Cyber Wiki Topic 07
Security Architecture & Engineering
Secure design, layered defenses, Zero Trust, resilience, and engineering tradeoffs.
Topic Directory
69 entries
AI Guardrail Engineering
AI guardrail engineering implements enforceable limits around model inputs, outputs, tools, data, and operating conditions.
AI execution security · AdvancedAI Sandboxing and Isolation
AI sandboxing confines generated code, tools, files, and network activity to a restricted environment with limited authority and lifetime.
AI architecture · AdvancedAI Shared-Responsibility Mapping
AI shared-responsibility mapping assigns control duties across model providers, cloud platforms, application teams, data owners, users, and oversight functions.
AI security architecture · IntermediateAI System Trust Boundaries
AI system trust boundaries identify where data, instructions, identities, models, tools, and authority cross between components or organizations.
ATT&CK mitigation profile · IntermediateApplication Isolation and Sandboxing (M1048)
Confine untrusted applications, content, and workloads so compromise has limited access to the host, identities, data, and adjacent services. This original Bare Metal Cyber profile explains implementation, validation, evidence, failure modes, ownership, and responsible use with ATT&CK.
Architecture artifact · IntermediateArchitecture Decision Records
An architecture decision record captures an important design choice, its context, alternatives, rationale, consequences, and current status.
Architecture governance concept · IntermediateArchitecture Principles and Guardrails
Architecture principles express enduring decision preferences, while guardrails define practical boundaries within which teams can design and deliver.
Decision analysis practice · AdvancedArchitecture Trade-Off Analysis
Architecture trade-off analysis compares design options across security, mission, cost, performance, usability, resilience, complexity, and lifecycle consequences.
Exposure management · IntermediateAttack Surface Management
Attack surface management identifies and tracks the systems, services, identities, data paths, and external dependencies that an attacker could reach or influence.
Privileged access architecture · AdvancedBastion Host Architecture
Bastion-host architecture creates a controlled administrative entry point with hardened access, strong identity, session oversight, and limited paths to protected systems.
Service management · IntermediateCardholder Data Environment
The cardholder data environment includes the people, processes, and technologies that store, process, or transmit cardholder data or sensitive authentication data, together with connected or security-impacting components in scope.
Availability pattern · IntermediateCloud Load Balancing and Auto Scaling
Cloud load balancing distributes traffic across healthy service instances, while auto scaling adjusts capacity according to demand, schedules, or operational signals.
Reliability practice · AdvancedCloud Reliability and Fault Domains
Cloud reliability engineering identifies failure modes and distributes components across independent fault domains so services can continue or recover within defined objectives.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateConfiguration Management (PR.PS-01) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.PS-01 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Configuration management practices are established and applied.
Privacy engineering · IntermediateData Flow Mapping for Privacy
Privacy data-flow mapping traces personal data from collection through transformation, use, storage, disclosure, archival, and deletion across trust and jurisdictional boundaries.
Data protection control · IntermediateData Loss Prevention
Data loss prevention identifies and controls sensitive information as it moves through endpoints, networks, applications, cloud services, and storage locations.
ATT&CK mitigation profile · IntermediateData Loss Prevention (M1057)
Identify and constrain unauthorized movement, disclosure, or handling of sensitive information across endpoints, networks, applications, and cloud services. This original Bare Metal Cyber profile explains implementation, validation, evidence, failure modes, ownership, and responsible use with ATT&CK.
Resilient architecture · AdvancedDatabase High-Availability Architecture
Database high-availability architecture uses redundancy, health detection, quorum, replication, and controlled failover to keep data services within agreed availability objectives.
Security principle · BeginnerDefense in Depth
Defense in depth uses overlapping controls across people, process, technology, and physical environments to reduce the impact of any single weakness.
Architecture practice · IntermediateDetection by Design
Detection by design makes required telemetry, time integrity, identity context, sensor placement, retention, alerting, and investigation access explicit architecture requirements.
Architecture practice · AdvancedEnterprise Security Architecture
Enterprise security architecture aligns security capabilities, patterns, standards, and decision rules across business services and technology portfolios.
Design principle · IntermediateFail-Safe and Fail-Secure Design
Fail-safe and fail-secure design determines how a system behaves when components, dependencies, communications, or controls fail.
