Understanding Zero Trust security

Table of contents

What is Zero Trust security?

But why are we all talking about it?

What are the main features of Zero Trust security?

How can I get started (and keep going) with Zero Trust security?

Achieve Zero Trust security with Focus Group

What is Zero Trust security?

A Zero Trust security model ensures that no user of device is automatically trusted – which reduces the risk of breaches and minimises the impact if a breach is made.

Zero Trust architecture aims to reduce the attack surface by applying access controls and segmentation, monitoring and logging all activity, as well as verifying and authorising all users and devices before granting access to resources.

It makes no assumptions about who and what is safe – and ensures every access request to a system is verified, authenticated and authorised. This is unlike traditional network security models, which may trust users inside a network by default. It’s the digital equivalent of ‘No ID, no entry’. That’s Zero Trust security.

But why are we all talking about it?

Zero Trust has risen in popularity recently – and for a few good reasons.

Firstly, it’s now an essential requirement for accreditations like Cyber Essential Plus, which grants eligible UK businesses to free cyber liability insurance. Even when not linked to a specific free policy, having Cyber Essentials can make insurers more confident in your cybersecurity posture, leading to better terms, quicker underwriting, or lower premium.

And that’s a significant benefit for businesses. With the evolution of cyber threats, attacks have become more sophisticated and can bypass traditional security models, particularly with the growth and prevalence of AI. Breaches have the potential to be more costly than ever.

Remote and hybrid work becoming more commonplace is also impacting the need for Zero Trust. With employees working from different locations and cloud adoption growing, businesses need to ensure all end points and systems are secure, while also delivering an easy-to-use, consistent experience that doesn’t penalise users for where they choose to work.

It’s crucial that cyber security is taken seriously. According to 2025 figures from the UK government, just over four in 10 businesses reported having experienced any kind of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.

What are the main features of Zero Trust security?

There are a number of components of a Zero Trust architecture, including the following key features:

• Identity management: This involves verifying the identity of users and devices before access is granted to resources and systems.
• Multi-factor authentication: A security mechanism that requires users to provide multiple forms of authentication before gaining access to a system or application – providing an extra layer of security beyond the standard username and password.
• Continuous monitoring: Zero Trust systems don’t verify once and then trust indefinitely. They monitor continuously to track user behaviour and check it remains consistent with expected patterns.
• Network segmentation: With Zero Trust, your network is divided into small, secure zones, so if a breach occurs, attackers are less able to move laterally across the network.

How can I get started (and keep going) with Zero Trust security?

Step 1: Understand priorities and identify assets

• Identify any priority users, endpoints and environments – seeing who needs access to what and why.
• Consider any weaknesses areas or legacy systems that may need bolstering.

Step 2: Strengthen identity and access management

• Implement multi-factor authentication across all accounts to add an extra layer of security.
• Ensure continuous threat detection and response monitoring through real-time surveillance of user activities.
• Practice strong password policies.
• Clearly identify user groups and permissions, then adopt least privilege access control.

Step 3: Implement network segmentation

• Divide your network into smaller, isolated sections to limit lateral movement in case of a breach – for example, separating critical systems like finance or customer data from the general IT infrastructure.
• Leverage firewalls or Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solutions to separate workloads.

Step 4: Secure endpoints

• Ensure all devices have antivirus and endpoint protection and enforce updates and patch management.
• If you’re not confident your fleet meets the required level of security, a managed service provider like Focus Group is ideally placed to regularly handle these updates and patches on your behalf.

Step 5: Create a culture of cyber security best practice

• Educate your employees on why this is important and how to integrate cyber security practices into their day-to-day work.
• Use regular training opportunities to keep teams up to date on threats.

Step 6: Keep monitoring and testing

• Stay alert to vulnerabilities and suspicious activity.
• Conduct regular reviews and update policies where needed or implement adaptive policies where beneficial.
• Use AI-powered threat detection platforms to do much of the work for you.

Achieve Zero Trust security with Focus Group

While there are many misconceptions around Zero Trust, and the six steps may seem intimidating, Focus Group is here to help you at every stage.

Zero Trust isn’t just for large enterprises – it’s an effective approach for any business looking to better protect their data and reputation. And with a number of ZTNA solutions available to suit every business, partnering with an expert can take the pain away from implementing Zero Trust security for SMEs.

With threats evolving, and AI and security becoming more closely linked, Focus Group can support you to build a stronger and more resilient cyber security strategy to keep your productivity high and operations safe. Whether you’re a cloud-first business or rely on your own data centre. Whether your employees are at home, in the office, or both. We’ll help you create a consistent user experience that allows users to work the same from anywhere, and less likely to make mistakes or get caught out by scams.