No More Chewy Centers: The Zero Trust Model Of Information Security

There's an old saying in information security: "We want our network to be like an M&M, with a hard crunchy outside and a soft chewy center." For today's digital business, this perimeter-based security model is ineffective against malicious insiders and targeted attacks. Security and risk (S&R) pros must eliminate the soft chewy center and make security ubiquitous throughout the digital business ecosystem — not just at the perimeter. In 2009, we developed a new information security model, called the Zero Trust Model, which has gained widespread acceptance and adoption. This report explains the vision and key concepts of the model. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.