Failure Pattern
Zero Trust fails as they focus on users, not systems. Attackers exploit this gap by compromising workloads that are assumed to be trusted.
What We See in the Field
A compromised workload with valid service credentials moves freely inside an environment. Zero Trust fails as policies allow it because workload identity is not validated.
Underlying Causes
User identity but no workload identity
Overreliance on IAM
Trusted internal network assumptions
Static segmentation around dynamic workloads
Missing per-session trust checks
Trust-Native Network Resolution
DTL extends Zero Trust to workloads. Every request must originate from a workload with a validated TrustKey. Workloads cannot impersonate each other or borrow user-level trust.
Broken Trust Assumption
This failure pattern has played out repeatedly in real security incidents—not because of missing tools, but because of how trust is assigned.
In breaches such as SolarWinds, Capital One, Okta, and MOVEit, attackers did not bypass security controls. They operated through them, using valid identities, trusted credentials, signed code, and encrypted sessions. Security systems accepted these signals as proof of legitimacy, allowing malicious behavior to proceed.
The common thread across these incidents is structural: identity was assumed based on trust signals, not proven at the moment of execution.