Security by design: How to make cybersecurity-friendly user experiences compatible?

In a digital world where cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated, companies are adopting a more proactive approach to protecting your systems and data. 

Security by design emerges as a Key strategy for integrating cybersecurity from the earliest stages of digital product and service development. 

However, this approach is not without its challenges, especially when it comes to supporting user-friendly user experiences (UX) and coordinating teams with diverse functions.

In some organizations, there are even leaders who believe that UX and security are opposites. But it is quite the opposite. 

It's not necessary to be on opposite sides. The practice that any technology development company should follow today is what is known in cybersecurity as security by design.

According to Salvador Vial, Principal Executive Security Advisor and Field CISO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), if an organizational culture includes security by design in all its processes, Cybersecurity factors will be included in the user experience roadmap.

However, there is a discussion among leaderships about how to implement security by design with separate teams performing both functions. 

So, many coordination, leadership, and communication issues arise to resolve. 

But the methodology exists, and the key lies in how to put this strategy into practice.

To that end, in this article we explain what security by design is and how to implement it from a leadership perspective.

Current events: impact of security on design

Unsafe design is classified as the fourth critical web application security concern in the Open Web Application Security Project. 

He OWASP Top 10 It is a standard awareness document for web application security and developers. It represents a broad consensus on the most critical security risks to web applications.

In order to take into account the degree of threat, In 2023, a total of 26,447 critical vulnerabilities were disclosed., exceeding the previous year by more than 1,500. 

What is security by design?

Security by design is an approach that incorporates cybersecurity principles from the beginning of the development of a system, application or digital infrastructure. 

This concept involves designing digital products with natively built-in security, minimizing vulnerabilities from the outset.

Key principles of security by design include:

• Privilege minimization. Limit access and permissions to those strictly necessary.
• Defense in depth. Implement multiple layers of security to mitigate risks.
• Default security. Configure systems securely by default, without relying on the user to modify settings.
• Robust identity and access management. Use of multi-factor authentication and data encryption.
• Continuous monitoring. Rapid threat detection and response.

This approach not only reduces the risk of cyber attacks, but also reduces long-term costs, by avoiding costly fixes and reputational damage from security incidents.

Differences between security by design and security by default

The term security by design is often confused with security by default. 

They are two different elements, but complementary, to a comprehensive security strategy.

This is highlighted in the whitepaper Building Security from the Ground up with Secure by Design, from AWS, prepared by Eric Johnson, Bertram Dorn and Paul Vixie.

In the document, the following distinction is made:

• Security by default it's a user-centered approach. Indicates the default configuration of a product It is secure from the start and resistant to common exploitation techniques, without the need for additional security configuration.
• Security by design It is a developer-centric approach. It goes beyond the implementation of standard security measures to assess and address risks and vulnerabilities at each stage of the development life cycle (from design to implementation and maintenance), rather than reacting after the fact.

Both ensure that security is inherent and work to: 

• Establish a solid foundation for proactive security.
• Building trust with customers.
• Increasing the level of difficulty for threat actors seeking to exploit products and systems.

Security by design (SbD) offers greater flexibility to help protect resources and resist threats that originate outside the system's architectural components. 

It also allows you to use products with different options and configurations, so the result is tailored to your risk tolerance level.

With security by design, they assure from AWS, the The safety of the architectural components surrounding the products cannot be altered without changing their fundamental design or configuration.. 

SbD principles can be applied to components ranging from IT workloads to services, microservices, libraries and more.

Another way to consider security by design is to consider the topology of a space, such as a house. 

An SbD configuration should have only closed, finite rooms within the configuration space (house), which do not allow access to an infinite space (outside the house) except through well-defined and carefully controlled entry and exit points. 

This lack of configuration space options makes for greater.

When the software is in the cloud, security by design helps eliminate access points. 

Identity and access management (IAM) is your first line of defense, as incorrect IAM configurations can lead to misconfigurations and insecure use in other environments. 

How to make a user-friendly UX compatible with cybersecurity?

One of the most common challenges when implementing security by design is achieving a balance between protection and usability. 

This is especially important, considering that many times the measures of cybersecurity They can be perceived as barriers that affect the user experience, generating frustration and even discouraging use.

However, best practices in user experience (UX) design and security can coexist to offer safe and accessible solutions.

• Frictionless authenticationMethods such as biometric authentication or single sign-on (SSO) facilitate access without compromising security.

• Intuitive and educational designClear interfaces that explain the importance of certain security measures help users adopt good practices without feeling overwhelmed.

• Transparency in security. Unobtrusive yet informative notifications about critical actions reinforce user confidence.

• Adaptive approach. Systems that adjust security levels based on the risk detected (for example, requiring additional authentication only in suspicious contexts).

User experience and security: opposites or complementary?

A Well-designed security, does not interrupt the user experience, but rather integrates seamlessly into their daily interactions.

However, some organizations still view security and user experience as conflicting objectives, even though they are actually complementary. 

A system that doesn't prioritize security can lead to data breaches and loss of trust, negatively impacting user perception.

Leading technology companies demonstrated that a well-designed user experience can not only be secure, but can also improve user perception of the brand. 

Users value feeling protected, as long as security does not involve excessively complex processes.

If organizations adopt security by design throughout their processes, cybersecurity factors will be naturally integrated into the user experience roadmap, without one affecting the other.

