Sponsored: Toward Zero: Passwordless Zero-Trust Architecture
The digital landscape is increasingly complex and threat laden. Traditional perimeter-based security is failing, particularly for enterprises with vast networks, remote workforces, and critical operational technology (OT).
01 July 2025
The digital landscape is increasingly complex and threat laden. Traditional perimeter-based security is failing, particularly for enterprises with vast networks, remote workforces, and critical operational technology (OT). The solution? A strategic shift to a Zero-Trust Identity, Credentials, and Access Management (Zero-Trust-ICAM) framework. This paradigm abandons “trust but verify” for “never trust, always verify.” No user, device, or application is implicitly trusted; identity becomes the primary control plane. Every access request is explicitly verified and authorized based on dynamic policies, leading to a fundamentally stronger security posture.
Real-World Impact: A South African Success Story
A major South African financial services provider offers a compelling example of Zero-Trust-ICAM’s transformative power.
Before Zero-Trust Deployment: This organically growing business faced numerous challenges:
• Artificial trust boundaries: A maze of point-to-point integrations across business units.
• Fragmented Identities: Multiple credentials and custom authentication for various applications.
• Siloed Identity & Credential Lifecycles: Each application managed its own roles and privileges.
• Lack of Standardization: Security gaps and poor observability, leading to audit non-compliance.
• Increasing IT Operational Overheads: High resource involvement in IT Administration serving users across enterprise.
• Inconsistent Access Policies: Regulatory compliance issues across the enterprise.
After Zero-Trust-ICAM Deployment: The Zero-Trust solution delivered significant benefits:
• 100% Identity Digitization, Orchestration and Governance: Over 150,000 customer, employee, partner and vendor identities unified into a federated and sanitised IdM service. Consistent, seamless Single-Sign-On access, with streamlined user onboarding and identity lifecycle management.
• 100% Adoption of Centralised Strong Authentication & Authorization: Over 30 applications retrofitted with standards-based OpenID Connect, SSO, MFA, Passkeys Biometrics, and token based authorization. Increased security leveraging best in class, standards-based protocols.
• 90% Reduction in IT user support overhead: Achieved through unified registration, centralized credential management, self-managed password services, and automated provisioning. Simplified and reduced time of user onboarding resulting in substantial cost savings, and increased customer satisfaction.
• Dramatic Reduction in Compliance Issues: Centralized management simplified reporting, prevented breaches, fraud, and security incidents. Streamlined and automated IT Audits, resulting in increased audit compliance, and reduced audit durations.
Foundational Principles of Zero-Trust-ICAM: Zero-Trust-ICAM is built on three core principles:
1. Digitize Securely: All participants (people and things) are vetted and verified for an irrevocable biometric digital identity.
2. Verify Explicitly: Every access request is biometrically authenticated and authorized by policy, scrutinizing user identity, request compliance, application security posture, and contextual details.
3. Least Privilege Access: Users and devices receive only the minimum necessary permissions for the required limited duration. Achieving this requires advanced technologies like AI/ ML-based identity assurance, Passwordless authentication, identity aggregation, dynamic policy engines, SSO with MFA, governance of roles and entitlements, and Just-In-Time secure access. Integrated workflows with existing IT, HR, and ticketing systems further streamline access.
“Implementing robust Zero-Trust-ICAM in complex enterprise environments requires seamless integration with customer organizations, legacy applications, technology and workflows, and an understanding of the business imperatives driving strategic modernization,” explains Adarbad Master, CTO of iCrypto Inc. “Implementing Zero-Trust is not without its complexities. A significant cultural shift from implicit trust to continuous verification must be managed carefully. A “rip and replace” approach is rarely viable; organizations typically adopt a phased incremental implementation, prioritizing critical assets or high-risk areas first,” adds Zane Renou, VP of iCrypto Inc.
Despite these challenges, a well-executed Zero-Trust strategy is transformative. It profoundly enhances security by reducing the attack surface and containing breaches. It improves compliance through granular control and auditability and increases operational efficiency. Crucially, Zero-Trust ICAM actively supports digital transformation, enabling secure adoption of cloud services, remote work, and IT/OT convergence. By embracing Zero-Trust, enterprises can build intelligent, resilient defence layers, repositioning cybersecurity from a reactive cost centre to a proactive enabler of business success.