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The Zero Trust Framework

This course is designed to demystify Zero Trust security and guide learners through practical implementation. Based on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” this course explains what Zero Trust is, why it matters, and how organizations can begin their Zero Trust journey.

Key topics include network, endpoint, and cloud security, starting with foundational concepts and addressing misconceptions—highlighting that Zero Trust is not achieved by simply deploying technologies. Real-world use cases, assessment methodologies, and maturity ranking techniques help participants create a customized Zero Trust strategy for their business.

The curriculum explores modern Zero Trust standards and frameworks, such as NIST and the Open Group, moving from principles to architectural design. With a focus on practical application and strategic planning, this course is ideal for anyone responsible for organizational security seeking to enhance their defense strategy using Zero Trust.

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Career center

Learners who complete The Zero Trust Framework will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Cybersecurity Architect

A Cybersecurity Architect designs and implements robust security frameworks, ensuring the integrity and resilience of an organization's digital assets. This course offers a comprehensive demystification of Zero Trust security, detailing its principles, practical implementation, and strategic planning—all fundamental for a Cybersecurity Architect. Learners move from foundational concepts to building actionable Zero Trust architectures, evaluating current environments and creating customized strategies. The exploration of modern Zero Trust standards, such as NIST 800-207, directly equips architects to design security solutions that adhere to industry best practices, helping them advance in this critical field by mastering the "never trust, always verify" ethos for secure system design.

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Security Consultant

A Security Consultant advises organizations on their security posture, identifies vulnerabilities, and recommends strategic improvements. This role often involves guiding clients through security transformations, making a deep understanding of Zero Trust security exceptionally valuable. This course specifically addresses how organizations can begin their Zero Trust journey, including assessment methodologies, maturity ranking techniques, and creating customized strategies. Security Consultants will leverage the principles of "never trust, always verify" and the understanding of modern frameworks like NIST and the Open Group to advise clients on enhancing their defense strategies and building resilient security programs, positioning them as trusted experts in modern security.

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Information Security Engineer

An Information Security Engineer implements, maintains, and troubleshoots security measures to protect an organization's information systems. This course offers practical guidance on implementing Zero Trust security, covering key topics from network and endpoint security to cloud environments, which are integral aspects of an engineer's daily work. Information Security Engineers delve into real-world use cases and assessment methodologies, gaining the understanding needed to apply Zero Trust principles effectively. The focus on strategic planning and building actionable Zero Trust architectures directly supports an engineer's capacity to develop and manage robust defense strategies, enabling them to enhance their organization's security posture and excel in their career by operationalizing "never trust, always verify" principles.

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Chief Information Security Officer

A Chief Information Security Officer provides strategic leadership for an organization's information security program, defining its vision, strategy, and architecture. This course offers a comprehensive, vendor-agnostic overview of the Zero Trust Framework, which is a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity strategy. The curriculum focuses on strategic planning, guiding organizations on how to begin their Zero Trust journey, create customized strategies, and navigate modern standards. Understanding these principles enables a Chief Information Security Officer to effectively champion and direct the implementation of Zero Trust across an enterprise, ensuring robust defense against evolving threats. This role typically requires an advanced degree and extensive professional experience.

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Cloud Security Engineer

A Cloud Security Engineer specializes in securing cloud-based infrastructure and applications, ensuring data protection and compliance. Cloud security is explicitly highlighted as a key topic in this Zero Trust Framework course, making it pertinent for this role. The course guides Cloud Security Engineers through applying Zero Trust principles to cloud environments, emphasizing "never trust, always verify" across distributed resources. By exploring modern standards and frameworks like NIST, engineers can design and implement robust cloud security strategies that align with Zero Trust. This knowledge helps secure cloud assets more effectively, addressing misconceptions about security deployments and enabling them to build resilient cloud defenses against evolving threats.

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Solutions Architect

A Solutions Architect designs and integrates technical solutions, ensuring they meet business requirements and security standards. Incorporating Zero Trust principles into solution design is increasingly critical. This course provides a comprehensive understanding of the Zero Trust Framework, from foundational concepts to architectural design and practical application across network, endpoint, and cloud security. Solutions Architects learn to build actionable Zero Trust architectures and apply concepts to real-world use cases, ensuring that newly designed systems inherently adhere to "never trust, always verify" principles. This knowledge helps architects engineer secure, resilient solutions that prioritize continuous verification and minimize implicit trust, enhancing overall system integrity.

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Network Security Engineer

A Network Security Engineer designs, implements, and maintains the security of an organization's network infrastructure, protecting it from unauthorized access and threats. Given that network security is a key topic within Zero Trust, this course is highly relevant. It explores the principles of "never trust, always verify" as applied to network environments, teaching how to move beyond traditional perimeter defenses. Network Security Engineers will gain insights into building actionable Zero Trust architectures, which are crucial for modern network security. The practical application and strategic planning discussed will help engineers enhance their defense strategies, ensuring networks are secured according to robust Zero Trust principles and advancing their capabilities in this specialized domain.