The challenge of coordination: security by design in organizational culture

One of the main challenges in implementing security by design is that, in practice, UX/UI teams and security operate separately, with different objectives and methodologies:

• The user experience teams They seek to simplify and optimize user interaction with the system.
• The cybersecurity teams prioritize threat protection, which can sometimes translate into additional restrictions.

This clash of perspectives can generate friction if effective coordination, leadership, and communication mechanisms are not established. 

To resolve it, the following aspects are essential.

• Encourage collaboration from the start: UX and security teams should work together from the design phase, rather than acting as separate departments.

• Define common standards: create clear guidelines on how security will be integrated without affecting usability.

• Include security as part of the organizational culture: It should not be seen as a technical obligation, but as a core value within the company.

• Form the teams: train both designers and security experts on the importance of finding a balance between the two approaches.

• Appoint integration leaders: profiles that facilitate communication between teams and align UX and cybersecurity strategies.

Principles of security by design

According to the US National Cyber Security Center (CISA), products designed with the principles of safety by design prioritize customer safety as a fundamental business requirement, rather than considering it simply a technical feature. 

The organization maintains that during the design phase of a product's development lifecycle, companies must implement security-by-design principles. 

The objective is significantly reduce the number of vulnerabilities exploitable before marketing it for general use or consumption. 

The organization warns that the products must be factory safe with additional security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), registration and single sign-on (SSO), and available at no additional cost.

A Well-designed security, does not interrupt the user experience, but rather integrates seamlessly into their daily interactions.

The Three principles of security by design published by CISA are the following:

1. Take responsibility for the results customer safety and develop the product accordingly. 

The responsibility for safety should not fall solely on the customer.

2. Adopt radical levels of transparency and accountabilitySoftware manufacturers must pride themselves on offering secure and protected products. Furthermore, they must differentiate themselves from the rest of the manufacturing community through their ability to do so. 

This may include sharing information they learn from their customers' implementations, such as the adoption of strong authentication mechanisms by default. 

It also entails a firm commitment to ensuring that vulnerability advisories and associated Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) logs are complete and accurate. 

However, CISA warns that we must be careful with the temptation to consider CVEs as a negative metric., as these numbers are also an indicator of a strong code testing and analysis community.

3. Build organizational structure and leadership to achieve these objectives.

While technical expertise in the field is critical to product security, senior executives are the primary decision-makers responsible for implementing change in an organization.

Leaders must prioritize security as a critical element of product development across the organization and in collaboration with customers.

Benefits of security by design 

A security-by-design approach establishes a solid foundation that reduces risks and offers security benefits for your development teams and your business.

Some of the main advantages are detailed below.

1. Scalability

Operations within a secure-by-design configuration allow for rapid scaling without repeating security configurations. 

This is especially beneficial in environments where demand cannot be accurately predicted in advance. 

2. Repeatability

Having prepared spaces also allows for quick configuration repetition. 

With a security-by-design approach, you can create products and services designed to be secure through a repeatable mechanism that can strengthen the development lifecycle.

Agility

While development teams may be concerned about the access and resource limitations associated with a security-by-design approach, agility within a closed space can be greater in the long run. 

When an environment is designed with security in mind, developers within the SbD setup do not need to rethink security configuration and can focus on their areas of expertise. 

By integrating security into development practices, organizations can become more agile, resilient, and responsive to threats.

Sustainability

A strong approach to security by design includes built-in feedback loops using detection controls that facilitate sustainabilityThis allows them to analyze data and leverage information to improve the security of their products, services, or processes. 

If the design considers future technological developments, such as changes in cryptography, for example, tracking them should be possible by design. 

This results in products and services with a longer lifespan, with potentially fewer changes and iterations, and a stable interaction surface.

Handling

Manageability features such as logging, reporting, and data collection for compliance purposes can usually be integrated into the design and do not require redesign. 

The included preventative controls will automatically generate the data needed to keep your IT workload under control. 

A pre-built operational configuration for compute instances, for example, can include backup and restore, logging, access management, patch management, inventory management, and telemetry data that are automatically deployed. 

Today, it is possible to orchestrate these tasks using automated systems and document them with detection controls.

Automation: Your support for security by design

As explained in the aforementioned whitepaper, there are two areas of automation related to security-by-design workloads. 

Both are important to maintain safe and healthy configurations.

1. Preventive controls

They ensure that configurations can only be deployed in a safe, design-defined mode.

The pipelines of continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) that help automate the software delivery process contribute substantially to SbD environments.

They include a comprehensive set of checks that must be run (such as firewall settings, operating system settings, libraries used, security patches, and software components used) before deploying a target configuration.

1. Detection systems

They can identify non-conforming components or configurations. 

Misconfigurations should generally not occur in SbD configurations, as they are largely prevented by design and preventive controls in implementation. 

Conclusion

Security by design is a cybersecurity trend that is transforming the way companies develop digital products. 

Rather than being an obstacle, security can be integrated naturally into the user experience, building trust and minimizing risk.

The main challenge is not only technical, but also organizational: Getting UX and cybersecurity teams to work together, aligning objectives and methodologies. 

With a collaborative approach and an organizational culture that values security by design, companies can deliver solutions that are both secure and user-friendly.

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