Zero Trust Security Checklist — 47 Steps

A comprehensive 47-step implementation checklist for Zero Trust security architecture, aligned to NIST SP 800-207. Written by Kenny Ogunlowo — a Senior Multi-Cloud DevSecOps Architect with enterprise security experience across healthcare (Cigna), defense (Lockheed Martin), energy (BP), and financial services.

Zero Trust is not a product you install. It is an architectural decision that assumes breach has already occurred. Every request is verified, every session is scoped, and every action is logged. This checklist gives you the concrete steps to implement it across identity, network, devices, data, and monitoring.

Five Security Pillars Covered

• Identity Verification (10 items): MFA enforcement, SSO federation, Conditional Access policies, least-privilege RBAC, JIT privileged access, service account rotation, UEBA, separation of duties, and dormant account auditing
• Network Segmentation (10 items): Micro-segmentation, service mesh mTLS, ZTNA replacement for VPN, DNS filtering, VPC flow logging, WAF deployment, environment isolation, and egress filtering
• Device Trust (8 items): EDR deployment, device compliance checks, certificate-based auth, full-disk encryption, MDM for BYOD, hardware security keys, device inventory, and quarantine workflows
• Data Encryption (9 items): CMK encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 enforcement, data classification with Purview/Macie, DLP policies, mutual TLS for databases, field-level encryption, and key rotation
• Continuous Monitoring (10 items): Centralized SIEM, real-time alerting, compliance monitoring, CSPM, automated incident response, purple team exercises, API monitoring, IaC scanning, and breach response runbooks

Priority-Based Implementation

Every item is tagged with a priority level: P0 (must-do-now), P1 (within 30 days), P2 (within 90 days). The P0 items alone represent the minimum viable Zero Trust posture — start there and expand systematically.

Maturity Scoring

Track your progress with the built-in maturity assessment: Traditional (0-12 items), Initial (13-24), Advanced (25-36), Optimal (37-47). Map your current state and set quarterly improvement targets.

Tools Referenced

Specific tool recommendations for each step including AWS IAM Access Analyzer, Azure AD Conditional Access, Okta, CyberArk, HashiCorp Vault, CrowdStrike Falcon, Trivy, Checkov, Microsoft Sentinel, Prisma Cloud, Wiz, and Falco.

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