I'm a MACH0 fan. You should be too

MACH0 security

MACH0 brings a heightened security awareness to the MACH principles. Zero Trust, the philosophy of “never trust, always verify”, requires us to ensure that every request, every connection is authorized, regardless of whether it “should” be. It requires us to abandon concepts like internal services or private networks, and consider every request as a potential threat.

By including Zero Trust in the acronym itself, we ensure that security is not an afterthought but a fundamental aspect of the systems design. This focus on security should of course not be limited to zero trust, but be emphasized throughout the whole development process, reinforcing the importance of building systems that are secure by design at each stage.

Zero trust as a driver of agility

But the “zero” in MACH0 is offers much more than just an emphasis on security, it can enhance agility.

With zero trust, we emphasize the isolation of services, and the minimization of trust between them - which aligns well with the microservices and composable nature of MACH architecture.
By treating each service as if it were exposed to the public, we encourage practices like clearly defined APIs, strong authentication, and careful control over data flows. This can lead to better-encapsulated services that are easier to manage, update, and replace, all of which in enhance agility.

Furthermore each service in a zero trust architecture must inspect and authorize every interaction, regardless of where the service is placed, or where the request comes from. By eliminating the concept of “internal” our services are inherently more adaptable as they are built with the expectation that they may interact with diverse sources in untrusted environments.
This mindset allows for easier integration of new services or third-party components, which can accelerate innovation and responsiveness to change, key aspects of agility.

Developing with a Zero Trust approach requires continuous validation and verification processes, leading to more disciplined and robust development practices. These practices often result in better-documented, more flexible systems that are easier to iterate on, modify, or extend—further contributing to agility.

Conclusion

Incorporating Zero Trust into the MACH framework may seem like a small change, and many would be right to say that a security conscious attitude is implied by microservices and api-first principles anyway. But I would argue that when it comes to security “implied” is not enough - and zero trust, is not really implied anyway.
Threats and attacks become ever more sophisticated, the need for a proactive, security-first approach is more important now than ever - there’s little advantage to be had in being fast, scalable and flexible, if your systems are vulnerable to attack.

MACH0 is not just a fun play on words; it’s a change in approach, emphasizing a “security first” posture that ensures your digital solutions are not only fast and flexible but also secure and resilient.

So, are you ready to be MACH0?

Further Reading and Resources

To dive deeper into Zero Trust, consider exploring these resources:

JSON Web Tokens (JWT) play a major role in implementing a Zero Trust architecture, particularly when it comes to secure authentication and authorization.
NIST Zero Trust Architecture: A comprehensive guide by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Google’s BeyondCorp: Google’s approach to Zero Trust security at scale.
Zero trust blog series from the SANS institute.