Secure-by-Design: What It Is and Why It Matters

5 min readApr 10, 2025

Did you know that cybersecurity budgets are expected to grow by 31%, on average, over the next 12 months? Yet despite the increased investment, the volume of reported vulnerabilities continues to rise, with a 17% year-on-year growth reported in 2024. This disconnect shows that there is still work to be done in building resilient, proactive systems from the ground up.

Many organisations start their maturity journey by focusing only on compliance with industry standards (such as ISO 27001 or SOC2 Type II) to address the gap in building a resilient and proactive system. Whilst this is still good, these standards are generic in describing a set of controls. Cybersecurity initiatives can quickly become ‘tick box’ exercises that distract from the original goals for improving your organisation’s cyber resilience. Secure by Design concepts are promising way to address this challenge in a much efficient and long lasting way, specifically by focusing on Architecture and Design, as core enablers.

However, these two concepts are frequently conflated, even though they serve different roles. Architecture defines the blueprint, including compliance, while design implements the necessary tools and configurations.

Secure by Design

Secure-by-Design comes into effect by starting with the fundamentals– What are the most important assets? How do you protect them and how do you ensure security is embedded across changes made to those assets? How do you focus on embedding security into your existing workflows and ways of working to reduce the friction in adopting more rigorous cybersecurity measures? These are some of many questions that need addressing while adopting secure by design.

We can safely say that, Secure by Design is the process of embedding cybersecurity risk management across project delivery and release frameworks. There are two elements that play a crucial role in Secure by Design adoption: Design and Architecture. However, It is important to understand the subtle differences between both to make the best out of it.

The Role of Design and Architecture

It’s easy to conflate architecture and design when we think about cybersecurity. Both are essential in building resilient systems. However, they are distinct concepts with unique areas of focus that occur at different layers of decision-making.

Here are four key ways in which design and architecture differ in their roles and yet are complementary to each other:

1. Strategic vs. Tactical Focus

Security Architecture is strategic. It defines the high-level structure of a secure system and sets the guiding principles. Think of how a real estate architect designs a blueprint for a house. They define the number of floors, where the walls go, and how the rooms connect. Similarly, cybersecurity architecture addresses big-picture concerns like network segmentation, identity management frameworks, or incident response planning.
Security Design, on the other hand, is tactical. It takes those high-level principles and makes them actionable. Think of it as the role of an interior designer, who works with the architect’s blueprint to add and arrange elements for a functional living space. In cybersecurity, this means choosing specific encryption protocols, firewall configurations, or authentication mechanisms.

2. Abstract vs. Concrete

Architecture operates at an abstract level. It is technology-agnostic and built to serve long-term security goals.
Design is more grounded. It translates those architectural concepts into concrete implementations. While architecture might call for multi-factor authentication, design decides whether that means biometrics, security tokens, or SMS codes.

3. Adaptability vs. Specification

Architectural choices are typically long-lasting. A zero-trust model, for example, remains relevant despite changes in underlying technologies.
Design choices are more flexible and often need to adapt as new threats emerge or technologies evolve. Think about how firewall rules or endpoint detection settings may require frequent updates.

4. Big Picture vs. Component Level

Architecture focuses on the system as a whole. It addresses how components interact, prioritizes security goals, and accounts for long-term evolution.
Design zooms into individual components. It ensures that specific parts of the system are configured optimally and securely.

These differences explain why it’s important to consciously integrate design into your architecture. When I talk about secure-by-design, I present the idea that even the best architecture will fail if businesses don’t implement it properly.

A well-designed cybersecurity architecture:

Supports a resilient system capable of withstanding and recover from complex attacks
Enables a higher level of regulatory compliance
Reduces the risk of breaches by ensuring confidentiality and integrity
Boosts customer satisfaction by demonstrating a commitment to better security practices

As cyber threats continue to evolve, it’s essential for organizations to adopt a secure-by-design approach. Wider awareness of this framework will result in increased adoption, leading to more robust security systems. I believe that the community, including you, can play a key role in building industry awareness around secure-by-design.

The Power of Community-Led Initiatives

A secure-by-design mindset can only scale through community and industry awareness and collective action. Here’s how you can help support this transformation across the industry:

Encourage adoption in your organization. If you’re a security leader, integrate security patterns in workflows across processes and stage gates. If you’re a developer, consider learning about robust security practices and sharing them with your team. Regardless of your place in the hierarchy, you can push the needle toward cyber preparedness.
Share your knowledge and expertise. Perhaps you recently implemented security patterns in your organization. Or you might have suggestions for building awareness in your region. Contribute your insights through case studies or blogs that inform and inspire relevant stakeholders in the space.
Become an active advocate. Awareness begins with discourse. Discuss security patterns in your professional circles, meetups, or even on social media. Each conversation brings us one step closer to better security practices.
Drive change through government initiatives. If you’re a policymaker, consider engaging with regulators and auditors to include security patterns in compliance requirements. This will reinforce their importance and encourage widespread adoption in your region.

Final Thoughts

We can’t ignore design when we attempt to build resilient and secure systems. While the architecture defines the blueprint, effective design transforms it into a practical and reusable system to resolve a range of security issues. Spreading awareness around the value of a secure-by-design approach will empower more organizations to strengthen their cybersecurity systems.

Who is Deepayan?

Deepayan is a visionary cybersecurity expert and Fractional CTO (Cybersecurity) at MISSION+. With an extensive track record in safeguarding digital assets, he uses innovative strategies, architecture practices, effective governance models and resilient defences to tackle evolving cyber threats. If you’d like to learn more about the secure-by-design principle and how your organization can benefit from it, feel free to connect with Deepayan at hello@mission.plus.

References

Chanda, D., Fitzpatrick, K., & Moeun, M. (2024, July 19). Building Industry Awareness for Security Patterns. Whitepapers by Patterned Security. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7221295459863076864/

Chanda, D. (2024, 10 16). Building Secure Solutions: Why Design Is Crucial in Cybersecurity Architecture. Patterned Security. https://www.patternedsecurity.com/post/building-secure-solutions-why-design-is-crucial-in-cybersecurity-architecture