Secure by Design is more than a best practice—it's a mindset. It means embedding security in every line of code, from the very first commit. Use this quick-reference cheat sheet to inspire your team, strengthen your code, and build software that's secure from the ground up. Hang it proudly and let it guide you daily toward safer, smarter development.
Security is a Team Sport: Break down silos – developers, security, ops, and QA collaborate from day one. Make security everyone's responsibility, not someone else’s problem.
Shift Left: Embed security early in the lifecycle. Do threat modeling and define security requirements alongside features. Catch issues in design or code review before they hit production.
Secure Defaults & Design: Design systems to be secure by default (least privilege, strong encryption, safe API protocols). It’s easier to relax a strict control if needed than to plug a hole later.
Manage Your Supply Chain: Keep an inventory of third-party components. Update dependencies regularly (use tools like Dependabot) and verify their integrity. Trust, but verify, all code that isn’t yours.
No Secrets in Code: Never hard-code API keys, credentials, or sensitive configs. Use secure vaults and environment variables. Enable secret scanning to catch leaks instantly.
Automate Security Checks: Integrate SAST/DAST tools into CI/CD (GitHub Actions can run code scanning, linters, tests). Automate what you can – let bots check for known vulns, misconfigs, and bad patterns on every commit.
Continuous Patching: Treat new vulnerabilities as tasks to tackle immediately. Apply security updates and patches as part of regular sprints. “Patch Tuesday” should be every day when needed.
Monitor and Respond: Instrument your apps and infrastructure to detect anomalies. Set up alerts for suspicious activities. Practice incident responses so you can act fast when something’s amiss.
AI-Assisted, Human-Approved: Use AI coding assistants and analysis tools to boost productivity and find issues – but always have a human in the loop. Review AI-generated code for security and correctness before trusting it.
Document and Educate: Maintain living docs for your security decisions and architecture. Onboard new team members with training in secure development. Share lessons learned from any incidents or audits so the whole team grows.
Remember: Secure today. Innovate tomorrow.