Security by Design (SbD) - Professional Program
Learn the DARES™ method from the Mastering Security by Design book, practice through a practical (non-heavy) course, then validate with the SbD CPL via a capstone.
Security by Design — Pro Bundle
Payment options available
A complete path to practice and proof. Includes the SbD Course (Fundamentals & Advanced), the Mastering Security by Design ebook (course material), and SbD CPL evaluation via a capstone portfolio (assigned project).
Includes:
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Course access
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Course eBooks
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CPL Cyber Capstone (1 attempt)
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Plus, a lifetime ISAU membership
What will I Learn?
Security by Design Program
Description
ISAUnited’s Security by Design Program is the flagship training path of the ISAU Academy, built for professionals who want to stop reacting to security problems and start engineering secure systems from the first design decision. This program develops The Implementer—the Security by Design professional who can turn intent into execution, guide teams through defensible design choices, and keep risk visible from concept to operations.
Students learn a disciplined, repeatable method for translating business goals into measurable security requirements, applying threat and design analysis to real architectures, and placing controls where they belong using clear models, trust boundaries, interfaces, dependencies, and failure domains. You will also strengthen how you communicate decisions across engineering teams, document trade-offs with purpose, and produce evidence that withstands review—so that security becomes a built-in design constraint that reduces rework, accelerates delivery, and raises system resilience.
The program is delivered in two progressive parts, Fundamentals and Advanced, so you can start applying Security by Design immediately and then scale your capabilities into tooling, verification and validation, organizational adoption, and leadership. If you are a security practitioner, engineer, architect, or aspiring technical leader who wants practical methods that work in real projects, this program provides the structure and engineering mindset to build security in, not bolt it on.
Field of study: Cybersecurity — Security by Design
Program level: Certified Professional
Pathway: Certified Security by Design Professional (CSbDP) License
Delivery format: 100% online (self-paced) with technical instructor support
Pace: 10 days (2 weeks)
Prerequisites (included): Cybersecurity Essentials is required for this program; see below.
Credits: 20 CPEs
Exam: Cyber Capstone Portfolio
Mastering Security by Design (ebook included)
The official course text and Source of Truth for SbD. It maps directly to the DARES™ lifecycle and D10S, and is used in knowledge checks and the CPL Capstone Portfolio.
Edition: First Edition 2025
ISBN: 979-8-218-65004-9
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Practical cybersecurity models
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Helps you turn goals into measurable acceptance criteria
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Guides “shippable by default” with simple CI/CD gate policies
What will I take?
BASIC Courses
B100
Course: Defensible 10 Standards Foundations
Field: Cybersecurity Essentials
This course introduces students to the Defensible 10 Standards and explains how the ten domains organize security responsibilities across enterprise and cloud environments. Students learn the purpose of each domain, the relationships among controls, requirements, and measurable acceptance criteria, and how to interpret a system diagram through the D10S lens.
B102
Course: Cybersecurity Core Principles
Field: Cybersecurity Essentials
A practical introduction to the ideas that anchor secure design, from confidentiality and integrity to least privilege, layered defenses, and verifiable operations. Learn how these principles shape choices in architecture, configuration, and daily practice across data centers and cloud services. Through real examples and guided critiques, connect each principle to measurable outcomes that reduce risk and produce resilient, trustworthy systems.
B104
Course: Cybersecurity Controls Management Framework
Field: Cybersecurity Essentials
This course teaches students how to build a clear, organized system for selecting, mapping, measuring, and maintaining security controls across enterprise and cloud environments. Students learn to translate policy goals into concrete requirements, plan evidence from the outset, and conduct ongoing checks that demonstrate that protections work in real-world operations.
B107
Course: Security by Design Foundations
Field: Cybersecurity Essentials
Security by Design Foundations teaches you to plan and review security like an engineer: set measurable goals, use simple design models to place controls, make sound trade-offs, add lightweight delivery guardrails, and produce evidence that your choices work. Built for both managers and technical teams.
B110
Course: Technical Adversarial & Defensible Analysis (Foundations)
Field: Cybersecurity Essentials
This entry-level course teaches how to review a solution architecture diagram from an attacker’s perspective and translate findings into a defensible security design. Students learn to map attack stages and entry points, threat-model components and data flows, align attacker behaviors to real techniques, and produce remediation recommendations.
CORE Courses
SBD450
Course: Security by Design Advanced
Field: Security by Design
An advanced course in security by design, organized into four modules that deepen review level practice: design models and boundaries, decision quality and trade-offs, delivery guardrails, and validation with executive proof. Covers how to draw system views that reveal boundaries, interfaces, and failure points; place protections deliberately; keep a clear decision record; set a definition of done with simple build and release checks; and present evidence that shows risk has been reduced.
SBD455
Course: DARES Method (Define-Architect-Realize-Evaluate-Sustain)
Field: Security by Design
An applied method course is organized around five phases: Define, Architect, Realize, Evaluate, and Sustain. Covers how to set measurable acceptance criteria, make design choices and record trade-offs, add delivery guardrails and simple evidence, run validation and note residual risk, and establish an operating rhythm with clear owners and practical metrics.
What is the Exam?
Cyber Capstone Portfolio
Description
A focused, real world mission scenario that lets you prove mastery through a concise, defensible submission. The Cyber Capstone is built around a structured Mission Pack and is completed as a solo, written, remote, and time boxed assignment over two weeks (10 business days). Earlier submission is acceptable. There are no multiple choice tests and no interviews.
What you will complete
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Artifact 1: Project Brief and Scope
Define the problem, project scope, requirements, technical specifications, assumptions, constraints, and risk context. -
Artifact 2: System Context and Protection Overview
Describe the system context, major components, trust considerations, entry surfaces, key dependencies, and initial control direction. A formal architecture diagram is not required, but candidates must clearly communicate how the system or service should be understood and protected. -
Artifact 3: Detailed Deployment and Threat Analysis
Show the deployment design and placement of defensible engineering mechanisms, supported by Technical Adversarial and Defensible Analysis. -
Artifact 4: Detection and Response Strategy
Provide the monitoring approach, detection logic, incident-response considerations, and operational-readiness plan. -
Artifact 5: Defensible Design and Residual Risk Briefing
Summarize the final defensible decisions, tradeoffs, residual risk, and supporting rationale in a concise presentation deck with speaker notes.
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How it is evaluated
Your submission is evaluated using the ISAUnited Defensible Capability Score, a two-section scoring model based on written deliverables only.
Part 1 - Technical Artifact Evaluation (Pass or Fail), scores the submitted capstone artifacts across the Define, Design, Deploy, Detect, and Defend phases for technical completeness, correctness, traceability, and defensibility.
Part 2 - Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities (SKA) Capability Profile (Professional Capability) evaluates how you performed through the capstone by assessing disciplined practice, reasoning quality, judgment, and communication across seven capability dimensions, with evidence references tied to the submitted artifacts.
Outcome
Successful completion satisfies the Capstone requirement for the ISAUnited Certified Professional License in your selected track.
What Do I Get?
Your Professional License - Certified Security by Design Professional (CSbDP)
This is the license you earn when you pass the SbD CPL evaluation (included in the Pro Bundle). The evaluation is capstone-based—no multiple-choice exams. A successful review adds your name to the ISAUnited public registry.
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Designation: Certified Security by Design Professional (CSbDP)
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Credentialing: Digital certificate + verifiable License ID/issue date
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The Certified Professional License is valid for a three-year term.
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Renewal requires 60 Continuing Professional Education credits
