Security Must Be Engineered Into the System

Traditional cybersecurity remains essential, but controls and operational defenses alone may be insufficient for high-consequence systems facing sophisticated adversaries.

Systems security engineering begins with the mission, the assets that must be protected, the consequences of their loss, and the capabilities of the adversary. Security is then engineered into the architecture—constraining privilege, information flow, functionality, trust, and the propagation of compromise.

The objective is not simply to prevent every compromise. It is to engineer systems in which compromise does not automatically become catastrophic loss.