Have you heard the saying, “If you are going to do something, do it right the first time”? That adage certainly applies to cybersecurity. Designing and implementing new technologies, architectures, and processes can be complex, time-consuming, and costly: the last thing you want to do is spend even more time doubling back to retrofit modifications for overlooked security and privacy requirements.
How to address this? Security by design and privacy by design provide the answers. These aren’t just buzz phrases – these are essential best practices that will help you architect solutions that provide the right level of security from the ground up. Best practices that reduce your cyber risk while saving you time and money in the long run.
Today we explore some of the principles of security by design and privacy by design, and how you can implement them before you kick off your next project.
Proactive Defense
Here’s another cyber adage for you: “Attackers only have to get it right once, but defenders have to get it right every time.” Before you hit production, it’s critical to consider issues like vulnerability management, patch management, and access controls. Fundamental issues like overly permissive configurations and unpatched software must be addressed before going live. Security concerns need to be on the table right from the first kickoff meeting, and appropriate measures need to be considered and baked in throughout the entire development process.
One way your organization can support secure design strategies from project inception is by using a security checklist during initial discussions. Using a standardized checklist can help identify any areas of concern, as well as foster discussions about how key components will work together or may be incompatible. Items to include on the checklist can range from required ports and firewall rules to access controls and retention policies. What’s on your security checklist?
A perhaps unexpected side benefit of this analysis is in the area of business continuity planning and testing. Considering what could go wrong with a system during the build process helps you design solutions that are more resilient from the ground up – and provide a catalogue of areas to probe during tabletop and live tests.
Secure Design
Secure design isn’t just about coding and vulnerability patching. While a secure software development lifecycle is important, secure architecture design and network controls play a large role in your network’s security posture. Whether you’re deploying a new feature to your website or mobile application or you’re connecting a vendor-managed device to your network, you should be thinking about how these applications and devices will interact with the rest of your network. How they interact and what connections need to be allowed will determine how you modify your firewall rules, segment traffice from the rest of the network, and define who should have permission to access the application or devices. Restricting access from the start to only what and who needs it helps reduce possible attack vectors and may help limit the scope of future compliance audits. This is the essence of a “least privilege” approach.
Invest the time up front. By going through the exercise of considering worst-case scenarios and designing and securing systems to address them in advance, you will spend much less time scrambling to re-work things after the fact. It’s the same concept as in building a house: would you like to live in a structure that was ready quickly, or would you rather ensure that the builders take the time to develop blueprints, accurate measurements, and use high-quality materials? Sure, the first option might have you move in sooner, but chances are you will need to fix and replace things sooner than anticipated. Baking security concepts into your design from the beginning may not deliver the end product as quickly, but it will undoubtedly save your organization time and money in the long term.
Consider Compliance from the Beginning
By taking the time to thoughtfully design networks and applications, your organization can save itself countless hours of meetings and re-engineering solutions to reach compliance in the future. Consider PCI compliance as an example – any device or application that stores, transmits, or otherwise processes payment card information is considered in scope for a PCI audit. Knowing that requirement in advance will help you make better strategic decisions in terms of network design, network segmentation, log collection, and so forth. If you build a new system to support your point-of-sale terminals without using a security and privacy lens, you will almost certainly face time-consuming retrofits afterwards. Containing the scope of audit through informed system and network design can actually save you time and money – which provides even more justification for planning ahead. Taking security and privacy into consideration in advance might even give you the information you need to make outsourcing decisions. If you cannot achieve the required levels of security and privacy control necessary to meet regulatory requirements, it may be prudent to work with a partner to provide those services. To extend our PCI example, it may make sense to engage a payment processing service rather than try to build your own system to achieve the same goal.
PCI compliance is a great example, but certainly not the only one. Consider SOC 2 compliance. More and more organizations are required to comply with strict regulatory and reporting requirements. In some cases, they are demanding that suppliers are SOC 2 compliant, and are able to confirm that they have the logical and physical access controls to mitigate unauthorized access, risk detection and mitigation, and data protection, among other requirements. It’s essential to consider whether a new tool, service, or application you are acquiring will create any compliance issues. These issues must be addressed in advance, either by using proactive design principles or using strategic outsourcing to partner with companies that have the resources to maintain SOC 2 compliance.
Optics and Reputation
There is an additional, qualitative benefit to practicing “security from the start,” which is the trust that comes with a solid reputation. That reputation can be built from providing secure, reliable services and from spending more time innovating your business rather than revising your existing setup. While the exact benefits may not be quantifiable, the potential business partnerships and additional customer value that comes with protecting customer and internal data certainly add up. The financial pain and goodwill lost by suffering a cybersecurity incident or falling victim to a ransomware attack can be devastating.
Protect Tomorrow… Today
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, ensuring security by design is not just an option – it’s a necessity. Don’t wait for a breach to highlight vulnerabilities in your systems: proactively protect your business, your data, and your reputation by integrating robust cybersecurity measures from the ground up. Employ the best practices of security by design.
Our team of experts is here to help you navigate the complexities of cybersecurity architecture, compliance. and design. Whether you’re start from scratch or enhancing existing systems, we can provide guidance or tailored solutions to meet your unique needs. Contact us today to learn more.
