Proactive Component Selection:
Mitigating Manufacturing Delays Before They Happen
June 18th, 2025 | 10 AM PDT
Master the
Complexities of
Organizational Security
Elevate your electronics design collaboration
with advanced team-level security tools
with advanced team-level security tools
Summary
Electronics design teams need to balance two things: protecting intellectual property while making collaboration easy.
That's exactly what organizational security helps with. It safeguards design data within an efficient and collaborative team workspace. It's the centralized security management that enforces access policies and empowers team productivity from initial design through production.
Organizational security surpasses basic data security and compliance capabilities by providing a comprehensive system that connects team management, data access and policy compliance throughout the design process. There are many security capabilities available, and they all play the same important role in protecting valuable intellectual property, preventing unauthorized access, and reducing security risks.
This organizational security guide explores what engineering managers and IT security professionals need to know to secure their electronics development process, including how to manage agile team collaboration. This guide also provides an overview of how successful design teams implement organizational security policies and how these processes reinforce team productivity and regulatory compliance.
What Is Organizational Security?
Organizational security is a structured approach to safeguarding design data and intellectual property with team-level security controls, access management systems, and compliance tools for electronics design teams. For development teams working on electronics–everyone from PCB designers to systems engineers– organizational security provides the framework needed to protect sensitive information while accelerating efficient collaboration.
At a basic level, every organizational security implementation includes the following capabilities:
- Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and System for Cross-Domain Identity Management (SCIM) integration
- IP whitelisting to control network access
- Event logging and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) integration for monitoring and compliance
- Unlimited data storage and workspaces with secure partitioning
Organizational security prevents unauthorized access and acts as a single source of truth connecting team management and compliance across electronics design environments. With all security controls centralized in one spot, IT security managers can effectively implement company policies without slowing down design teams or hurting productivity.
Modern cloud organizational security provides a level of automation and control that was not previously available. It’s evolved beyond simple password protection and now includes an integrated security system with real-time visibility into user activity, data access patterns and compliance status. This allows design and IT teams to leverage data from across the organization when planning security implementations, managing team access and monitoring for potential data breaches.
Explore how cloud security
solutions protect electronics
design IP
Secure Collaboration: Why It's Essential for Electronics Teams
Cost Impact
According to a study by Forrester, engineers can spend up to 159 hours per year performing administrative tasks*, including tracking design reviews, managing feedback, and coordinating with team members across departments. This administrative overhead diminishes the team’s productive capacity and can be controlled with advanced secure collaboration tools. Secure cloud collaboration tools help design teams innovate within secure, controlled environments, where they can easily track reviews, incorporate feedback, and coordinate across departments without compromising security.
* A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Altium 365. Results are based on a composite organization.
Risk Management
All electronics design projects involve intellectual property risk. An organizational security platform and process can mitigate that risk and protect intellectual property. A company's valuable IP can be compromised in ways like these:
- Unauthorized access to design files and project data
- Lack of centralized control over user permissions
- Data leaks from personal workspaces
- Insufficient identity verification measures
- Inability to monitor and audit user activity
Companies manage these risks better when they use organizational security tools to see all required access control and compliance data directly, inside a consolidated management console that links that data to their existing enterprise security systems.
Market Pressures
Hardware development teams need secure collaboration tools to overcome the challenges posed by today’s accelerated development cycles and time-to-market pressures. In an environment where global collaboration is expected, it’s important to maintain data security and compliance across all workspaces, no matter where people work.
Security Risks in Electronics Development
Electronics development teams face unique organizational security challenges that require specialized protection. Traditional security approaches often fall short as design teams collaborate across locations and with external partners. Let's examine the key security risks that electronics development teams face in today's interconnected world.
Manual Security Process Vulnerabilities
Even great teams that attempt to manage security manually will encounter vulnerabilities. Of course, someone can implement basic password protection, but this is much more time-consuming and less secure than integrated and centralized security management solutions.
Manual security becomes cost-prohibitive when a company has to protect intellectual property and prevent unauthorized access across many projects and teams with varying access requirements. Inadequate security safeguards constrain a design team or procurement department's ability to reduce security risks while they maintain necessary openness to collaboration. Some of these constraints include:
- Incomplete visibility into user access and activity
- Delayed detection of potential security breaches
- Uncertain control over external partner access
- Inconsistent security policies across design environments
When teams manage data security and compliance through disconnected tools and manual processes, design and IT security teams will never know if their protection measures remain effective. This is why organizational security tools must be connected digitally to the highest quality identity and access management (IAM) systems and comply with enterprise security standards.
Partner Collaboration Challenges
Third-party collaboration is essential in electronics design, but it also introduces significant security risks. Design and IT security teams must see how data is accessed and used once it leaves their immediate control.
Discover project & team
management tools paired with
advanced organizational security
What Are Advanced Security and Compliance Tools?
