Security Brutalism

The security industry has spent the last decade chasing elegant solutions. We've built sophisticated threat detection platforms with AI-powered analytics, deployed complex zero-trust architectures with dozens of interconnected components, and created elaborate incident response workflows that require specialized teams to execute. Meanwhile, attackers continue to succeed with embarrassingly simple techniques: credential stuffing, social engineering, and exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.

It's time for a different approach. Security Brutalism—characterized by raw functionality, structural honesty, and simple, highly effective controls over unnecessary complex ones—offers a path forward that addresses both our current threat landscape and budget realities. This means embracing systems that are clear in purpose, resilient by design, and grounded in the fundamental capabilities of the technologies they rely on.

This concept draws from brutalist architecture and web design, both of which favor unembellished, utilitarian structures that reveal rather than conceal their underlying materials and construction. Central to this philosophy is the principle of truth to materials—the idea that a system should express its true nature, not hide behind decorative abstractions.

Security Brutalism is a doctrine of function-first. A return to the fundamentals. It emphasizes strong, enforceable controls and clear operational visibility, valuing these over user convenience or aesthetic appeal. Its designs are simple, honest, and intentionally rough-edged—engineered to endure in the unpredictable, volatile conditions of a VUCA world.

Security Brutalism Principles

1. Expose the Mechanics: Make how security works transparent to users and stakeholders.
2. Enforce Functionality Over Frictionless Experience: Favor transparency and user control over aesthetics — rough edges are fine if it means security is clear and uncompromised.
3. Simplify to the Core: Remove anything that isn’t essential, auditable, or explainable.

A Brutalist Security approach is explicit, open, and clear.

Understand the Concept

Listen to the conversation below to better undertand Security Brutalism:

Here are the sources for the coversation:

1. The principles above
2. The Origins
3. The Brutalist Security Way
4. The Program

The Perfect Storm Driving Brutalist Security

Several converging factors make brutalist security not just appealing, but necessary:

Economic pressure is real. With tighter budgets and demands to demonstrate ROI, security teams can no longer justify complex solutions that require armies of specialists to maintain. The "security theater" of impressive dashboards and complex workflows is losing its appeal when CFOs demand measurable outcomes.

Attack sophistication is plateauing, while volume of incidents continues to escalate. Despite breathless marketing about AI-powered attacks, most successful breaches still exploit basic hygiene failures. The Colonial Pipeline attack succeeded through a compromised VPN credential. The Equifax breach stemmed from an unpatched web application. Attackers aren't getting dramatically more sophisticated—they're getting more efficient at scale.

Complexity is killing us. Our layered security architectures have become so complex that they're impossible to secure properly. Each additional tool introduces new attack surfaces, integration points, and failure modes. We've created security infrastructures that require security infrastructures to protect them.

Skills shortages aren't improving. Despite years of workforce development initiatives, the security skills gap continues to widen. Complex security architectures require specialized knowledge that's increasingly rare and expensive. Simple, brutal controls can be implemented and maintained by more generalist security staff.

The Economics of Brutalist Security Simplicity

Brutalist security delivers significant cost advantages that complex architectures can't match:

Reduced tool sprawl. Instead of deploying separate solutions for endpoint detection, network monitoring, user behavior analytics, and threat hunting, brutalist approaches rely on a smaller number of enforcement points. Simple, well-configured controls with strict enforcement can reduce or even eliminate the need for costly and fragmented security tools.

Reduced staffing demands. Simpler controls are easier to understand, deploy, and maintain. Rather than relying on specialized engineers to fine-tune machine learning models or analysts to chase down false positives, Brutalist Security uses straightforward, binary rules. This allows a smaller team of security professionals to effectively manage the environment without the need for extensive support.

Faster incident response. When security controls are simple and harsh, incident response becomes straightforward. There's no complex investigation to determine if an alert represents a real threat—the system has already isolated the potential problem and preserved evidence.

Predictable costs. Complex security architectures have unpredictable scaling costs as they require more data storage, processing power, and specialized staff as organizations grow. Brutalist Security controls scale more linearly and predictably.

The Path Forward

Security brutalism isn't about abandoning all sophistication in favor of crude controls. It's about recognizing that our current approach—layering complexity upon complexity in hopes of outsmarting attackers—isn't working. Instead, we should focus on making the basics extremely difficult to circumvent.

The most successful security programs of the next decade will be those that can protect their organizations effectively while consuming fewer resources and requiring less specialized expertise. That means adopting simple, foundational controls focused on resilient infrastructure and effective detection and response.

The elegant security architectures we've built over the past decade have their place, but that place isn't as the foundation of our security programs. It's time to build something simpler, harsher, and more effective. It's time for Security Brutalism.

The Program

To start implementing a Brutalist Security program in a modern organization, there are several approaches you can take. Here is an example of one method, along with a runbook to help you get started.

You can also explore the companion blog for deeper insights into how this strategy benefits today’s security teams. Start here.

Assessing Your Current Posture

The Security Brutalist Checker Tool is a straightforward, checkbox-style assessment designed to evaluate the current state of security through the lens of Security Brutalism, with a focus on whether foundational controls are fully and effectively implemented.

Refer to it as a guide for aligning work with core security principles. While the areas, controls, and expected outcomes may not align perfectly with every organization, their purpose is to drive attention toward core security fundamentals that are often overlooked or neglected.