This piece is inspired by the conversation between Chris Tarbell and Hector Monsegur on the keynote mainstage at ThreatLocker’s Zero Trust World 2025. Their discussion highlighted the increasing severity of cyber threats, the impact of security failures on businesses, and the strategies security leaders must adopt to protect organizations while enabling business success.
Cybersecurity is no longer just a technical issue—it’s a fundamental business imperative. Security leaders must align security strategies with business goals while securing the necessary budget to protect critical assets. The challenge is not only preventing breaches but ensuring the business can continue to operate despite them.
Cyber Threats and Their Business Impact
From ransomware crippling hospitals to insider threats selling corporate access, cyberattacks have become a direct threat to the survival of businesses. As Tarbell and Monsegur emphasized, attackers no longer abide by ethical boundaries. State-sponsored hackers and criminal enterprises alike are leveraging AI-driven scams, social engineering, and zero-day vulnerabilities to exploit companies for profit.
As mentioned during the keynote, a single breach can cost millions in direct financial loss, regulatory fines, and reputational damage. Consider MGM Resorts' 2023 breach, where social engineering led to a $100 million loss in just a few days. Meanwhile, small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) often lack the resilience to survive a cyberattack. The cost of downtime, legal fees, and lost customer trust can drive an unprepared company to bankruptcy.
Yet, many businesses still treat security as an afterthought—until it’s too late.
Securing Budgets: Speaking the Language of Business
One of the biggest challenges security leaders face is justifying budget requests. Cybersecurity spending is often viewed as a cost center rather than a revenue enabler. To secure funding, security professionals must move beyond fear-based tactics and quantify the financial risk of vulnerabilities.
Monsegur pointed out that companies need to assign a dollar value to risks and mitigation efforts. Using models like FAIR (Factor Analysis of Information Risk), security leaders can present clear cost-benefit analyses. For example:
Fixing a critical misconfiguration might cost $400 in labor, but leaving it unaddressed could result in a $1M ransomware payout.
Investing in an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution for $50K annually could prevent a $10M regulatory fine from a breach.
By framing security investments in terms of potential cost savings, risk reduction, and business continuity, security teams can better position themselves for executive buy-in.
Implementing Zero Trust to Enable Business Success
Zero Trust is not a product—it’s a security strategy built around the assumption that no user, device, or system should be inherently trusted. Hector Monsegur emphasized that many organizations still operate with flat networks, outdated security models, and misconfigured access controls, which make them easy targets. Chris Tarbell reinforced the need for accountability and security-first thinking at every level of the business, including leadership buy-in and employee awareness.
Steps to Building a Zero-Trust Security Program
To apply Zero Trust principles effectively, security leaders must focus on practical steps that reduce risk exposure and limit an attack’s impact:
Know Your Attack Surface – Many organizations fail to assess their own weaknesses until an attacker exploits them. Conducting regular tabletop exercises, Active Directory audits (using free tools like PingCastle), and penetration tests helps identify misconfigurations and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
Control Access at Every Level – Monsegur stressed the importance of strong authentication policies and access controls to limit the movement of adversaries. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), strict role-based access control (RBAC), and privileged access management (PAM) should be mandatory, especially for high-risk accounts.
Segment Your Network and Limit Lateral Movement – Flat networks allow attackers to escalate privileges and move freely once inside. Organizations should enforce network segmentation and microsegmentation, ensuring critical systems, applications, and databases are isolated from general user access.
Enhance Threat Detection and Incident Response – Cybercriminals are leveraging AI, automation, and real-time social engineering attacks at an unprecedented scale. Implementing behavioral analytics, SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions allows organizations to detect and contain intrusions before damage escalates.
Build a Resilient Recovery Strategy – Even with the best defenses, breaches will happen. Organizations must assume an attack will occur and focus on reducing downtime and financial impact. Monsegur pointed out that companies without effective backups and resilience planning are at risk of total collapse after ransomware attacks. Maintaining offline backups (including tape storage) and testing disaster recovery plans ensures rapid recovery with minimal business disruption.
Security leaders should not view Zero Trust as an all-or-nothing approach but as a gradual shift toward reducing risk and improving business continuity. The key takeaway from Tarbell and Monsegur’s discussion? Zero Trust works best when combined with proactive risk assessment, employee accountability, and leadership commitment.
Building a Security-First Culture
A Zero-Trust model is only as strong as the employees who enforce it. Companies must instill a security-conscious culture through:
Security Awareness Training – Employees should recognize phishing attempts, social engineering tactics, and secure password practices.
Accountability Measures – Regular security drills, phishing tests, and consequences for repeated security failures ensure compliance.
Leadership Buy-In – Security must be prioritized at the executive level, with CISOs reporting directly to leadership, not buried in IT departments.
As Tarbell pointed out, organizations must shift from reactive to proactive security. Cyber threats aren’t going away, but with the right approach, businesses can thrive despite them.
Take Action: Build a Resilient Security Strategy Today
Cybersecurity is not just about defense—it’s about resilience. Organizations that adopt a Zero-Trust approach, prioritize proactive security, and build a culture of accountability will be positioned to withstand and recover from cyber threats. The reality is that cyberattacks will happen, but the ability to detect, respond, and mitigate risk effectively is what separates businesses that survive from those that don’t.
It’s time to take cybersecurity beyond compliance checkboxes and make it a core business enabler. Work with your executive team, security vendors, and IT professionals to develop a strategy that protects your data, your customers, and your reputation.
Stay Connected and Keep Learning
To learn more about Zero Trust security strategies and how to build a stronger cybersecurity posture for your business:
Connect with the ThreatLocker team to explore solutions that support Zero Trust implementation.
Look for Marco’s companion article on this same topic as part of our coverage, presented from a technology and society perspective.
Watch and listen to all of ITSPmagazine’s coverage of ThreatLocker’s Zero Trust World 2025 to gain deeper insights from security experts and industry leaders.
Security is a shared responsibility. Let’s work together to make businesses more resilient against the cyber threats of today and tomorrow.
Comments and feedback are always welcome. If you have a guest proposal to discuss this further on my Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast, let me know.
Cheers,
Sean
Stay Connected and Keep Thinking and Learning
To learn more about Zero Trust security strategies and how to build a stronger cybersecurity posture for your business:
Connect with the ThreatLocker team to explore solutions that support Zero Trust implementation.
Look for Marco’s companion article, From Cyberpunk to Cybercrime: Rethinking the Evolution of Hacking Culture, on this same topic as part of our coverage, presented from a business of security perspective.
Watch and listen to all of ITSPmagazine’s coverage of ThreatLocker’s Zero Trust World 2025 to gain deeper insights from security experts and industry leaders.