Electronics development teams use Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software to implement best practices for PCB design and collaboration. Securing their development workspaces requires granular access controls with links to enterprise identity management systems from preferred security providers. Teams also need to periodically review and update security configurations based on personnel changes, project requirements, and regulatory demands.
Today’s advanced security management solutions integrate with enterprise identity management systems and link directly to design environments, streamlining the maintenance of effective security controls.
The best solutions enable a team to implement and manage these essential organizational security capabilities:
Single Sign-On and User Management
- Configure SSO using any of the SAML-compatible Identity Providers (IdP)
- Support for SAML 2.0 with federated authentication
- Utilize SCIM protocol for automated user provisioning and de-provisioning
- Implement role-based access control aligned with job responsibilities
- Simplify access with one set of credentials across multiple systems
Multi-Factor Authentication and Access Reviews
- Enable MFA/2FA for users through your identity provider
- Centralize authentication to reduce password-related vulnerabilities
- Apply the Principle of Least Privilege through granular permissions
- Establish regular access reviews to remove unnecessary permissions
- Ensure smooth onboarding and offboarding with synchronized user management
IP Whitelisting and Access Controls
- Limit unauthorized access to workspaces by only allowing access from specific IP addresses
- Control the creation of new workspaces and personal spaces
- Monitor suspicious access patterns such as unusual locations or times
Group Management
- Create collections of account users where group settings apply to all members
- Save time by setting up groups with standardized access controls and licenses
- Provide app and data access based on users' roles and groups
- Manage the creation of new workspaces, enforcing standardized security policies
Advanced Workspace Controls
- Support creation and management of various workspaces with admin controls
- Separate projects into different workspaces so team members can focus on specific tasks
- Compartmentalize design data across teams and workspaces for easier audits
- Store projects and component libraries without space constraints or infrastructure worries
Event Monitoring and Compliance
- Track detailed information for each event entry, including when it occurred, who initiated it, and what was affected
- Monitor user activity through comprehensive event logging
- Use the SIEM Integration API to connect with existing security information and event management systems
- Generate compliance reports with unified visibility of security events across an organization
Engineering and IT security teams are responsible for developing processes to implement organizational security policies that comply with security policies. Design, compliance, and access management tasks are all linked together through a company's EDA platform and their enterprise security tools.
When this is done correctly, design teams can see the organizational security management controls they need inside their PCB design software, and IT teams gain visibility into design activity without disrupting the team’s productivity. This makes organizational security faster, automatic, and efficient.
Altium 365 Organizational Security Package integrates advanced access controls into its secure cloud collaboration tools that facilitate third-party collaboration. These integrated security controls provide:
- IP whitelisting to restrict access to only trusted network locations
- Advanced workspace controls to compartmentalize sensitive projects
- Group management for standardized access permissions
- Personal space restrictions to prevent unauthorized data transfers
- Event logging for comprehensive security auditing
Altium solutions bridge communication gaps between design and IT teams and allow digital integration with enterprise security systems for real-time monitoring within a company's security framework. This eliminates the need to toggle between systems. After initial setup, policy enforcement happens automatically within the design environment, without manual intervention. This elimination of manual security tasks transforms electronics design security processes so teams can focus on what they really want to do: design great products.
Explore the Altium 365 security
architecture that keeps your
design data safe
Who Needs Organizational-Level Security Tools?
While every electronics design team must protect intellectual property and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data, a few clear indicators show how teams benefit from advanced organizational security tools. Let's examine these indicators by team roles and their specific needs.
Hardware Engineering Managers
These are the leaders who are responsible for driving and managing cross-functional, distributed electronic hardware development teams. They face several challenges when using basic security features:
- Tracking, interpreting, and incorporating feedback
- Updating design and task management systems, which duplicates effort and causes errors
- Restricting project and library management capabilities due to cloud storage limitations
- Working with core collaboration tools that only serve design engineers
With Altium 365 Organizational Security Package, engineering managers gain:
- Accelerated design reviews with real-time feedback tracking
- Operational cost savings through bi-directional Jira synchronization
- Unlimited cloud storage for all project data
- Secure access to tools for everyone involved in the development lifecycle
IT Security Managers
IT security managers oversee infrastructure and security and validate that all systems are secure, compliant, and integrated with existing technologies. Their challenges with more basic approaches to security include:
- Weak security due to simple logins and passwords
- Inability to track workspace access or file downloads
- Lack of project compartmentalization for security isolation
- Limited control over personal workspace usage and data movement
With Organizational Security Package, IT security managers can:
- Easily manage user access with existing SSO tools (Okta, Microsoft Azure AD, Google Workspaces, etc.)
