Rethinking Security in Platform Engineering Using Zero Trust Principles

Platform engineering for security is fantastic. It enables security teams to shift security left by applying best practices and embedding their controls and guardrails within their platform products and internal developer platforms (IDP).

These IDPs are unique to organisations based on their needs, so they are created with various software and tools knitted together using custom configurations and scripts. Yet security in platform engineering often takes a back seat to some of its core principles, such as self-service, agility, scalability, and automation.

Building a Zero Trust Platform

As IDPs become the backbone of modern IT teams for organisations, platform engineers must consider security at every layer while developing these platforms. They are increasingly becoming attack targets because of factors like centralised infrastructure, trust relationships, privileged access, and sensitive data.

You won’t often see the term “Zero Trust” within the context of platform engineering. Still, it is simply a philosophy rooted in key principles - verify explicitly, use least privilege access, and assume breach. In platform engineering, this translates into verifying identities for every service interaction, tightly controlling access policies, and continuously monitoring anomalies.

For years, security was all about building walls - trust everything inside, keep threats outside. Now, patterns like identity federation, microservices, and distributed systems have shattered that outdated thinking. Every component, every connection is a potential risk. We’ve seen major breaches and supply chain vulnerabilities that have impacted prominent tools used in developing software and platforms. Assumptions no longer suffice - strong verification is essential because relying on outdated security practices leaves platforms exposed.

Where Zero Trust Already Exists in Platform Engineering

When I look at it microscopically, I can see the DNA of platform engineering exhibiting some level of Zero Trust principles with patterns and tools that facilitate the alignment, such as:

• Immutable Infrastructure: The principle of least privilege is implicitly applied when infrastructure is spun up and torn down without persisting unused state or permissions.

• CI/CD Pipelines: Secure pipelines often authenticate every step, ensuring that only trusted code progresses through the build and deployment process.

• Service Meshes: Dynamic identity verification and mutual authentication between microservices align with the explicit verification principle.

Where Zero Trust Needs More Focus

I’ve highlighted two areas based on the Application and Workload Zero Trust pillars that need to be given more attention:

• Supply Chain Security: Dependency management and third-party integrations need more rigorous trust evaluations. Every package, container image or external service dependency introduces potential vulnerabilities that can impact a platform’s security posture. Organisations need to implement strict validation processes, such as signing and verifying artefacts, enforcing provenance checks, and continuously monitoring for vulnerabilities in dependencies.

• Compute Security Hardening: The runtime environment is often where Zero Trust principles break down. Too many organisations still rely on outdated AMIs (e.g. for legacy applications), poorly configured VMs, or container images that include unnecessary privileges. Every compute resource should be built with a hardened baseline and continuously verified against security policies. Enforce minimal access policies, strip unnecessary software, and apply runtime protections and monitoring to detect and prevent anomalies.

Call to Action

Zero Trust might not be native to platform engineering, but it’s an invaluable security model, a shift in mindset that platform engineers must embrace to truly secure their ecosystems. It’s not just about firewall rules or IAM policies; it’s about cultivating a security-first culture and refining processes and code to protect every layer of the stack.

This shift is especially critical for IDPs. Just because they’re internal doesn’t mean they should be treated as inherently safe, they should be held to the same rigorous security standards as public-facing applications. The last thing you want as an organisation is an insider threat or a compromised internal service exposing your entire infrastructure.

Security in platform engineering isn’t a checkbox - it’s an ongoing process that requires deliberate action, thoughtful tool selection, and a culture of continuous improvement. By adopting Zero Trust as a guiding principle, platform engineers can create environments that are not just secure by design but also resilient, scalable, and built to withstand evolving threats.