Everyone talks about Zero Trust — but very few organizations actually know how to implement it successfully.
In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, host G. Mark Hardy is joined by George Finney, a practicing CISO who literally wrote the book on Zero Trust and has implemented it in one of the most challenging environments imaginable: higher education.
Together, they break down:
- Why Zero Trust is a strategy, not a product
- Why most Zero Trust initiatives fail due to people and politics, not technology
- How attackers exploit trust and lateral movement
- How to implement Zero Trust without destroying culture or productivity
- What changes when AI enters the trust model
- Why AI is effectively “100% trust” — and how to reduce the blast radius
- How CISOs should explain Zero Trust and AI risk to the board
George also shares practical analogies (including his now-famous restaurant model for AI) that make Zero Trust and AI security understandable for executives, IT teams, and non-technical leaders alike.
If you’re serious about:
- Preventing breaches instead of just responding to them
- Limiting lateral movement
- Securing AI-driven systems
- Turning Zero Trust from buzzword into business strategy
👉 This episode is a must-watch.
George's Books:
Rise of the Machine: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Machines-Project-Trust-Story/dp/1394303718
Project Zero Trust: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Zero-Trust-Strategy-Aligning/dp/1119884845/
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