Misaligned Incentives Impede Zero Trust Implementation

Zero Trust Creator John Kindervag on Barriers to Security Success Beyond Tech Tom Field (SecurityEditor) • April 30, 2025

Despite significant technological advancements in zero trust capabilities, many organizations struggle with implementation because of misaligned incentives rather than technical limitations. The necessary tools exist, but organizational cultures often discourage security professionals from taking positive action.

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"I would argue what we have is not a technological problem. The technology is here. It's an incentive problem, and we're not incentivizing people to do the right thing for their organization," said John Kindervag, chief evangelist at Illumino. "Being able to talk [to boards] beyond firewalls and technology and microsegmentation and everything into 'what is your business objective?' 'What is your mission?' That helps them understand what they need to do, and properly incentivize their teams to get better security outcomes."

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