Consequence-Focused Design
Apply CIE strategies first and foremost to the critical functions where cyber manipulation could result in unacceptable consequences. Use a structured and thorough process to identify where cyber attacks may result in high-consequence impacts and examine how to avoid such consequences through secure design, implementation, and operation.
Engineered Controls
Identify engineering changes and process controls early in system design to eliminate or mitigate cyber risk, reducing the need to bolt on additive IT security controls during implementation. Taken together, coordinated controls and processes are used to eliminate highconsequence cyber-enabled impacts. This requires integrating cyber experts and expertise into systems design, engineering, and modification.
Secure Information Architecture
Design information pathways to ensure data flows only in desired ways and use proper architectural controls to enforce those information flows. This limits an attacker’s ability to use the system or its information in undesired ways.
Design Simplification
Simplify the system, component, or architecture design and limit highconsequence, low-value complexity within digital functions at the outset, reducing the opportunity for attackers to misuse digital functionality. Design simplification includes reducing latent capabilities in digital systems that operators may disable or may not even be aware of, but which attackers could leverage.
Resilient Layered Defense
Assume compromise and employ a defense-in-depth strategy, reducing the opportunity for a single failure to impact critical functions or create cascading failures. This includes building in diversity, redundancy, and system hardening for adequate defense and predictable degradation during a cyber incident.
Active Defense
Employ dynamic elements in the design of systems that detect and defend against cyber threats, enabling the system to continue operating resiliently when an intruder is detected, and isolate or remove the threat without compromising critical operations.