Towards Zero Trust Architecture: A Pilot Study on Information Systems Security Readiness amongst Small and Medium Enterprises

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security [Submitted on 17 May 2026] Towards Zero Trust Architecture: A Pilot Study on Information Systems Security Readiness amongst Small and Medium Enterprises Yu Deng, Anushia Inthiran Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face growing cyber threats but often lack the resources and expertise needed to adopt Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA). This pilot study examines the drivers and barriers shaping SME perceptions of ZTA necessity and proposes an exploratory staged adoption path. Survey data from 64 IT and security professionals in the Asia-Pacific region show that ZTA familiarity and cloud-computing needs are the strongest positive correlates of perceived necessity, whereas accumulated barriers show only a weak negative association. Identity and access management complexity and scalability emerge as the main implementation hurdles. Based on these findings, we propose a three-stage route for SMEs: strengthening identity governance, segmenting high-value assets, and introducing targeted monitoring in line with operational capacity. The study offers early evidence for more realistic Zero Trust transitions in resource-constrained firms. Comments: 16 pages, 2 figures, 8 tables. Accepted at PACIS 2026 Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR); Computers and Society (cs.CY) ACM classes: K.6.5; K.4.1 Cite as: arXiv:2605.18901 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2605.18901v1 [cs.CR] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.18901 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Yu Deng [view email] [v1] Sun, 17 May 2026 13:02:21 UTC (505 KB) Access Paper: view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: cs cs.CY References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)