Revealed: How the Cyber Industry Defines Secure by Design

It’s becoming increasingly clear that companies must embed Secure by Design principles into their product development processes–not just for compliance, but as a critical business requirement. The guidelines are in place for companies to identify and mitigate exploitable flaws in their products before introducing them to the market. Products built in accordance with these principles by organizations that treat these guidelines as a foundational pillar, rather than just an add-on, tend to remain ahead in this increasingly competitive market. 

But two years since the United States government’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released their Secure by Design guidelines, actual, real-world implementation is still an industry-wide puzzle we struggle to solve. We all know that these principles matter, but how can we effectively implement them at scale?

In our latest white paper, our Co-Founders, Pieter Danhieux and Dr. Matias Madou, Ph.D., sat down with over twenty enterprise security leaders, including CISOs, AppSec leaders and security professionals, to figure out the key pieces of this puzzle and uncover the reality behind the Secure by Design movement. It’s a shared ambition across the security teams, but no shared playbook. 

Discover some of the key findings:

• Most security practitioners and business leaders are on board with the idea and value of Secure by Design initiatives; however, it remains, in a way, open to interpretation, and there is no standard industry-wide approach for implementing it.

• Threat modeling isn’t just something to tick off the compliance checklist - it’s a critical, consistent practice that helps security-savvy developers and their AppSec counterparts stay ahead of risks before they become exploits. 

• The double-edged sword that is AI - AI is both a breakthrough and a potent security risk that significantly expands the attack surface. Its explosive growth introduces rapidly evolving risks that unskilled developers and under-resourced AppSec teams often struggle to mitigate.

The problem isn’t a lack of understanding of the importance of applying Secure by Design principles– if anything, the need for secure software has become a foundational need and a baseline expectation. What’s missing is a coordinated, scalable strategy to embed these principles across the software development lifecycle. 

We also seem to lack clear benchmarks or measurable outcomes for determining successful rollouts. Without these, teams are left guessing on whether their efforts are truly making an impact. For now, we seem to have a united battlefront, but no shared strategy. 

Secure by Design is essential and inevitable, and not just for high-compliance sectors. Developers must also be empowered, not burdened. When equipped with the right skills, tools and support, they inherently become not just builders – but defenders, embedding security where it matters most: at the source. 

Download now  and discover how your team can leverage powerful developer risk management strategies and precision measurement to drive a successful, unified Secure by Design initiative within the enterprise.