Rootconf 2025 Annual Conference - 16th and 17th May

Title

Platform-Led Zero Trust Service Networking for FinTech

Abstract

Imagine a world where developers simply describe their workloads—and the platform guarantees a Zero-Trust networking setup. This session shows how we built exactly that for a fintech organization, using service mesh for mTLS authentication, Istio AuthorizationPolicies for precise traffic control, and Open Policy Agent (OPA) to enforce compliance automatically and early in the delivery process.

Description

In fintech and other regulated environments, securing service-to-service and internet-bound communication is essential—but relying on teams to configure mTLS, authorization rules, and firewall policies doesn’t scale and often breaks down in practice.

In this session, we show how we built a Zero-Trust networking model into the platform itself. Developers define workloads declaratively, including the services they need to communicate with. The platform takes over from there:
– Istio enforces mTLS for service identity and encrypted communication
– Istio AuthorizationPolicies define and enforce which services are allowed to communicate—based on identity, not IP
– OPA validates compliance both at the level of declared workloads and the changelog about to be deployed, ensuring continuous and proactive enforcement

All of this is delivered through GitOps pipelines—making secure, compliant infrastructure the default without slowing down teams or increasing operational friction.

Attendees Will Learn

• How to implement Zero-Trust networking for service communication using service mesh, mTLS, and Istio AuthorizationPolicies
• How declarative workload definitions can express access intent while abstracting enforcement
• How OPA is used to validate both current state and incoming changes for continuous compliance
• How GitOps pipelines enable automated, auditable, and secure deployments
• How platform engineering eliminates manual security gates while preserving strong policy guarantees

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