Complete I.T. Blog

Security by Design

by | Jul 12, 2022 | Cyber Security

The most effective tools in this world are created with a purpose, through strategic planning, designing and refining. For example, when you look at a medieval castle, visually, you can see that it was built and designed with a very specific purpose. To protect its occupants from attack.

Naturally, that’s not the only purpose of the castle. It is a self-sustained town, it contains farms, amenities, shops and housing. But despite the huge variety of uses, it was designed and built from the ground up to be a fortress. Again, just from looking at it, you know that the owner of that castle cared about the security and protection of their kingdom. This is a prime example of security by design and there are many examples of this in the world.

What is Security by Design?

Within the world of IT, when we talk about security by design, we’re talking about a product or service that has been built from the ground up with the user or companies security in mind – whether its primary use is security or not.

With the castle analogy, the security aspect is something you can physically see, but with IT products and services, the level of protection is not always immediately obvious, so a level of due diligence is required when looking at new things for your business.

Why is Security by Design so important?

By making something from the ground up with security in mind, it means two things:

There should be no compromise when it comes to security

In the design phase, security is always a consideration and a priority. This gives the assurance that the product or service is as secure as it can be.
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The organisation understands the importance of security

If security is a priority within their products, its very likely that they are a security-conscious organisation which provides reassurance to their partners and clients/prospective clients.
At Complete I.T., our clients’ security is always at the top of the agenda. All of our offerings are developed with security as a priority. Whether that is building custom services or performing due diligence on our partners and their products.

You should always make sure you are doing your due diligence when it comes to looking at software and services for your organisation. It is your responsibility to ensure all aspects of your supply chain are making security a priority. An easy way to verify this is to check if your suppliers have any security assessment certifications, with the most popular being the Cyber Essentials certification.

If you are also part of a supply chain it is well worth looking into getting the cyber essentials certification yourself and showing how seriously you take not only your security, but the security of your customers.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your approach to cyber security and we will happily advise you on the steps you can take.