I spent many of my childhood weekends watching Episodes IV-VI of Star Wars, the world's most famous “space opera.” Recently, it occurred to me that if the Galactic Empire had adopted a Zero Trust security model, it might have prevailed over Skywalker and the Rebels. Specifically, one could argue that the destruction of the Death Star was caused by... poor IT. Think of the Galactic Empire as the enterprise of its day: a sprawling, multi-faceted organization attempting to modernize infrastructure (how many Death Stars can they build?) and improve M&A agility (albeit a bit forcefully) while dealing with a distributed workforce, legacy technology, and a dynamic threat landscape. While your company may not face armed resistance from a Rebel Alliance, you’re certainly confronting competitors, cybercriminals, and aging infrastructure. To celebrate Star Wars Day, let’s explore the key lessons that your company can learn from the destruction of the.