You're starting from scratch on a new system design. How do you prioritize security features effectively?

Before diving into security features, start with a thorough risk assessment. Identify the most sensitive data and critical systems that could be targets for threats. For instance, in a healthcare app handling patient records, focus on personal info, medical histories, and payment details. Consider the potential impact of breaches, like privacy violations and regulatory fines. This helps to prioritize key areas for robust security measures, such as encryption, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring, ensuring your system is well-protected from the start.

Once risks are identified, it's important to define the security needs for different parts of the system. Not everything requires the same level of protection. For instance, an e-commerce site might only need basic security for public product pages but high-level measures like encryption for payment processing. Similarly, a social media app may have moderate security for user profiles but strong encryption for private messages. By setting the right security level for each component, resources are used efficiently, protecting the most critical areas without overloading less sensitive parts.

A security system is like a slice of cheese, with each layer being a slice of it. You see, each slice has a few holes. This reminds me that a single layer of security is never enough. Additionally, make sure to protect system logs. Hackers always try to delete them after an attack because system logs are extremely important for investigations.

Discussing perspectives! As a grandfather to navel equipment with great success, my words are more philosophical to perfection. That is, know what your customer wants!! Don’t assume requirements, don’t make improvements before understanding all requirements for what the device is supposed to do in its functionality. Then document all the environment the said device may be functioning in or stored in. As a systems engineer to designing a robust device, you need be a Lawyer First to comprehend, analyze, document all the requirements of operation! Upon agreement with your customer and your manufacturer’s production process abilities and knowledge of all out of the ordinary processes and requirements are agreed with, then begin your design.