Security Starts at Home: Why Zero Trust Is Powering Leading Security Companies

In cybersecurity, perception is reality. That’s why security vendors are the first to adopt dynamic, contextual access controls like JIT and JEP.

If you’re a security vendor and you get breached, you’re not just another victim; you’re a failed promise. A broken fire alarm in a burning building. When Okta disclosed a breach in October 2023, its stock dropped nearly 11%, wiping out close to $2 billion in market cap in a single day – a stark reminder of how quickly trust evaporates. 

The combination of intense scrutiny, strict compliance and audit requirements, and a constantly shifting threat landscape makes it critical for security vendors to adopt the latest risk solutions and streamline access controls. 

The high stakes of security credibility

For security companies, a breach isn’t just operationally expensive. Especially for smaller organizations. Reputational damage can kill deals, drain funding, and erode trust at precisely the moment a startup is scaling. It’s like being a locksmith who leaves their own door unlocked. 

For security companies, “eating your own dog food” isn’t branding – it’s survival. Every internal policy must reflect the standards they promise to customers.

Apono’s security customers understand this intimately. They’re not adopting JIT & JEP because it’s trendy. They’re doing it because they must embody the standards they sell. 

The security mindset: built-in, not bolted on

Security firms operate at the cutting edge of risk, compliance, and automation. They see an exploit’s lifecycle before it’s public. They’ve investigated credential thefts, detected lateral movement, and watched the blast radius widen due to standing access. 

They also know just how fast trust can evaporate. 

That’s why they’re proactive. It’s why they’re discarding the legacy PAM and IGA tools originally built for static infrastructure and manual workflows and moving toward cloud-native platforms, like Apono, that support ephemeral permissions, identity-aware automation, and built-in auditability. 

In short, they’re not waiting for regulations to catch up. They’re setting a new standard.

Cybereason: From manual bottlenecks to instant access

Cybereason is a prime example. With highly sensitive customer environments to manage, their internal access processes had grown complex. They were robust, sure, but clunky. Granting access meant significant manual effort, compliance bottlenecks, and time-consuming reviews. 

By deploying Apono, they automated access to sensitive environments while maintaining tight controls. Engineers gained back their time. Access became auditable, accountable, and temporary by default. 

A New Standard in Access Management

Security companies don’t have the luxury of preaching zero trust while tolerating overprivilege. Nor can they tell customers to audit everything while their own logs are partial or delayed. 

“Eating your own dog food” means: 

• Enforcing your own principles internally
• Subjecting your systems to the same rigor you expect of others
• Demonstrating that secure-by-design is not just possible – it’s scalable

And Apono is helping them achieve it.

Our JIT model eliminates standing access, and our context-driven automation means no overprovisioning. Our native integrations with AWS, GCP, Azure, Terraform, and CI/CD pipelines let engineering teams move fast without skipping security. What’s more, we track, contextualize, and tie every event to a business function. 

Why security companies trust Apono

Unlike legacy PAM tools, which rely on vaults, agents, and session recordings, Apono is built for modern infrastructure. It assumes risk is dynamic and that permissions should be ephemeral. It’s the true meaning of zero trust. 

Here’s why Apono works for security companies: 

• Eliminates standing access with JIT and JEP controls
• Applies dynamic, context-aware policies to human and non-human identities
• Integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines, infra-as-code, and major cloud platforms
• Delivers instant auditability, tying every access to a business justification

And they’re not just doing it for optics – they’re doing it because their credibility depends on it. 

If your security team is juggling speed, scale, and scrutiny, don’t rely on legacy access controls. View our solution brief to learn how Apono empowers high-velocity teams to stay compliant, eliminate standing access, and move fast without risk.

Or dive deeper: Download our security-focused eBook, “The Security Leader’s Guide to Eliminating Standing Access Risk“ to explore the full strategy and implementation insights.