While both zero trust and zero-knowledge concepts are critical components of today’s cybersecurity trends, they aren’t the same.

They sound somewhat similar and share a purpose, but zero knowledge goes one step further than zero trust in creating a security system that can counter ever-evolving cyber threats.

In fact, zero-knowledge proof can be used to turn the ideas of the zero-trust security model into reality. However, before we continue, let’s clear up what these two concepts are.

What Is Zero Trust?

In short, the central idea behind the zero trust concept is “trust no one, check everyone”. So, in a zero-trust framework, there’s no trust between a network and its users, a network and its hardware and software components, or between an organization and its users.

With an assumption that everyone and everything is a threat until proven otherwise, zero trust security always asks for some sort of authentication before allowing access to applications and data behind them. All users within the zero trust framework must be authenticated, authorized, and pass through a security posture assessment first.

Also, zero trust empowers IT administrators to ensure complete visibility into all users, devices, and systems. This not only secures regulatory compliance but also helps avoid cyberattacks caused by compromised user credentials and mitigates data breaches. So, there a more than a few reasons for adopting a zero-trust security model.

What Is Zero-Knowledge?

A zero-knowledge concept tries to figure out how someone can prove they’ve got something confidential, such as a piece of sensitive information, without revealing any of it. In the context of zero-knowledge encryption, zero-knowledge security ensures that the user’s data is encrypted before the user communicates with the service provider. Also, the data can be decrypted with a unique key, which is unknown to the provider—only the user has that key.

So, with zero-knowledge encryption, no one but the user can access their data in its unencrypted form. Ideally, no one besides the user should be able to access the data in the encrypted form either, but the countries within Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes alliances would say otherwise.

In cybersecurity, zero knowledge can be seen as a component of the zero trust model as it enables actions such as authentication to be performed without revealing any sensitive information about the users.

Zero Trust vs. Zero-Knowledge: Similarities and Differences

Three people are meeting at work

If the catchphrase of the zero trust concept is “trust no one”, then zero knowledge’s tagline is “we know nothing”. While these two concepts share a purpose—that is, strengthening data security and cybersecurity overall—they don't work the same way.

In cybersecurity, zero knowledge can be seen as a component of the zero trust model as it enables actions such as authentication to be performed without revealing any sensitive information about the users.

The zero-knowledge model can be utilized to protect data privacy as the service provider has “zero knowledge” about it. In most cases, this data consists of passwords, login credentials, and other sensitive information. Many types of two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) utilize the zero-knowledge model, which means you won’t be required to share secrets or supply any sensitive information to verify your identity.

Both 2FA and MFA are critical components of the zero-trust framework, which is further supported by encryption and data segregation. A service provider that utilizes both zero-knowledge and zero-trust security frameworks can be sure its systems are protected from inside and outside threats and that no sensitive data will be compromised in case of a data breach.

Zero Trust vs. Zero-Knowledge: Which Is More Important for Cybersecurity?

There’s no reason why cybersecurity professionals should have to choose between zero-trust and zero-knowledge security concepts. After figuring out how these two work in cybersecurity, we can see zero knowledge as a critical component of the zero-trust security model.

We should also note that while the implementation of the zero trust concept may seem simple in theory, it’s easier said than done when it comes to practice.