Secure by Design

As America’s Cyber Defense Agency, CISA is charged with defending our nation against ever-evolving cyber threats and to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every hour of every day. But, as we introduce more unsafe technology to our lives, this has become increasingly difficult.  

As a nation, we have allowed a system where the cybersecurity burden is placed disproportionately on the shoulders of consumers and small organizations and away from the producers of the technology and those developing the products that increasingly run our digital lives. Americans need a new model to address the gaps in cybersecurity—a model where consumers can trust the safety and integrity of the technology that they use every day.

Every technology provider must take ownership at the executive level to ensure their products are secure by design.

What it Means to Be Secure by Design 

Secure by Design products are those where the security of the customers is a core business requirement, not just a technical feature. Secure by Design principles should be implemented during the design phase of a product’s development lifecycle to dramatically reduce the number of exploitable flaws before they are introduced to the market for broad use or consumption. Products should be secure to use out of the box, with secure configurations enabled by default and security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), logging, and single sign on (SSO) available at no additional cost.

Intro Video

Bob Lord, Senior Technical Advisor and Jack Cable, Senior Technical Advisor discuss why it's time to build cybersecurity into the design and manufacture of technology products.

Read our Secure by Design White Paper:

Government cannot solve this problem alone. Technology manufacturers must increasingly embrace their role in putting consumer safety first. Technology providers and software developers must take the first step to shift this burden by claiming ownership of their customers’ security outcomes.