Making Zero Trust the Cybersecurity Standard

As digital systems and threats to them evolve, so have approaches to cybersecurity. Zero trust is one example.  

With zero trust, access is granted at every step, not offered broadly by default. Grace Howell, a cybersecurity expert delivering mission-focused cyber solutions, compares it to the security measures of a modern hotel. With the swipe of a specially programmed key card, the elevator takes a visitor directly to the floor with their guest room, where they swipe the card again to enter the room itself. And if the visitor tries to sneak up to the VIP lounge and fitness center they didn’t pay for, their access card and the elevator won’t permit it.  

Few organizations need solutions to deliver such targeted, multilayered cyber protection more urgently than U.S. federal government agencies—solutions that Grace and her colleagues in Booz Allen DarkLabs® are hard at work to develop. 

This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Grace talks about her career journey to DarkLabs, why the zero trust model is so mission-critical, and the progress she hopes to see in the cybersecurity field by this time next year. 

Grace started her security technology career focused on risk management in the insurance industry. She optimized and cataloged security services, deployed and implemented a shared security services enterprise model, managed security operations and optimizations, and led a major enterprise-wide identity transformation. As her technical and leadership skills grew, and she branched out beyond insurance, her career steadily progressed into a CISO advisory role. 

In 2021, Grace joined Booz Allen, first to provide solutions governance to the firm’s commercial business. Two years later, she pivoted to our national cyber business—which brings cross-sector mission understanding and deployable solutions to some of the nation’s most critical cyber challenges—and to DarkLabs.  

“Initially, I helped with governance, solution onboarding, and sales enablement materials—improving the customer experience and our own efficiency when delivering these missions across the globe,” she recalls.

In just a year, Grace’s role has grown along with this work. Today, she’s the go-to-market lead within DarkLabs focusing on zero trust solutions. “We’re looking at a variety of emerging technologies, innovating big ideas, determining what could be viable, and rapidly testing the market,” she says.   

Accelerating zero-trust implementation requires harnessing the power of commercial innovations in AI, software-defined networking, identity management, conditional access, cyber visibility, and analytics. For Grace and her colleagues across Booz Allen, it’s a daily mission that brings immense satisfaction. 

“Booz Allen is leading the implementation of zero trust cybersecurity capabilities across the Department of Defense’s (DOD) infrastructure,” says Kelly Rozumalski, a senior vice president leading Booz Allen’s national cyber defense business. “Colleagues like Grace and her team play a critical role in providing technical solutions that enable our clients in DOD, federal civilian agencies, and the intelligence community to move toward a resilient zero-trust architecture. We are proud to serve as a trusted partner in protecting the nation’s most critical assets." 

Zero-trust security is a mandate—and a mission—for all U.S. federal agencies. Executive Order 14028 requires zero-trust architecture by fiscal year 2027 to improve efforts to identify, deter, protect against, detect, and respond to dangerous threat actors. Successfully implementing it across diverse systems, missions, and operational constraints is easier said than done. 

“A carrier ship doesn’t necessarily have access to a reliable network,” Grace offers as one example. “In austere environments like these and at the edge, we need to find ways to make zero-trust architecture work for cyber operators, cyber defenders, soldiers, and our military using the technology in the field while addressing threats that continue to get bigger and more complex across the threat landscape.” 

Booz Allen’s zero-trust solutioning is constantly evolving to better support the agencies it serves and the environments in which it’s deployed.  

“We’re constantly getting valuable feedback from our clients and improving our solutions to better serve them,” Grace says. “We want to ensure strategic market positioning and cross-functional collaboration across our markets and product teams, as well as incorporating customer insights to improve our solution.”  

As with many large transformations, technology is just one component of the puzzle. The human aspect of zero trust is just as important, from training users on optimized collaboration and security functionality to developing solutions for organizational change management. 

“It’s a change in mindset, requiring a creative array of solutions, partnerships, capabilities, tools, and talent,” Grace says. 

But the end result is worth it: stronger resource protection, more robust risk management, faster decisions, and more effective mission outcomes. “Zero trust is a proven and accelerated pathway to modern security,” Grace says.