Human identity needs a Zero Trust moment

Since (now) Illumio Chief Evangelist John Kindervag introduced the concept of Zero Trust 15 years ago, cyber­se­cu­rity has been transformed by questioning a fundamental assumption: networks, devices, and appli­ca­tions could not be implicitly trusted. The core principle — ​“never trust, always verify” — revo­lu­tion­ized how we think about digital security. But there’s a glaring blind spot in this framework: we still take humans for granted.

That era is over. I saw it with my eyes or heard it with my ears does not work.

The expanding attack surface

The modern enterprise operates across an expanding ecosystem of people, devices, and systems, all accelerated by collab­o­ra­tion technology hitting all three vectors simul­ta­ne­ously. Remote work, digital trans­for­ma­tion, and AI-powered tools have created unprece­dented connec­tivity and vulnerability.

While we’ve hardened our networks and secured our endpoints, we have left one of the most critical elements exposed: human identity itself. Every security breach, every successful attack, and every data exfil­tra­tion begins with identity. As Ben Colman, Co-Founder and CEO of API-first deepfake detection platform Reality Defender, observes: ​“Zero Trust isn’t complete until it includes people. Deepfakes have turned identity into cyber­se­cu­ri­ty’s new zero-day vulnerability.”

Beyond the Facebook Messenger hack

Remember the early Facebook Messenger scam? ​“I’m out of town and lost my wallet… can you send me money?” It worked because it exploited trust in familiar commu­ni­ca­tion patterns. But those attacks required victims to ignore red flags — poor grammar, unusual requests, suspicious timing.

Today’s threat is funda­men­tally different. We’re facing real-time imper­son­ation attacks where you literally cannot trust your eyes and ears, from ordinary people to the highest levels of government and business. Sophis­ti­cated actors can now impersonate executives and politicians in live video calls, mimic voices with startling accuracy, and conduct entire fraudulent conver­sa­tions that feel completely authentic.

This isn’t theoretical. Financial insti­tu­tions report increasing losses from voice deepfakes targeting call centers. HR departments face AI-generated candidates in interviews. Corporate executives are being imper­son­ated in video conferences to authorize fraudulent transfers.

The North Korean hacker taking your job

Consider the emerging pattern of AI-generated personas infil­trating hiring processes. Sophis­ti­cated threat actors, including state-sponsored groups, are using deepfake technology to secure remote positions within orga­ni­za­tions. Once inside, they gain access to systems, intel­lec­tual property, and sensitive commu­ni­ca­tions — all while maintaining the perfect cover of being a trusted employee.

This has blown a crater in the entire emerging remote work world we have grown accustomed to. Today, North Korean hackers impersonate developers to gain work, both for the wages they funnel back into the regime as well as the IP they are stealing as trusted technology works. This represents a quantum leap beyond traditional social engineering. When attackers can convinc­ingly impersonate anyone in real-time video calls, the fundamental assumptions underlying corporate security fall apart.

Where traditional identity solutions fall short

Existing identity and access management solutions like CyberArk and Okta excel at securing digital credentials and managing access permissions. But they operate on the assumption that the human presenting those credentials is who they claim to be. They can verify a password or certificate, but they cannot verify the authen­ticity of the person speaking or appearing on camera.

This gap becomes critical in scenarios where human veri­fi­ca­tion is the final security layer:

• Recruiting processes where visual and verbal assessment determines hiring decisions
• Financial transfers requiring executive approval via video conference
• Intel­lec­tual property discussions where the wrong person could access trade secrets

Real-time detection as security infrastructure

The solution requires treating human identity veri­fi­ca­tion as core security infra­struc­ture, not an after­thought. This means imple­menting real-time detection across audio, video, and biometric channels — essentially bringing the ​“always verify” principle to human inter­ac­tions. Zero Trust was built for machines and networks. The new security infra­struc­ture must evolve for human interfaces — it is the new battleground.

Modern deepfake detection must operate at the speed of commu­ni­ca­tion. A security system that takes minutes to analyze a video call is useless when fraudulent trans­ac­tions can be authorized in seconds. The technology must integrate seamlessly with existing commu­ni­ca­tion platforms while providing instant, automated alerting of potential impersonation attempts.

Policy and regulatory implications

Security frameworks are beginning to recognize this gap. NIST’s Zero Trust Archi­tec­ture guidelines acknowledge the need for ​“dynamic veri­fi­ca­tion of users,” while CISA’s cyber­se­cu­rity advisories increas­ingly address synthetic media threats. Financial regulators are updating Know Your Customer (KYC) require­ments to account for AI-generated impersonations.

Orga­ni­za­tions imple­menting Zero Trust strategies must expand their thinking beyond network perimeters and device trust to include real-time human veri­fi­ca­tion. This isn’t just about adding another security tool — it’s about funda­men­tally rethinking how we establish and maintain trust in human interactions.

From Vulner­a­bility Assessment to Breach Detection

Much of security management started with looking for vulner­a­bil­i­ties and has since evolved toward breach detection and remediation. Human identity veri­fi­ca­tion needs a similar evolution. Orga­ni­za­tions should begin by under­standing their current exposure:

Assess risk across critical interaction points where human identity matters most: recruiting processes, financial approvals, and intel­lec­tual property discussions. Test your orga­ni­za­tion’s ability to detect synthetic media in these scenarios. Many will discover they have no defense against even basic audio or video impersonation.

The urgency of now

The technology gap between creating and detecting deepfakes is narrowing rapidly, but defenders still have a window of opportunity. Orga­ni­za­tions that implement robust human identity veri­fi­ca­tion now — before they become targets — will have a significant advantage over those that wait for regulations or industry standards to catch up.

The question isn’t whether your orga­ni­za­tion will face deepfake threats — it’s whether you’ll be prepared when they arrive. Human identity veri­fi­ca­tion isn’t a future security need; it’s a present-day requirement for any orga­ni­za­tion serious about comprehensive protection.

Zero Trust revo­lu­tion­ized cyber­se­cu­rity by challenging assumptions about digital trust. Now it’s time to challenge our assumptions about human trust. The stakes are too high, and the technology too accessible, to leave human identity as cyber­se­cu­ri­ty’s last undefended frontier.