TOWARD A UNIFIED FRAMEWORK FOR ZERO TRUST ADOPTION IN INDUSTRIAL AND CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks across both traditional IT infrastructures and emerging industrial control, cloud, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) environments demand a paradigm shift in network security. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) has emerged as a powerful design philosophy purporting to eliminate implicit trust and enforce continuous verification. However, existing literature often treats cloud, enterprise, and industrial IoT deployments in isolation, resulting in fragmented adoption strategies and limited cross-domain applicability. This article synthesizes key theoretical and empirical insights from foundational works and recent advances to propose a comprehensive, unified framework for Zero Trust deployment spanning enterprise IT, critical infrastructure, and industrial IoT ecosystems. Through a rigorous integrative literature review, we identify core architectural principles, domain‑specific challenges, and emergent threats such as ransomware targeting industrial control systems. We then articulate an abstract, extensible Zero Trust model that accounts for identity-centric access management, micro‑segmentation, dynamic trust evaluation, continuous monitoring, and policy orchestration. Our framework also embeds adaptive mechanisms to address latency, legacy systems, and resource constraints common in industrial and edge deployments. We conclude by elucidating limitations, paths for future empirical validation, and recommendations for stakeholders seeking a holistic security posture across heterogeneous environments.