- Use existing SIEM for enhanced compliance and centralized security visibility
- Enhance security through IP whitelisting to prevent unauthorized access
- Compartmentalize design data across teams and workspaces
- Control the creation and use of personal workspaces
- Apply standardized security policies through group management
Cross-Functional Team Members
Cross-functional team members collaborate with the design team and may include electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing engineers, system architects, and project managers. These team members encounter challenges similar to those faced by engineering managers, and also these:
- Tracking feedback from design reviews
- Triggering system errors with manual task updates
- Suffering from insufficient storage for project data management
- Lacking visibility into changes and project updates
Organizational Security Package provides these teams with:
- Streamlined design feedback with Design Review
- Real-time updates through Jira integration
- Separate workspaces for focused work
- Unlimited, secure data storage
- Comprehensive project visibility
These cross-functional needs illustrate why organizational security tools must balance protection with productivity. Organizational Security Package addresses both aspects by providing robust security features while enhancing collaboration capabilities.
Check Our Education Hub!
Free Webinars, Extensive Courses, and Much More Available to You.
Best Practices for Implementing Organizational Security
Implementing effective organizational security requires careful planning and a structured approach. Electronics design teams can protect their intellectual property while maintaining productivity and sustaining best practices for collaboration.
Assess Your Security Requirements
Before implementing new security tools, conduct a thorough assessment of your current security posture:
- Identify all valuable intellectual property that you should protect
- Document workflows that involve sensitive design data
- Evaluate existing security controls and understand their limitations
- Determine compliance requirements specific to your industry
- Map out your team’s structure and collaboration patterns
This assessment provides the foundation to develop a tailored security implementation plan that addresses your unique needs without disrupting established workflows.
Integrate with Existing Enterprise Security
Organizational security should connect seamlessly with your existing enterprise security infrastructure:
- Configure SSO integration with your identity provider (e.g., Okta, OneLogin, Microsoft Azure AD, Google Workspaces)
- Implement MFA through your existing authentication systems
- Connect event logs to your SIEM solution using the API
- Align IP whitelisting rules with your network security policies
- Document integration points for audit and compliance purposes
By leveraging existing security systems, you reduce configuration busywork and ensure consistent policy enforcement across all organizational systems.
Establish Group-Based Access Controls
Managing security at the individual user level quickly becomes unmanageable as teams grow. Instead:
- Define security groups based on roles or teams
- Assign standardized permissions to groups rather than to individuals
- Document group purposes and permission levels
- Implement approval processes for when group membership changes
- Review group structures quarterly to ensure alignment with the current team organization
This approach simplifies administration while establishing consistent security controls across similar users.
Monitor and Respond to Security Events
Implementing security controls is only effective when combined with ongoing monitoring:
- Configure alerts for suspicious user activity
- Establish response procedures for security incidents
- Conduct regular reviews of access patterns and event logs
- Document security events and resolution actions
- Use insights from monitoring to refine security controls
Regular monitoring enables early detection of potential security issues before they result in data breaches or theft of intellectual property.
Provide User Training
Even the most sophisticated security tools count on proper user behavior:
- Train all users on security features and their importance
- Create documentation for security procedures
- Establish clear guidance for handling sensitive design data
- Conduct periodic security awareness refreshers
- Solicit feedback on security measures to identify friction points
User education transforms data security and compliance from an obstacle into a collaborative effort that everyone understands and supports.
By following these best practices, electronics development teams can implement organizational security processes that protect valuable intellectual property while fostering collaboration and productivity.
Altium 365 offers a suite of solutions for all levels of cloud data security, including Organizational Security Package and GovCloud for US government security and compliance requirements. These solutions are specifically engineered for electronics design workflows, offering intuitive controls that security administrators and hardware development teams both appreciate.
Recommended Reading
Whitepaper
Altium 365 Security Approach and Practices
Explore Altium 365’s architecture and security measures
Webinar
The Anatomy of IT Compliance
Discover strategies for safeguarding your intellectual property
Article
Securely Share Design Files with External Teams
Learn best practices and email/file hosting risks
Frequently Asked Questions
IP whitelisting allows you to add IP rules, with each rule containing individual IPs or IP ranges. This flexibility accommodates remote teams while maintaining security. When setting up IP whitelisting, be sure to whitelist your own IP address first to avoid accidentally blocking yourself.
Yes, Altium 365 Organizational Security Package includes an SIEM Integration API that supports connecting to your existing Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system. This integration provides comprehensive event tracking and reporting for compliance and security monitoring purposes.
Altium 365 Workspace Controls allow administrators to manage the creation of new workspaces, enforce standardized security policies, and control the use of personal spaces. This prevents unauthorized data sharing and ensures consistent security practices across your organization's design environment.
Unlimited data storage ensures your team can store all projects and component libraries without space constraints or infrastructure concerns. This eliminates the need to selectively archive projects due to storage limitations, keeping the complete design history secure and accessible.
For distributed teams, prioritize Single Sign-On (SSO) with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), IP whitelisting capabilities, comprehensive activity logging, and secure access from any location. These features enable productive collaboration while maintaining strict control over your valuable design data.
Comprehensive logging, access controls, and integration with enterprise security systems help with regulatory compliance. These features provide the audit trails and security measures needed to demonstrate compliance with various regulations regarding data protection and access control.