Checkmate or ArchiMate? Enterprise Security Architecture for a chess club has never been easier to master

Is enterprise security architecture really that difficult, or do we overengineer it? In fact, it’s much easier to tackle than what you thought, which reminds me of a famous chess quote “It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek, but a realisable plan.” – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky.

More than an informative presentation, it is meant to shatter misconceptions and demonstrate the fun journey I had while designing this. This presentation has been inspired from my SABSA Practitioner paper for the Advanced Risk, Assurance and Governance course and I’m thrilled to introduce cyber folks to the unique challenges and business needs of a sports chess club.

After interviewing a visionary Managing Director of a chess club equipped with great potential, I helped them design a secure chess club!...and it’s so much more than cyber security... It’s about a local dream to make it big! Starting from a business with limited funds, instinctive decision-making, little consistency, but equipped with great potential, we will dive into applied enterprise security architecture that secures a win for the chess board...maybe for any Board even!

If you thought enterprise security was too complex or too formal to apply outside of large-scale organisation, this talk will prove you wrong. Similar to the phases of a chess game, the presentation “opens” with concerns security architects have, current state of the chess club in question and interview snapshots with the Managing Director.

As we head in the trenches of the "middle game", the most time consuming part explores the reasoning behind the unique SABSA methodologies employed and modelled for the chess club. We cover a Governance Framework for accountability and decision-making, discussing domains and policy authorities. Starting from the club’s mission statement, we will perform attribute profiling and demonstrate traceability from the security controls all the way up to the business objectives and vice versa. We will also explore together dependency trees and witness systemic risk, emphasising the importance of a holistic approach to architecting a secure enterprise.

The transformative process is thus demonstrated, going from a casual chess club to a “secure” chess club business. The endgame culminates with a spectacular call to action to all architecture mates.