Most zero trust conversations start in the wrong place. We ask what to buy before we ask what needs to change. And until that changes, the journey does not really begin. “Zero trust is not something you buy and turn on. It is a choice to design for the world as it really is.” The Zero Trust Shift That Changes Everything I cannot tell you how many times I have been in a zero trust conversation where the first question on the table was, “Which platform should we buy?” And hones

So I want to make this promise clearly and publicly: ebook versions of Secure by Habit will always be available free of charge at cletustaylor.com, including the current versions, all future editions, and any translations we are able to publish over time.

When fear shapes public discourse, it often shapes the law as well. Using anti-Sharia politics as a prime example, this essay explores how fear-driven legislation can drift away from constitutional neutrality, equal protection, and civil liberty, and why the Constitution demands something steadier.

xAI’s move into SpaceX is not just another Musk-world plot twist. It is a sign that AI is leaving its pure software era and entering something more physical, more political, and much harder to ignore. The real story is no longer just about models. It is about power, water, regulation, and who gets to build the infrastructure behind intelligence.

Zero Trust is one of the clearest signals that we’re moving past the expectation that standards will provide the roadmap for implementation. In a Zero Trust world, ‘minimum requirements’ are not a destination. They are a baseline. They tell you where the floor is, not where the ceiling should be. And no longer can we rely on what we defined on Monday being adequate for what may happen on Friday

The first real crack for me came when I stopped reading arguments and started reading outcomes. Not hot takes, not speeches, but what actually happened to real people over long timelines. The detail that hit me hardest was painfully simple: an innocent man can be put to death by society, and that includes me. I can support “justice,” vote, argue, share posts, and feel certain, and still be wrong in a way that cannot be undone. That wasn’t a moral speech to myself. It was me r

Not a lecture. More like a coffee chat about money, stress, and why everything costs 40% more than your brain is willing to accept. Is Civl Unrest in Our Future? Wealth inequality isn’t new in America. What feels new is how wide the gap has gotten, and how many people feel like they’re working hard just to stay in place. You know the feeling, you check your bank app and it checks you. So yeah, it’s fair to ask, without being dramatic: are we inching toward a point where the e

Modern auth + MFA everywhere. Short-lived tokens. No more “easy paths.” Grab a cup of coffee with me for a minute, because this is one of those security conversations that feels “technical”… right up until it becomes the headline nobody wanted. One of the fastest ways Zero Trust fails is through legacy authentication protocols that are still quietly enabled “for compatibility.” They were designed for a different era, static credentials, limited context, minimal verification,

Every few weeks, a post goes viral claiming that entire professions law, accounting, customer service, design can now be “100% automated.” One recent example, attributed to someone named Ken Yand , argued that his first big‑law job could be fully replaced by AI today and that we’re sliding into a K‑shaped economy where some rise and many fall. I can’t verify whether that specific post came from a real person or an AI‑generated account. But the claims deserve a closer look, b

Or: How I Stopped Saying Smart Things and Started Getting Decisions Let me start with a confession.Early in my career, I thought if I explained a security issue clearly enough, the business would obviously do the right thing. Reader, that is adorable. What actually happened was this: I would explain the risk, sprinkle in some impressive terminology, everyone would nod, someone would say “Good call,” and then absolutely nothing would happen. No funding, no priority, no decisio

Lincoln promised a government “of the people.” So why does it feel like everyone but the people is driving it now?

Coffee talk on how AI-driven discovery is compressing the clock, and what we should measure and automate next.

People who know me well have a running theory that I never sleep. After spending my “free time” working through Anthropic’s Claude Mythos system card (all 200+ pages), I’m not sure I have strong evidence to refute that hypothesis. Occasionally something lands in the AI world that makes even seasoned security folks sit up a little straighter. Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview is one of those moments. Below is a grounded, security-minded take on what the model is, what it isn’

Truth feels harder to grab lately, doesn’t it? Like we’re all squinting through fog while scrolling the feed. I just published a new post on how truth gets blurred in three different ways: • Misinformation (false, usually shared without malicious intent) • Malinformation (true info used to harm—often by stripping missing context) • Propaganda (strategic messaging that shapes belief over time) I also included quick, practical “spot it in the wild” tips and what to do next when

Most GRC programs know how to prove they’re compliant. Zero Trust raises the bar by asking a harder question: how quickly can you eliminate implicit trust—and prove it with real signals, not just audit evidence?

Strong, unique passwords are still one of the most effective ways to keep your accounts safe online. They help block the most common attacks like password guessing, credential stuffing (when stolen passwords from one site are tried on another), and simple “I reused that password everywhere” disasters. But then reality hits: how are you supposed to create and remember 20, 50, or 200 different strong passwords? The most logical answer is a password manager . A password manager

Zero Trust is an architecture and a set of outcomes, not a shopping list. Decide what “good” looks like for you , then pick tools that earn a place in that design. We say we want a “security strategy,” but a lot of the time what we really have is a pile of product decisions made in the moment; because an alert was scary, a headline was loud, or a demo was chef’s kiss . And honestly? Historically we’ve treated cybersecurity tooling like drunk teenagers dating the next pretty t

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the kind of person who values truth over opinion. Not because opinions don’t matter, they do. But because opinions without solid ground can turn into noise fast.