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What is Zero Trust?

Zero Trust means never trust, always verify. See how the model protects against modern attacks, and how to get started step by step.

In short

Zero Trust is a security model built on the principle never trust, always verify: No user, device or application is trusted automatically, not even on the company's own network.

Every access is verified explicitly based on identity, device health and context, and access is granted only to exactly what is needed. The model is the answer to the fact that the classic castle-and-moat mindset no longer holds when employees work from home, data lives in the cloud, and attackers get inside via phishing. The three core principles are: verify explicitly, use least privilege and assume breach.

In practice, Zero Trust is implemented gradually, typically on top of Microsoft 365 with MFA, Conditional Access and device requirements, and should be seen as a journey in stages, not a product you buy. MI Support IT turns Zero Trust into concrete, prioritised measures in your environment, starting from what you already have.

Back to the glossary

What is Zero Trust?

Zero Trust is a security model built on the principle "never trust, always verify": No user, device or application is trusted automatically, not even if it sits on the company's own network. Every access is verified explicitly based on identity, device health and context, and access is granted only to exactly what is needed.

The Zero Trust model is the answer to the fact that the classic "castle and moat" mindset (hard outer defence, soft inner core) no longer holds when employees work from home, data lives in the cloud, and attackers get inside anyway via phishing. Once inside a classic architecture, you can move around freely; in a Zero Trust architecture you are met by a new check at every door.

The 3 principles of Zero Trust

  1. Verify explicitly: Every access is assessed on identity (MFA), device, location and risk, and it happens every time, not only at first login.
  2. Least privilege: Users and systems only get access to what they specifically need, and only for as long as they need it.
  3. Assume breach: Design so a breach does the least possible damage: segmentation, encryption, monitoring and rapid response.

Both the Danish Centre for Cyber Security and Microsoft recommend these principles as the foundation of modern security architecture.

Zero Trust in Microsoft 365 (Conditional Access)

For most Danish businesses, Zero Trust is implemented gradually on top of Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, and the engine is Conditional Access. The policies evaluate every login against your rules: Require MFA for everyone, require a compliant and updated device via Intune for access to sensitive data, block legacy protocols and logins from countries you do not operate in. Access to internal apps can be granted per application instead of via broad VPN access to the entire network, and logins and behaviour are monitored continuously. Microsoft's reference architecture is described on learn.microsoft.com.

How to get started step by step

Zero Trust is a journey in stages, not a product you buy. A realistic order:

  1. MFA everywhere: the biggest effect for the smallest effort; start here.
  2. Device requirements: only known, updated and encrypted devices get access.
  3. Least privilege: clean up permissions, remove standing admin access and make it time-limited.
  4. Segmentation: replace broad network access with access per application, and divide the network so a breach does not spread.
  5. Monitoring: log and analyse logins and behaviour, so anomalies are detected and stopped quickly.

Each step delivers value in itself. You do not have to wait for the perfect end state to reap the benefit.

How MI Support IT can help

We turn Zero Trust from principle into concrete, prioritised measures in your environment, starting from what you already have in Microsoft 365. Read more under IT security and IT advisory, or contact us for a conversation about where to start.

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