Why Identity-First Zero Trust Security Outpaces Traditional Perimeters in 2025

Read full article here: https://www.unosecur.com/blog/why-identity-first-zero-trust-security-trumps-traditional-perimeter-lessons-for-managers?source=nhimg

The days of defending static network perimeters are over. With cloud, SaaS, remote work, and AI-driven automation reshaping how businesses operate, identity has become the new security perimeter. Attackers aren’t breaching firewalls—they’re exploiting credentials, misconfigured permissions, and unmanaged Non-Human Identities (NHIs).

Identity-First Zero Trust flips the old model, focusing on verifying every access request based on context, risk, and behavior—whether human or machine. Unlike legacy perimeter defenses, Zero Trust enforces least privilege continuously, detects anomalous identity activity in real-time (ITDR), and minimizes standing access.

Key Lessons for Security Managers:

• Perimeter security is obsolete: Cloud apps, SaaS platforms, and NHIs operate beyond network borders. Attacks like the 2025 Commvault breach exploited SaaS trust relationships, not firewall weaknesses

• Identity-First Zero Trust closes the gap: Continuous verification, adaptive policies, and dynamic privilege enforcement ensure only the right identities access the right resources at the right time

• Machine identities demand Zero Trust too: NHIs now outnumber human users and pose greater risks if left unmanaged

• Credential attacks are neutralized with passwordless MFA and ITDR-driven detection of privilege misuse

• Transitioning starts with mapping all identities, hardening authentication, applying adaptive access, reducing entitlements, and automating identity-centric detection and response

Progress Metrics:

Measure maturity with KPIs like:

• MFA adoption coverage

• Reduction of over-privileged accounts

• Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR) identity incidents

• Decrease in VPN dependency

• NHI governance coverage

Perimeter security is dead. Identity-first Zero Trust is the only strategy agile enough to secure modern, cloud-driven enterprises. The faster organizations adopt identity as the foundation, the stronger their defense against today’s dynamic cyber threats.