• Understand business objectives: Align security goals with business priorities, ensuring that security enhances rather than impedes operations.

• Identify compliance requirements: Determine legal, regulatory, and industry standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS) that the architecture must comply with.

• Risk tolerance: Understand the organization's risk appetite to design security measures that align with acceptable risk levels.

• Asset inventory: Identify all critical assets, including data, applications, networks, and hardware, to understand what needs to be protected.

• Data classification: Classify data based on sensitivity (e.g., public, internal, confidential, highly sensitive) to apply appropriate security controls.

• Business impact analysis: Assess the potential impact on business operations if these assets are compromised.

• Network security: Design the network structure with segmentation, firewalls, VPNs, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), and secure access points.

• Endpoint security: Implement controls for securing devices such as desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and IoT devices.

• Application security: Ensure secure coding practices, authentication mechanisms, and encryption are applied to applications.

• Identity and access management (IAM): Implement role-based access control (RBAC), single sign-on (SSO), and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to manage user access.

• Data security: Apply encryption, tokenization, and secure data storage mechanisms to protect data at rest, in transit, and in use.

• Threat modeling: Identify potential threats (e.g., unauthorized access, malware, insider threats) that could impact the system or assets.

• Assess vulnerabilities: Identify weaknesses or flaws in the design that could be exploited by attackers.

• Perform risk assessment: Evaluate the likelihood and impact of identified risks to prioritize security efforts.

• Technical controls: Deploy technologies such as firewalls, anti-malware, intrusion detection systems, and encryption to enforce security policies.

• Administrative controls: Establish security policies, procedures, and training to ensure that users follow best practices and regulatory guidelines.

• Penetration testing: Conduct regular penetration testing to assess the effectiveness of security controls.

• Vulnerability scanning: Continuously scan the environment for vulnerabilities and ensure they are addressed.

• Security drills: Run simulations and drills (e.g., tabletop exercises) to test the incident response plan and ensure teams are prepared.

• Security policies and standards: Document security policies, standards, and guidelines that govern how security controls are applied and maintained.

• Employee training and awareness: Provide ongoing security awareness training to ensure employees understand security policies and are aware of the latest threats.