Protocol Design Principles
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NCSC white paper for protocol designers as a guide for use in the design process and written primarily with internet protocols in mind.
Adapted edition
- Document type
- Reference Guide
- Format
- DOCX
- Pages
- 13
- Language
- English
- Version
- 1.0
- Updated
- 2026-09-16
- Category
- Information security
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
Description
NCSC white paper for protocol designers as a guide for use in the design process and written primarily with internet protocols in mind for organisational planning, review and training. NCSC guidance is advisory and should be applied to the organisation's own risks and obligations.
Contents
- Summary
- Secure protocols that work for users
- Using the three principles
- Who are these principles for?
- How should these principles be used?
- Introduction
- How has the internet changed?
- Multi-stakeholder environment
- Architectural changes
- Rise in cyber attacks
- Increasingly complex security ecosystem
- Diverse users and devices
- Principles for an evolving threat landscape
- Motivation for the principles
- Establish the context
- Make compromise difficult
- Source links
Source and licence
National Cyber Security Centre
AttributionNational Cyber Security Centre, “Protocol Design Principles” (1 December 2020), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
ChangesAdapted 16 September 2026: converted the official HTML article into neutral text-only DOCX and PDF editions. Preserved article headings, paragraphs, lists and plain-text source-link destinations; normalized web whitespace and typographic punctuation; omitted site navigation, topic and download cards, images, logos, scripts, styles and page furniture.
Version history
- v1.016/09/2026