What is Security by Design?

Security by design is an approach to cybersecurity that enables an organization to automate its data security controls and formalize the design of its infrastructure so it can build security into its IT management processes. 

Security by design focuses on preventing a cybersecurity breach rather than repairing the issue and restoring systems after a company has been hit by a cybersecurity breach. 

Also known as secure by design, security by design means that companies think about cybersecurity at the beginning of a project. Secure by design means that software engineers have designed the software to be secure from the outset so as to reduce the likelihood of flaws that might compromise a company’s information security.

An effective approach to cybersecurity risk management requires a complete cybersecurity lifecycle perspective. The security lifecycle is similar to the product development lifecycle as it starts with an idea and ends with delivery and support. Security by design ensures that an organization continually manages, monitors, and maintains cybersecurity risk governance and management.

Although the security-by-design approach to system design isn’t new, the cloud has made it easier for software developers to execute security by design. In fact, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is actively promoting the approach and formalizing it for cloud customers. 

The security-by-design approach enables companies to design and automate their AWS environments with reliably coded security and governance. Security-by-design techniques also allow organizations to extend their cybersecurity capabilities for real-time governance, risk, and compliance reporting.

Security by design summarizes the responsibilities for the security controls, cybersecurity configuration, the automation of security baselines, and the end-user audit of security controls for AWS customer infrastructure, operating systems, services, and applications running in AWS, according to Amazon Web Services.

Secure by design is important for developing software and hardware because it becomes more difficult to add security as a system develops. In addition, dealing with existing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and patching them in real-time can be difficult. And it will never be as effective as designing systems to be as secure as possible from the beginning.

The security-by-design approach is also important in the rapidly-evolving world of the Internet of Things (IoT). One of the main challenges for IoT security is that typically organizations haven’t considered security when it comes to designing and manufacturing connected appliances and objects. 

Therefore, as IoT continues to expand and more connected devices proliferate in the Industrial Internet of Things, it’s crucial that companies put tighter security in place by implementing an effective cybersecurity approach, such as security by design.