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Traditional Zero Trust focuses on access control. Acalvio adds what’s missing: early, intent-based detection that reveals credential misuse, lateral movement, and privilege abuse inside the perimeter.
Protect Identity Infrastructure
  • Deploy deception across AD, Entra ID, and cloud IAM to detect credential misuse before escalation.
Detect Post-Access Movement
  • Reveal attacker activity that occurs between Zero Trust policy enforcement points.
Surface Privilege Abuse
  • Catch misuse of elevated credentials and service accounts with decoys that trigger intent-based alerts.
Accelerate Zero Trust Maturity
  • Add early detection and containment to strengthen alignment with CISA and DoD Zero Trust frameworks.

Zero Trust controls access. Deception reveals intent.

Even in a Zero Trust architecture, attackers can exploit credentials and move silently once inside. Acalvio adds early, intent-driven detection that fills the visibility gap between policy enforcement points.

Read the Solution Brief

Acalvio Preemptive Cybersecurity Solutions for Zero Trust

Unauthorized Access Detection icon
Expand Threat Detection
  • Deploy traps that detect attackers by intent, not signature
  • Surface threats without needing prior TTP knowledge
Real-Time Threat Insights icon
Enhance SOC Efficiency
  • Reduce alert volume with validated deception-based alerts
  • Automate response to contain threats faster
Purple Team Validation icon
Activate Threat Hunting
  • Engage with real attacker behavior to validate hypotheses
  • Uncover hidden threats through live interaction
Detect Early APT and AI Reconnaissance icon
Detect Identity Threats (ITDR)
  • Add high-fidelity signals to catch credential misuse
  • Detect lateral movement across hybrid identity systems
Map Early Threat Activity to MITRE ATT&CK icon
Protect Unmanaged Endpoints
  • Use agentless deception for IoT, OT, and legacy devices
  • Reveal threats on systems that can’t run EDR
Insider Threats icon
Identify Insider Threats
  • Detect suspicious internal behavior before damage occurs
  • Trigger alerts with clear proof of intent and access misuse
Expand Threat Detection
Detect advanced threats without relying on known attack signatures.
  • Use decoys and lures aligned to attacker mission objectives.
  • Reveal stealthy lateral movement and identity misuse.
  • Trigger high-fidelity alerts without noisy baselining.
  • Uncover threats early in the attack path.
Enhance SOC Efficiency
Reduce noise while accelerating response.
  • Eliminate false positives with intent-driven alerts.
  • Automate isolation workflows based on verified activity.
  • Reduce manual triage with pre-correlated deception events.
  • Improve analyst focus on true positives.
Activate Threat Hunting
Actively surface hidden threats inside your environment.
  • Guide hunters to high-risk paths with deception telemetry.
  • Validate hypotheses with adversary interaction data.
  • Continuously monitor for suspicious behavior on dormant assets.
  • Enable iterative hunts based on attacker behavior.
Detect Identity Threats (ITDR)
Strengthen identity security with deception-powered detection.
  • Detect identity misuse across hybrid identity infrastructure.
  • Protect service accounts, AD credentials, and cloud IAM tokens.
  • Generate real-time alerts when credentials are probed or used.
  • Reveal privilege escalation attempts before impact.
Protect Unmanaged Endpoints
Extend visibility and detection to blind spots.
  • Detect attacks from unmanaged BYOD, IoT, and OT systems.
  • Place decoys to mimic unmanaged assets for early warning.
  • Enable coverage without requiring agents or sensors.
  • Stop threats from propagating into protected environments.
Identify Insider Threats
Expose internal misuse with high-fidelity detection.
  • Monitor for unusual access to deceptive files and shares.
  • Reveal insider intent without relying on behavior profiling.
  • Detect slow-moving data exfiltration activity.
  • Support fast, discreet investigations with concrete evidence.
The Guiding Principals of Zero Trust

Zero Trust frameworks all share common elements, which include verifying access requests, enforcing least-privilege access, continuous monitoring and assume breach. They all incorporate using the importance of threat detection and response.

Zero Trust Models
Comparison of traditional cybersecurity architecture and Zero Trust model using pillar diagrams. The left structure has five labeled pillars: Identity, Devices, Networks, Applications & Workloads, and Data, with foundational layers of Visibility and Analytics, Automation and Orchestration, and Governance. The right Zero Trust model has seven pillars: User, Devices, Apps & Workload, Data, Network & Environment, Automation & Orchestration, and Visibility & Analytics, all supporting the overarching roof labeled 'ZERO TRUST.

The DoD framework has seven pillars and the CISO model has five pillars and provides a maturity model.
DOD: Zero Trust Pillars

The DoD zero trust pillars provide the foundational areas for the DoD zero Trust Security Model and the DoD Zero Trust Architecture.
CISA: Zero Trust Maturity Model

Each pillar includes general details regarding the following cross-cutting capabilities: visibility and analytics, automation and orchestration, and governance.

Strategic Technology and Roadmap for Deception Technology and Zero Trust
Cover page of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) 2022–2026 Strategic Technology Roadmap, Version 4. Features the CISA seal, timeline buttons for technology adoption ranging from under 2 years to 5 years, and options to adopt 'Existing Deception Technology' and 'Advanced Deception Technology.' Background includes a dark theme with white network node graphics.

CISA published top recommendations in its 2022-2026 Strategic Technology Roadmap. The recommendation is to adopt Deception Technology strategies within the next two years.

Benefits of Cyber Deception in a Zero Trust Security Posture

Cyber deception improves a company’s zero trust security posture with techniques that uses decoys, traps, false credentials, and lures to mislead and confuse attackers, while detecting and responding to malicious activities.

Credential and Identity Attacks icon

Protect Identity Stores

Disrupt AI-Driven Attack Chains icon

Prevent Adversary Breakout

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Protect Sensitive Data

Living-off-the-Land and Evasion Techniques icon

Enhance Threat Detection

Detect Lateral Movement and Privilege Abuse Expose icon

Increase Attacker Costs

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Threat Hunt

Zero Trust and Preemptive Cybersecurity with Deception

Zero Trust with Cybersecurity

Detect threats that bypass identity and policy controls—without requiring prior knowledge or baselines.

Accelerate Threat Containment

Trigger high-fidelity alerts on real attacker activity and automate response to isolate threats before damage occurs.

Protect Complex, Hybrid Environments

Gain coverage across managed, unmanaged, and hard-to-monitor systems—without agents or added infrastructure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Acalvio enhances Zero Trust by adding intent-based detection between policy enforcement points—revealing credential misuse, lateral movement, and privilege abuse that identity controls may miss.

No. Acalvio integrates with your existing IAM, AD, and cloud identity systems without disrupting authentication flows or requiring changes to policies.

Yes. Deception generates high-fidelity signals based on adversary engagement—not behavior modeling or log correlation—making it ideal for environments where visibility is fragmented.

Acalvio maps directly to multiple Zero Trust pillars, including identity, visibility, analytics, and response—supporting maturity goals outlined by CISA and DoD Zero Trust frameworks.

Will this add operational complexity to my Zero Trust program? No. Acalvio’s AI-driven platform deploys deception assets intelligently and runs agentlessly—helping you gain early detection without adding overhead or noise.

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