Breaking the System into Tiny Little Pieces: A DoD Approach to Zero Trust & Microsegmentation

The cybersecurity slogan for zero trust is a simple one: Never trust, always verify. This slogan fits into the Department of Defense mindset, which is always focused on how to reduce risk, but it’s a challenge to apply it to the federal government’s largest agency.

An important tool in pursuing zero trust is to implement microsegmentation – partitioning a network into small, isolated sections to reduce the attack surface in each section, prevent lateral movement across networks, and lower risk. Each microsegment is usually defined by specific security policies, accessible only to authorized users and devices.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the steps to visualize connections and workflow for purposes of microsegmentation
• Outline the unique challenges that apply in the DoD environment, such as classified and unclassified networks
• Review mechanisms for establishing standardization of policies and procedures for consistently applied access levels
• Delineate the relationship between microsegmentation and the larger objective of zero trust architecture
• Define metrics for progress in implementing microsegmentation and tracking its effectiveness