
  • Traditional network boundaries no longer exist.
  • Users on the network and pieces of the network itself are potential threats.
  • Internal resources and processes are at risk of hacks, not just data.

Authentication and authorization are separate functions performed before a user or asset can connect with your company’s resources.

How ZTA handles login requests

Think of logging in to a network as entering a building. Just because you got inside doesn’t mean you’ll have access to any door. ZTA creates a series of checkpoints, like doors, where users must reestablish their authorization before entering the next room in the building. By doing so, ZTA:

  • Prevents unauthorized access to data and services
  • Makes access control enforcement as granular as possible
  • Regards users and resources as distinct subjects, requiring separate authorization and approval before granting connection to the company network
  • Considers resources like printers, computers and IoT devices part of the network that needs cybersecurity enforcement, just like access to data requires enforcement
  • Allows only authorized and approved users to access data and resources
  • Allows only authorized and approved resources to access users and data
  • Excludes all others as attackers

Thanks to AI, dynamic usage monitoring and automatic authentication across systems are possible without degrading the user experience. AI machine learning tools actively monitor users and fight incoming cyberattacks, adjusting their techniques in real time.

Zero trust always verifies

ZTA trusts no one, and for good reason. It works, especially when integrated with AI-powered machine learning tools. According to IBM’s “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025”:

  • The average global cost of a data breach decreased to $4.44 million for the first time in five years. AI automation has helped cybersecurity teams detect and contain system breaches faster, reducing costs. However, there were some exceptions: The United States, Canada, India, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Benelux all showed cost increases.
  • Canada’s data breach costs increased to $4.84 in 2024, up nearly 4% from 2023.
  • Malicious insider attacks had the highest average breach cost, at $4.92 million. Third-party vendor and supply chain compromises were a close second, averaging $4.91 million.
  • The mean time organizations took to identify and contain a breach fell to 241 days, a nine-year low. The report attributes this improvement to AI-driven and automation-driven cyber defenses.
  • Cybersecurity teams that used AI and automation tools shortened the time to contain a breach by 80 days. These teams lowered their organizations’ average data breach costs by $1.9 million, compared to those that didn’t use AI and automation tools.

Notably, previous IBM reports showed that generative AI reduced the time needed to create a convincing phishing email from 16 hours to just five minutes. The 2025 report reflects the aftermath. The most frequent attack on businesses was phishing (16%), costing an average of $4.8 million. Of those phishing attacks, 37% involved AI-generated phishing and 35% were deepfake impersonations.

Inventory your network to strategize your cybersecurity needs

It could take a while to understand how your systems work together and the purposes they fulfill. But in the end, you’ll be able to make prudent decisions about managing your next generation of cybersecurity.