Long-term Benefits of Adopting Security Brutalism for Teams

Ben W. asked: What are the long-term benefits of adopting a brutalist mindset for security teams' coordination?

Adopting a brutalist mindset and approach for security teams can give you significant long-term benefits for coordination and overall effectiveness:

• Shared Awareness and Collaboration: Brutalist Security, when combined with models like the "Team of Teams," promotes continuous information sharing and a common purpose across specialized and autonomous security groups. This shared consciousness allows teams, such as threat intelligence, incident response, and IT, to synchronize their efforts, quickly detect threats, and coordinate responses without bureaucratic delays. Real-time collaboration ensures that knowledge and incident learnings disseminate rapidly, improving overall team coordination and readiness.
• Distributed Resilience: When security is based on solid, foundational controls (hardening, patching, MFA, zero trust, etc) and applied via interconnected teams, the organization avoids single points of failure. If one team or function is overwhelmed, others can step in, enhancing overall operational resilience and maintaining a strong defensive posture under pressure.
• Continuous Improvement: Feedback loops are built into the culture, so lessons from incidents or intelligence are quickly used to refine both controls and team procedures. Security postures and teams continuously adapt to new threats instead of remaining static, ensuring that coordination remains effective as risks evolve.
• Reduced Complexity, Increased Clarity: Security Brutalism eliminates redundant tools and ambiguous policies. By focusing on well-communicated, clear, and essential controls, teams avoid confusion and misalignment, making collaboration more straightforward and reducing the risk of oversight or error.
• Faster, Decentralized Decision-Making: Teams are empowered with autonomy within a clear strategic framework, enabling them to act swiftly within their domains. This decentralization allows for immediate action during incidents, bypassing slow top-down approval chains and fostering agility.
• Organization-Wide Buy-In: By openly integrating security into every part of the business and making security visible and actionable (not siloed or abstract), broader participation is fostered, from developers writing secure code to HR supporting awareness training. This creates a unified defensive posture across disciplines and departments.
• Resilience and Trust: The inherent transparency and discipline of Brutalist Security build trust among team members and stakeholders. Everyone understands the rules and practices, and confidence in the security function grows as teams coordinate effectively toward clear, durable goals.

Summing up, a Brutalist Security approach provides security teams with the clarity, autonomy, and feedback needed for robust, real-time coordination, making organizations not just more secure, but also more adaptive and resilient in the face of persistent and evolving threats.