Systems engineering practice · AdvancedFunctional Analysis and Allocation
Functional analysis identifies what a system must do and allocates those functions and security responsibilities to people, processes, hardware, software, data, and external services.
Requirements engineering concept · IntermediateFunctional and Nonfunctional Security Requirements
Functional security requirements describe required security behavior, while nonfunctional requirements set qualities such as assurance, performance, resilience, usability, and maintainability.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateGenerate and Provide Log Records (PR.PS-04) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.PS-04 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Log records are generated and made available for continuous monitoring.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateHardware Maintenance and Removal (PR.PS-03) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.PS-03 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Hardware is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk.
System assurance concept · AdvancedHigh-Assurance Systems
A high-assurance system is engineered to provide unusually strong confidence that critical security and safety properties hold in its intended environment.
Architecture concept · IntermediateHybrid Architecture Trust Boundaries
Hybrid architecture trust boundaries identify where identity, administration, data, network, and service trust crosses on-premises, cloud, partner, SaaS, and third-party environments.
Network architecture · AdvancedHybrid Network Architecture
Hybrid network architecture connects on-premises, cloud, edge, remote, and third-party environments through explicitly designed zones, routes, identities, controls, and failure domains.
Enterprise strategy · AdvancedHybrid and Multicloud Strategy
Hybrid cloud combines cloud services with on-premises or edge environments, while multicloud uses services from more than one cloud provider.
Defensive architecture method · IntermediateMITRE ATT&CK® Mitigations and Defensive Design
How ATT&CK mitigation objects can inform layered control design while avoiding the false assumption that one mitigation universally stops a technique.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateMaintain Resource Capacity (PR.IR-04) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.IR-04 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Adequate resource capacity to ensure availability is maintained.
Zero Trust architecture · AdvancedMicrosegmentation Governance
Microsegmentation governance defines how fine-grained workload communication policies are designed, approved, deployed, monitored, and maintained as applications change.
Engineering method · AdvancedModel-Based Systems Engineering for Security
Model-based systems engineering uses connected models to describe requirements, structure, behavior, interfaces, constraints, and verification across the system lifecycle.
NIST CSF Category profile · IntermediatePlatform Security (PR.PS) — NIST CSF 2.0 Category
Use PR.PS to manage configuration, maintenance, logs, software control, secure development, and platform life cycle within the Protect Function.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediatePrevent Unauthorized Software (PR.PS-05) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.PS-05 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Installation and execution of unauthorized software are prevented.
Privacy engineering · AdvancedPrivacy Engineering Objectives
Privacy engineering objectives turn broad values and obligations into measurable system properties that manage predictability, manageability, and disassociability risks.
Privacy engineering · AdvancedPrivacy Threat Modeling
Privacy threat modeling identifies how data processing can create surveillance, linkability, identification, disclosure, exclusion, loss of control, or other adverse consequences.
Cloud network security · AdvancedPrivate Link and Service-Endpoint Security
Private-link and service-endpoint security governs private access to managed cloud services, including DNS, identity, routing, policy, and data-exfiltration boundaries.
NIST CSF Function profile · FoundationalProtect (PR) — NIST CSF 2.0 Function
Use the Protect Function to apply safeguards across identity, awareness, data, platforms, and infrastructure so risk is reduced before and during adverse events.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateProtect Networks and Environments (PR.IR-01) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.IR-01 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Networks and environments are protected from unauthorized logical access and usage.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateProtect Technology from Environmental Threats (PR.IR-02) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.IR-02 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: The organization’s technology assets are protected from environmental threats.
Generative AI security · AdvancedRAG Security Controls
RAG security controls protect source ingestion, indexing, retrieval, context assembly, and grounded response generation.
Architecture artifact · IntermediateReference Architectures and Security Blueprints
Reference architectures and blueprints provide reusable structures, components, trust assumptions, and security decisions for recurring solution types.
Secure automation · AdvancedRemote Automation Trust Boundaries
Remote automation trust boundaries define how controllers, agents, targets, networks, credentials, and operators authenticate and authorize each other across administrative zones.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateResilience Mechanisms (PR.IR-03) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.IR-03 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Mechanisms are implemented to achieve resilience requirements in normal and adverse situations.
