The Strategic Case for CHERI

CHERI helps prevent many memory-safety vulnerabilities by design, creating the foundations for more secure and resilient systems.

Organisations face growing pressure to improve cybersecurity, strengthen resilience, and demonstrate secure-by-design practices. Yet many critical systems still depend on large bodies of existing software that cannot simply be replaced.

CHERI offers a practical approach. By adding hardware-enforced memory protection and compartmentalisation, it helps reduce the impact of memory-safety vulnerabilities while preserving the value of existing software investments.

Reduce Risk

CHERI can help reduce cyber risk by addressing one of the most persistent classes of software vulnerabilities at the hardware level. It supports secure-by-design objectives, strengthens critical systems, and helps create a more resilient digital ecosystem.

Cyberattacks impose enormous costs on organisations worldwide, disrupting services, delaying operations, damaging trust, and creating financial losses. Most importantly, they have reached a scale where national security can be impacted.

Investing in stronger security is a way to reduce that risk, at any level:

• Less operational risk for technology users
• Less risk of disrupting development or sales for product developers
• Reduced national cyber risk for governments

Reducing risk is not only about preventing incidents. It is also about reducing uncertainty and improving confidence in the systems your organisation depends on.

Preserve Investment

Many organisations and products rely on software that has been developed, tested, and maintained over many years. Replacing this software is often expensive, disruptive, or impractical.

CHERI is designed to strengthen existing software rather than require a complete rewrite. Rather than replacing proven software, organisations can often strengthen and modernise it incrementally, allowing them to improve security while continuing to benefit from established processes and accumulated expertise.

CHERI can help organisations:

• Extend the life of existing software assets
• Protect previous engineering investments
• Make new products and platforms more durable

Rather than choosing between accepting risk and rewriting everything, CHERI provides a third option: strengthen what already exists.

Build Trust

Customers, regulators, governments, and insurers increasingly expect products and services to be secure by design. Organisations must not only improve security, but also demonstrate that appropriate protections are in place.

CHERI provides security mechanisms that are enforced by hardware, making protection stronger, measurable, and easier to demonstrate. This can support assurance activities, strengthen security claims, and increase confidence among stakeholders.

The result can be:

• Greater customer confidence
• Stronger security assurance
• Support for regulatory and procurement expectations
• Improved product and brand reputation
• A clearer demonstration of secure-by-design principles

Trust is difficult to build and easy to lose. Stronger foundations can help organisations protect both their systems and their reputation.

Create Competitive Advantage

Security is increasingly influencing purchasing decisions, procurement requirements, and regulatory expectations. Organisations that invest early in stronger security foundations can be better positioned to meet future customer expectations and secure-by-design requirements.

Depending on their role, organisations or their customers may benefit from:

• Lower ownership and maintenance costs
• Reduced disruption from security incidents
• Stronger product differentiation
• Increased customer confidence
• Better alignment with emerging security regulations
• Access to new markets and opportunities

As security expectations continue to rise, investing in resilient technologies today can help organisations prepare for tomorrow’s requirements.

A Strategic Investment in Resilience

CHERI is more than a security technology. It helps organisations reduce risk, protect software investments, build trust, and prepare for future security expectations. For organisations seeking stronger security without discarding decades of software development, CHERI offers a practical path towards more resilient products and services.