Zero Trust Architecture Design

Zero Trust is a security framework that eliminates implicit trust and requires verification of every access request. Rather than trusting a user or device because they're on the corporate network, Zero Trust verifies identity (who are you?), device posture (is your device secure?), and context (where are you accessing from?) for every access. Access is granted only if all factors check out, and communication between services is encrypted and mutually authenticated. Zero Trust spans identity and access management (IAM), network segmentation, encryption, logging, and continuous monitoring. It's implemented through technologies like multi-factor authentication, mutual TLS (mTLS), API gateways, service meshes, and secrets management.