How can you align product development with your organization's security and privacy strategy?

Your security organization can be a strategic asset when the leadership sets an expectation from the c-suite that it is a consultative resource to the organization. Include a security team member either from internal security or include dedicated security team members in your engineering composition. Use threat modeling as part of the design process. Yes there are formal ways to do that but it doesn't have to be complicated: ask "how this can go wrong or be misued?" Use that exercise to prioritize the most likely risks, and also list privacy or market requirements as design requirements. Set a test case during design to prepare for these requirements.

Make security a shared cross-functional priority through collaborative practices like threat modeling, secure design reviews, and privacy impact assessments; integrate security champions within agile teams; leverage automation, infrastructure-as-code, and DevSecOps workflows to shift security left; continuously assess and address risks across the product lifecycle - strategy, design, build, test, deploy, operate.

- Identify and analyze potential security and privacy risks. - Consider regulatory compliance, data flow, data classification, threat modeling, and impact assessment. Example: Before developing a health app, assess the risk of exposing sensitive medical information and ensure compliance with HIPAA regulations

Adopt privacy and security by design principles to architect minimal, encrypted data flows and access controls into core product capabilities from inception; conduct regular threat modeling and data mapping exercises to evolve protections in tandem with features; leverage infrastructure-as-code and immutable infrastructure to rapidly scale secure environments; automate validation of controls through security testing pipelines.

One way of doing this is adding security capabilities as user stories of dedicated business value. Where privacy or security obligations are required to enter a market, use either the cost avoidance for non compliance or the unlocked TAM as the value for user story prioritization. We can also learn from automotive design in progress for Model Year 26. With European regulations derived from UN Working Party 29 on cybersecurity in connected vehicles, the industry as a whole can learn how to test here security and privacy are implicated by non security features. Functions for telemetry and maintenance must be designed in view of assuming a hostile environment.

- Make security and privacy core design principles. - Implement security by design, privacy by design, and regular testing throughout development. - Incorporate security and privacy from the start, such as encryption and access controls. Example: When designing a mobile payment app, ensure that transactions are encrypted and user data is protected right from the app's foundation.

Foster a culture of shared accountability through cross-functional security and privacy training, policies, and standards; establish clear security and privacy roles and processes for incident response, oversight, and audits; shift left on validation via automated compliance checks, penetration testing, and privacy review boards; take an adaptive approach to leverage automation, avoid checklist mentality, and continuously improve protections.

- Develop clear policies and codes of conduct. - Provide training, establish a governance structure, create incident response plans, and conduct audits. Example: Create a policy that restricts employee access to customer data and train staff on handling sensitive information. Have an incident response plan in place in case of a data breach.

- Continuously monitor your product and its environment. - Collect and analyze feedback and data to identify and address issues. - Stay informed about the latest security and privacy trends and best practices. Example: Regularly update your app to address new security vulnerabilities or privacy regulations, maintaining its safety and compliance.

Operating a security management program requires an effective feedback mechanism. That feedback should have appropriate channels for feedback from field use which needs to drive action - a Product Security Incident Response Team. This capability should include a well developed plan for addressing real time feedback, prioritizing engineering changes or updates, and guiding future development through an effective lessons learned education model. The team also needs strategic input channels from industry stakeholders, including product manager engagement, customer feedback or surveys, and observing news or emerging issues to identify risk changes over time.