Week 18: Defend the System With Evidence

The capstone does not ask you to prove a system is secure. No responsible review can prove that from a classroom test set.

Your job is harder and more useful: build a coherent system dossier, run a defined test matrix, show which controls worked or failed in the fictional environment, explain limitations, prioritize next actions, and defend every major claim with evidence.

This week

1. Freeze the System Model and Test Plan — define the exact capstone configuration, requirements, assumptions, and acceptance criteria before testing.
2. Test Normal, Boundary, Failure, and Recovery States — run the complete evidence matrix and repair one represented failure without moving the goalposts.
3. Defend Claims, Limits, and Next Actions — produce the final technical dossier and leadership defense.

Final artifact

Submit a Defensive Systems Review Dossier containing architecture, requirements, evidence registry, test matrix, failure/recovery case, risk register, control map, monitoring plan, remediation roadmap, leadership summary, and explicit limitations.