THE SECURITY BRUTALIST

Security Brutalism Master Plan

Part 1

  1. Build a Strong, Simple Foundation: Start with a security architecture that’s clear, unambiguous, and unpretentious. Strip away the complexity. Focus on the basics: secure communications, solid access controls, and hardened systems. Outcome: A solid base with zero tolerance for weak links, built on simplicity.
  2. Automate the Essentials: Automate the repetitive, high-risk tasks like patching, monitoring, and compliance checks. This reduces human error and frees up security teams for more strategic tasks. Outcome: A more resilient, automated security posture that runs on autopilot.
  3. Transparency in Everything: Implement complete visibility across your systems. Logs, metrics, configurations — all data should be open and auditable, allowing for immediate detection of weaknesses or breaches. Outcome: A transparent ecosystem where no security blind spots exist.

Part 2

  1. Embrace the "Fail Fast, Learn Faster" Mindset: Cultivate a culture where failure is seen as an opportunity to harden systems quickly. Use automated testing and red-teaming to simulate attacks and fix flaws rapidly. Security should be iterative and not static. Outcome: A dynamic, self-improving security environment that gets stronger with every test.
  2. Decentralize Security: Give security teams, IT, and developers direct control over security tools and policies. Security should not be a siloed department; it should be everyone’s responsibility. Build security into the culture and daily processes. Outcome: A decentralized, resilient approach where security is baked into everything from development to deployment.
  3. Create a No-Excuse Culture: Everyone must know the fundamentals and take responsibility. A single breach is everyone’s fault, and everyone is expected to help prevent it. You can’t afford complexity in response to breaches. Keep things simple and clear for all team members. Outcome: A team that moves swiftly and decisively, without hesitation, when securing systems.

Part 3

  1. Security as a Platform: Expose security capabilities (auth, audit, scanning, isolation, secrets management) as internal services with APIs. Let other teams build on top of hardened security primitives — like infrastructure, not policy. Outcome: Security is self-service, composable, and deeply embedded in everything the org builds.
  2. Assume Breach, Prove Containment: Shift from prevention-only to containment and recovery. Simulate breaches regularly, validate blast radius controls, and invest in kill switches and zero-trust defaults everywhere. Outcome: Confidence that when (not if) a breach happens, impact is minimal and recovery is fast.
  3. Make Risk Observable and Quantifiable: Go beyond compliance checklists. Build real-time risk dashboards. Assign ownership, measure control drift, and tie risk signals to decisions and incentives. Outcome: Executives and engineers alike can see where security stands — and why it matters.
  4. Lead Through Open Practice: Share your threat models, playbooks, and postmortems. Publish your learnings. Contribute to open standards and tools. Teach others how to do Brutalist Security. Outcome: Influence the industry and raise the bar. Security is no longer a black box — it’s a discipline others can study and improve.

End Goal

A simplified, highly resilient security model that is both brutally effective and transparent. Security teams can move fast, iterate quickly, and deploy resilient systems that don’t require constant babysitting. The emphasis is on simplicity, resilience, and speed without sacrificing robust security.