In the Round
Andrew Martin · 2025
Abstract One of our best hopes for addressing the challenges of cyber security is to treat it as a systems engineering problem. We can learn much from the domain of safety engineering in thinking about security from the earliest stage of systems design, all the way through to the eventual decommissioning and disposal of systems. The openness of the internet means that system-of-systems approaches are needed, with every component subject to this kind of thinking. Careful consideration of the supply chain, particularly for the diverse software in use, will help. The contemporary approach to achieving secure operations throughout a system’s life is via regular updating and patching. This creates many problems of its own.