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Identity and Access Management Specialist

An Identity and Access Management Specialist manages who can access what within an organization, a foundational aspect of security. While not explicitly named, the "never trust, always verify" principle and focus on network, endpoint, and cloud security implicitly rely heavily on robust identity controls. Zero Trust fundamentally redefines how access is granted and verified. Understanding how Zero Trust architecture is built, including foundational concepts and practical application, will allow an Identity and Access Management Specialist to design and implement systems that fully support a modern, granular, least-privilege access model, central to Zero Trust, ensuring all access decisions are continuously evaluated and verified for enhanced security.

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DevSecOps Engineer

A DevSecOps Engineer integrates security practices throughout the software development lifecycle, ensuring applications and infrastructure are secure from design to deployment. Adopting a Zero Trust mindset is crucial for modern DevSecOps. This course provides a deep dive into the Zero Trust Framework, including its principles and architectural design, applicable to securing development pipelines and deployed applications. Understanding how to build actionable Zero Trust architectures and apply them to real-world use cases, particularly across endpoints and cloud environments, enables DevSecOps Engineers to embed "never trust, always verify" controls into automation and infrastructure as code, helping them advance their skills in securing the entire development and operational ecosystem.

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Security Auditor

A Security Auditor evaluates an organization's security controls, processes, and compliance with standards. The Zero Trust Framework establishes a robust security posture, and an auditor needs to understand its principles to effectively assess implementations. This course provides an in-depth understanding of Zero Trust security, including foundational concepts, architectural design, and adherence to modern standards like NIST 800-207. Security Auditors will learn about assessment methodologies and maturity ranking techniques, directly applicable to evaluating the efficacy of Zero Trust deployments. This knowledge helps auditors verify that an organization's security strategy aligns with "never trust, always verify" principles and best practices for compliance.

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Security Analyst

A Security Analyst monitors systems, detects threats, and responds to incidents, relying on established security frameworks to interpret events. This course provides a foundational understanding of the Zero Trust Framework, helping Security Analysts comprehend the underlying principles of the security posture they monitor. By understanding the "never trust, always verify" ethos and how customized Zero Trust strategies are built, analysts can better interpret security alerts, identify anomalous behavior within a Zero Trust architecture, and contribute to continuous improvement. The course's real-world use cases and assessment methodologies may be useful for recognizing vulnerabilities and enhancing incident response.

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Risk Management Analyst

A Risk Management Analyst identifies, assesses, and mitigates potential security risks to an organization's assets and operations. The Zero Trust Framework, with its "never trust, always verify" principle, offers a systematic approach to reducing attack surfaces, invaluable for risk professionals. This course helps Risk Management Analysts understand how organizations build actionable Zero Trust architectures and apply them to real-world use cases, directly informing risk assessment processes. Exploring assessment methodologies and maturity ranking techniques enables learners to better evaluate an organization's security posture and the effectiveness of its risk controls, contributing to more informed mitigation strategies and overall organizational resilience in a complex threat landscape.

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Technical Program Manager Cybersecurity

A Technical Program Manager Cybersecurity oversees complex cybersecurity initiatives, ensuring projects align with strategic goals and are delivered successfully. This course offers a strategic overview of the Zero Trust Framework, including its practical implementation and strategic planning, which is highly relevant for managing such programs. Managers will gain an understanding of how to guide organizations through their Zero Trust journey, from evaluating current environments to creating customized strategies. The exploration of modern Zero Trust standards and frameworks like NIST and the Open Group helps managers ensure compliance and best practices are integrated into program roadmaps, enabling them to effectively lead and advance significant security transformation efforts by understanding foundational principles.

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Security Operations Center Analyst

A Security Operations Center Analyst monitors security systems, detects threats, and responds to incidents in real time. Understanding the Zero Trust Framework can fundamentally change how a Security Operations Center Analyst approaches incident detection and response. This course provides insights into the "never trust, always verify" principle, helping analysts understand expected behaviors and deviations within a Zero Trust architecture. Knowing how customized Zero Trust strategies are built and applied across network, endpoint, and cloud security may be useful for empowering analysts to more effectively identify compromised assets, contain threats, and contribute to continuous monitoring in a modern security environment.

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Incident Response Specialist

An Incident Response Specialist identifies, contains, eradicates, and recovers from cyberattacks and security breaches. While this course is not directly about incident response, understanding the Zero Trust Framework provides a critical context for how modern security environments are designed and how incidents manifest. By grasping the principles of "never trust, always verify" across network, endpoint, and cloud security, an Incident Response Specialist may be better equipped to understand an incident's scope, identify deviations from a Zero Trust posture, and contain threats more effectively. The course's focus on foundational concepts and real-world use cases may be useful for anticipating attack vectors and improving post-incident analysis within a Zero Trust architecture.

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Reading list

We've selected 26 books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in The Zero Trust Framework.

Zero Trust Security

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Serves as a comprehensive roadmap for implementing Zero Trust within a corporate environment, aligning perfectly with the course's strategic goals. It provides a deep dive into the practical application of the 'never trust, always verify' principle across various technology stacks. It is highly recommended as a primary textbook for industry professionals looking to move from theory to architectural design.

The Zero Trust Framework

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