The Boardroom Imperative
The NCSC Annual Review 2025 serves as a powerful reminder that cyber risk is no longer confined to the IT department. Instead, it has become a critical issue that demands attention at the highest levels of leadership. The NCSC report emphatically urges decision-makers to “open your eyes to the imminent risk to your economic security.” It makes clear that cyber incidents have the potential to disrupt essential operations, inflict lasting reputational damage and result in significant financial and legal repercussions.
In an environment where threats are ever-present and the risk of future threatsis growing rapidly, true organisational resilience depends on strategic foresight, thorough preparation and the capacity to recover effectively from attacks.
The pressing question then, is how organisations can translate these warnings and insights into practical action. A compelling solution lies in the adoption of robust Enterprise Architecture practices. Specifically the use of ArchiMate enables organisations to systematically document their enterprise landscape and the relationships between systems, providing the clarity needed to strengthen resilience.
Enterprise Architecture: A Blueprint for Cyber Resilience
The NCSC report makes it clear: cyber security is now critical to business longevity and success. It is not just about technology anymore. It is about understanding how your organisation operates, how systems interact and where vulnerabilities lie. The report calls for all business leaders to take responsibility for their organisation’s cyber resilience, moving beyond technical silos to a holistic, strategic approach.
Enterprise Architecture provides the blueprint for this approach. It helps organisations map out their business processes, applications, data and technology infrastructure. By visualising these elements and their interconnections, leaders can take meaningful steps towards resilience.
Key Benefits of Enterprise Architecture for Cyber Resilience
- Identify critical assets and dependencies
- Assess risk exposure across the enterprise
- Plan for continuity and rapid recovery
- Communicate cyber risk in business terms
ArchiMate: Documenting the Enterprise
ArchiMate is an open and widely adopted modelling language specifically designed for enterprise architecture. It allows organisations to create clear and consistent diagrams that illustrate how business processes, application landscapes, and technology layers align and interact with one another.
Using ArchiMate, organisations can achieve several key objectives:
Model business processes and their supporting systems – Providing a structured view of how core operations are underpinned by technology.
Map data flows and integrations between applications – Offering clarity on how information moves throughout the organisation and where potential integration points or vulnerabilities may exist.
Visualise technology infrastructure and network boundaries – Enabling a comprehensive understanding of the technology landscape and its security perimeters.
Document relationships and dependencies between systems – Ensuring that all critical interconnections and dependencies are recorded, which is essential for risk assessment and resilience planning.
This approach is particularly important in the context of cyber resilience. The NCSC report underscores that attackers often exploit the complexity and interconnectedness of systems. Without a clear understanding of how systems depend on and relate to each other, organisations risk overlooking critical vulnerabilities or being unable to recover swiftly from security incidents.
The Importance of Documenting Relationships
The NCSC Annual Review emphasises that resilience extends beyond mere prevention; it encompasses an organisation’s capacity to continue operating and to recover effectively after a disruptive incident. One crucial aspect of building such resilience is the thorough documentation of relationships between systems. This practice serves several essential purposes:
Risk Assessment – A clear understanding of how systems depend on one another is fundamental for identifying single points of failure as well as recognising where cascading impacts may arise. By mapping out these dependencies, organisations can better anticipate and manage risks that might jeopardise operational continuity.
Incident Response – In the event of a cyberattack or other disruptive incident, having documented knowledge of system interconnections allows for quicker isolation and containment of threats. This, in turn, enables a more efficient recovery process, minimising downtime and damage.
Compliance and Governance – With regulatory bodies increasingly demanding proof of robust cyber risk management, having comprehensive documentation of system architecture provides the necessary assurance. It demonstrates a proactive approach to governance and supports compliance with industry standards.
Continuous Improvement – The technology landscape and threat environment are constantly evolving. Maintaining up-to-date architecture documentation ensures that organisations remain agile, capable of adapting to new risks, and able to reinforce their defences as needed.
Identification of Organisational and Technical Debt – Documenting relationships also helps in pinpointing areas of organisational and technical debt. This awareness is vital for planning improvements and ensuring that legacy issues do not compromise cyber resilience.
Practical Steps for Enhancing Cyber Resilience
The following practical steps outline how to leverage enterprise architecture tools and the ArchiMate framework to strengthen your organisation’s defences:
Utilise Enterprise Architects and Tooling – A good Enterprise Architect understands how to get the best out of modelling a business and systems. Use Enterprise Architecture tools such as ArchiMate to streamline the process of mapping and documenting your organisation’s systems and their interconnections.
Start with a Baseline – Begin by creating a high-level overview of your organisation’s business processes, applications, and underlying technology. This baseline serves as the foundation for understanding how different elements interact and where vulnerabilities may exist.
Identify Relationships – Carefully document all integrations, data flows, and dependencies within your system architecture. Paying particular attention to legacy systems and third-party connections, as these often present unique risks and challenges.
Assess and Prioritise – Use your architectural model to pinpoint critical assets. This enables you to prioritise resilience measures, ensuring that essential systems receive appropriate attention and protection.
Communicate – Share your documented architecture with key stakeholders, including board members, IT teams, and external partners. Clear communication ensures all parties are aware of the risks involved and the responsibilities required to mitigate them.
Review Regularly – Continuously update your system documentation to reflect changes in technology, emerging threats, and lessons learned from past incidents. Regular reviews ensure that your organisation remains prepared to adapt to an evolving threat landscape.
Keep a copy offline – Keep a copy of your models so that you can access them when you cant access you systems.
Further Reading / Sources
- NCSC Annual Review 2025
- BBC News: Cyber attack contingency plans should be put on paper, firms told
- ArchiMate Library – The Open Group
- ArchiMate Forum
- TOGAF
Being an Architect
There are many good examples of Enterprise Architecture documentation available as reference on the Internet. All following different methodologies, but ultimately illustrating how an Enterprise Architecture documentation set can assist in driving strategy and the business forward.
Max Hemingway 