Cybersecurity Today The Godfather of Zero Trust - A Discussion with John Kindervag
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Sep 13, 2025 Join John Kindervag, the chief evangelist of Illumio and pioneer of the Zero Trust model, as he shares his 25 years of cybersecurity wisdom. He explains how Zero Trust was born from the flaws of traditional firewalls, pushing for a mindset shift in organizational security. With insights into the five essential steps for implementation, he stresses the importance of micro-segmentation and adapting strategies to combat modern threats like AI and social engineering. John's practical advice lays the foundation for resilient cybersecurity practices.
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Packets Should Start With Zero Trust
- Trust in network interfaces is flawed; every packet should be treated as untrusted by default.
- Zero Trust originates from assigning every interface a trust level of zero and enforcing explicit policy.
Build One Protect Surface At A Time
- Build Zero Trust one protect surface at a time instead of trying to do everything at once.
- Identify a single DAS element and create a focused protect surface to secure and mature iteratively.
Bring Leaders Into Protect-Surface Workshops
- Leaders know what must be protected but practitioners often do not, so include leadership in protect-surface workshops.
- Cross-functional workshops reveal business objectives and surface the DAS elements to secure.
