Duration: 4 days Course

Course Description:

This four-day instructor-led course equips participants with the knowledge and skills to design, evaluate, and govern cybersecurity architectures and policies for enterprise environments. The course bridges technical cybersecurity controls with business risk and governance strategies. Attendees will learn how to develop security reference architectures, align with industry frameworks, create enforceable policies, and establish governance models that support secure enterprise growth. Real-world case studies and hands-on labs guide participants through threat modeling, architecture review, and policy authoring exercises.

Target Audience:

• Cybersecurity architects
• Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) professionals
• IT security managers and CISOs
• Systems engineers and solution architects
• Security consultants

Prerequisites:

• Solid understanding of core cybersecurity principles
• Familiarity with enterprise IT architecture (on-prem, cloud, hybrid)
• Basic experience with risk management, access control, and network security
• Prior exposure to security frameworks such as NIST, ISO 27001, or CIS Controls recommended

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design cybersecurity architectures that align with organizational strategy and risk
• Apply security frameworks to real-world architectural decisions
• Develop policies that support secure operations and compliance
• Identify and mitigate architectural weaknesses using threat modeling
• Integrate security architecture within enterprise governance models

Course Takeaways:

• Security architecture templates and checklists
• Sample security policy documents and governance frameworks
• Threat modeling guides and examples
• Certificate of completion
• Experience working through real-world architectural security scenarios

Module 1: Foundations of Cybersecurity Architecture and Policy

Day 1: Concepts, Frameworks, and Stakeholder Alignment

Topics:

• Cybersecurity architecture and policy: definitions and boundaries
• Role of the architect in the enterprise security lifecycle
• Common frameworks: NIST CSF, SABSA, TOGAF, ISO 27001
• Aligning architecture and policy to business risk
• Security architecture components: identity, network, application, data, and physical

Hands-On Labs:

• Lab 1: Map an organization’s security posture to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
• Lab 2: Identify gaps in a reference architecture using SABSA layered modeling
• Lab 3: Conduct a stakeholder analysis for policy development and security alignment

Module 2: Designing Secure Architectures

Day 2: Security Models, Control Mapping, and Integration

Topics:

• Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) and its implementation challenges
• Designing segmented network zones and layered defenses
• Control selection and mapping to architecture (CIA triad, STRIDE, DREAD)
• Architecting for hybrid and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, on-prem)
• Business continuity, resilience, and secure design principles

Hands-On Labs:

• Lab 4: Build a secure multi-zone enterprise architecture diagram with annotated controls
• Lab 5: Design a Zero Trust implementation plan for a remote workforce
• Lab 6: Apply STRIDE to identify threats in a sample application and propose architectural mitigations

Module 3: Security Policy Development and Enforcement

Day 3: Governance, Compliance, and Control Enforcement

Topics:

• Types of security policies: acceptable use, access control, incident response, etc.
• Policy lifecycle: development, review, communication, and enforcement
• Control testing and audit readiness
• Regulatory mapping: GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX
• Automation of policy enforcement through IAM, NAC, SIEM, and CSPM tools

Hands-On Labs:

• Lab 7: Draft a security policy for remote access and bring-your-own-device (BYOD)
• Lab 8: Create a governance matrix mapping policies to frameworks and controls
• Lab 9: Use a SIEM dashboard to monitor for policy violations and generate compliance reports

Module 4: Enterprise Security Governance and Final Review

Day 4: Integration, Reporting, and Real-World Application

Topics:

• Building an enterprise security governance model
• Architecture review boards and security program alignment
• Metrics, KPIs, and risk reporting to executive stakeholders
• Case studies: breaches and architectural failures
• Final capstone: secure architecture and policy proposal

Hands-On Labs:

• Lab 10: Perform an architecture review and policy gap analysis for a case study organization
• Lab 11: Develop a governance scorecard and present a security risk report to a simulated executive team
• Capstone Exercise: In teams, design and present a complete security architecture and policy set for a fictional enterprise