Architecture concept · IntermediateResilience and Fault Tolerance
Resilience is the ability to continue or recover important functions under disruption, while fault tolerance allows operation despite specific component failures.
Architecture principle · BeginnerSecure Design Principles
Secure design principles guide systems toward limited privilege, simple trust boundaries, safe defaults, layered controls, complete mediation, and resilient failure behavior.
Architecture practice · AdvancedSecure Interface Design
Secure interface design controls how components exchange data, identity, commands, state, and errors across technical and organizational boundaries.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateSecure Software Development (PR.PS-06) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.PS-06 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Secure software development practices are integrated, and their performance is monitored throughout the software development life cycle.
Governance practice · AdvancedSecurity Architecture Governance
Security architecture governance defines how architecture decisions are proposed, reviewed, approved, recorded, measured, and changed.
Architecture assurance practice · AdvancedSecurity Architecture Review and Validation
Security architecture review and validation examine whether a design is complete, internally consistent, risk-informed, implementable, and capable of meeting its protection objectives.
Assurance concept · AdvancedSecurity Assurance
Security assurance is justified confidence that a system's security functions and properties are correct, effective, and suitable for their intended environment.
Assurance artifact · AdvancedSecurity Assurance Case
A security assurance case presents a structured argument that a system's security claims are supported by sufficient evidence under stated assumptions.
System planning artifact · AdvancedSecurity Concept of Operations
A security concept of operations describes how security capabilities, responsibilities, decisions, and responses work in the system's real operating environment.
Architecture practice · IntermediateSecurity Control Placement
Security control placement determines where a preventive, detective, responsive, or recovery mechanism must sit in the architecture to see, decide, and act on the intended behavior.
Requirements artifact · AdvancedSecurity Requirements Baseline
A security requirements baseline is the approved set of security requirements and assumptions against which the system is designed, built, verified, and changed.
Engineering practice · AdvancedSecurity Requirements Traceability
Security requirements traceability connects stakeholder needs, risks, requirements, design elements, controls, implementation evidence, tests, findings, and operational outcomes.
Capacity engineering · IntermediateServer Capacity and Resilience
Server capacity and resilience translate workload demand, growth, failure tolerance, recovery targets, and performance thresholds into sufficient compute, memory, storage, and network headroom.
High availability · IntermediateServer Clustering and Failover
Server clustering and failover coordinate nodes, health checks, quorum, replication, service ownership, and recovery behavior so workloads can continue after selected failures.
NIST CSF Subcategory profile · IntermediateSoftware Maintenance and Removal (PR.PS-02) — NIST CSF 2.0 Subcategory
Apply PR.PS-02 to achieve this CSF 2.0 outcome: Software is maintained, replaced, and removed commensurate with risk.
Engineering discipline · AdvancedSystems Security Engineering
Systems security engineering integrates security into the technical and organizational processes used to conceive, build, operate, and retire a system.
NIST CSF Category profile · IntermediateTechnology Infrastructure Resilience (PR.IR) — NIST CSF 2.0 Category
Use PR.IR to manage network and environment protection, environmental safeguards, resilience mechanisms, and capacity within the Protect Function.
Threat-modeling practice · IntermediateThreat Applicability Analysis
Threat applicability analysis tests whether an actor, technique, path, precondition, target, and consequence are relevant to a specific system before controls are selected or credited.
Design practice · IntermediateThreat Modeling
Threat modeling examines what must be protected, how a system works, where trust changes, what can go wrong, and which safeguards or design changes reduce risk.
Cloud routing security · AdvancedTransit Gateway Security
Transit-gateway security applies segmentation, route governance, inspection, ownership, and change control to centralized cloud and hybrid routing hubs.
Architecture analysis concept · IntermediateTrust Boundaries and Data Flows
A trust boundary marks where the assumptions, authority, identity, or control conditions applied to data and interactions change.
Threat modeling method · IntermediateUsing MITRE ATT&CK® for Threat Modeling
How architecture teams can use relevant adversary behaviors to test trust boundaries, abuse cases, telemetry, and resilience decisions.
Architecture model · IntermediateZero Trust Architecture
Zero Trust is an architectural approach that evaluates access requests using identity, device, resource, context, and risk while limiting implicit trust and lateral movement.