“We already have Zero Trust,” what to do when broke, and Beyond Thunderdome

Today, we look at how the DoD is implementing Zero Trust Architecture.  We will see some areas that deployed ZTA before it was mandated; some teams that couldn’t afford ZTA, and finally, a look at something called Thunderdome that may allow the department to reduce the adoption time from five years to one year.

Rick Simon is the cyber portfolio manager at the Defense Innovation Unit in Mountain View, California. Their mission is to reach out to commercial organizations and seek innovative ways to solve problems in the DoD.  Because of the risk of connecting to outside environments, since its inception, the DIU has always implemented Zero Trust principles before they were released into an initiative. 

When you listen to the interview, Robert Kimball describes a group in the Army that wanted to move to Zero Trust because they were constantly failing penetration tests.  They had no money, so they did a “field expedient” and assembled the tools they had and, with this new configuration, managed to resist a red team penetration test.

The military never fails to impress with names for projects, DISA’s project Thunderdome fits the bill.

Rick Simon explains how it is a prototype that combines secure access with a wide range of technologies using Zero Trust as the approach to security.  This project can allow the military to drastically reduce the time to implement Zero Trust.

Captain Patrick Thompson from the Coast Guard reinforces the concept that the cloud will give leaders the tools to move to zero trust, allowing people to get their jobs done at the speed of need even in areas of denied movement.

The concept of Zero Trust is confusing, listen to the interview to get several approaches; one may work for your agency.

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