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In this era of digital transformation and continual change, building secure, high-quality software is more challenging than ever. The technological world is constantly evolving, and with it, so are cyber threats. Your company’s protection methods may already be outdated and need to be replaced by more advanced approaches, strategies, and technologies.
Secure software development life cycle helps businesses harden the system and protect it from threats.
Different projects require different levels of security and must comply with relevant industry-specific requirements and regional regulations. It’s essential to incorporate required practices from the very beginning. Without a clear understanding of exactly what level of security your project requires, metrics, and constant refinement of cybersecurity practices applied to your project, external attacks can compromise the safety of the entire system.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to secure the software development process and ensure that the end product will be ready to ward off any attacks.
A secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC) is a framework that integrates security into every phase of the software development process. Unlike traditional approaches that add security as an afterthought, SSDLC ensures that security is considered from the initial planning stages through deployment and maintenance.
Secure SDLC involves following specific security practices and standards throughout the entire software development process, from functional requirements gathering and analysis to development and deployment.
Secure SDLC benefits your business by:
The secure software development process protects the software from unauthorized access and ensures the required level of compliance. Moreover, constant monitoring for vulnerabilities leads to better software quality and mitigates business risk.
To ensure SDLC security, it’s important to maintain the security of the software supply chain—that is, the security of everything that in any way affects the software throughout its development. In practice, software supply chain security is about assuring the security of the components, activities, and practices associated with the creation and deployment of software. This may include program code, deployment methods and infrastructure, interfaces and protocols, as well as development methods and tools.
At NIX, we recommend implementing security practices from the beginning of the software development life cycle, thus optimizing the cost of further system changes for and creating a high-quality, secure product.
During the first stage of the secure SDLC, we define risks, standards, and requirements specific to business domains and locations depending on the industry and future use cases. It’s essential to include both technical and regulatory requirements to quickly identify and fix potentially non-compliant areas of your project.
This comprises both standard cybersecurity rules and practices and regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, and CCPA. The team then selects the best-suited secure SDLC methodology and drafts a plan for all stages of secure software development.
During the design stage of the secure SDLC, our experts perform threat assessments and build app risk models for software. Based on the security requirements defined, engineers build the architecture of future software.
NIX engineers create solutions based on experience working with a variety of projects—from large enterprise systems to simple applications—and always take into account the specifics of the solution and its domain.
Our experts strictly follow guidelines and requirements for secure SDLC such as the OWASP security development and testing guide and ASVS. We use the latest version of libraries and frameworks and monitor the software for cybersecurity risks. After that, we conduct software composition analysis (SCA) and static application security testing (SAST), which allows experts to detect security concerns during the software development phase. This provides immediate feedback to the developer on issues they might introduce into the code during development.
If necessary, we also provide additional security hardening to comply with the specific business domain and relevant policies.
We provide holistic testing to ensure the secure and efficient functioning of the software. Our internal security team implements dynamic application security testing (DAST) in projects using security scanners such as OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) and Burp Suite Pro, among others. This exposes security vulnerabilities by simulating attacks at runtime and pinpointing configuration errors that impact security.
Our team also conducts security testing according to OWASP methodology and periodic penetration tests to simulate cyber attacks against software and all related elements to check for exploitable vulnerabilities.
At the final stage of the secure SDLC, we deploy the software to production, set up secure configurations, and utilize post-production strategies that prevent and stop potential threats. The team also implements firewalls and other solutions that monitor traffic and send notifications about any deviations.
No less critical is third-party software tracking—vulnerabilities in third-party elements can weaken an entire system. It’s essential to monitor their security and fix vulnerable spots when necessary—systematic analyses of third-party software help spot areas threatened by compromised components so you can subsequently protect them.
In some cases, the team creates an incident response plan that explicitly describes your incident team’s steps to address any security breaches. Prompt execution of the response plan is vital to addressing security breaches.
Cybersecurity is a dynamic field, and its systems must continually evolve to be able to solve potential threats. NIX engineers provide such analyses that estimate if the current security level is sufficient for the software. Our engineers provide ways to improve the security level and ensure architecture scalability while considering further project evolution by working out the architecture.
Based on our security team’s experience, we can assuredly say that using any model is much better than not using any model at all. Either of the below secure SDLC approaches will allow you to understand the current situation in the project and build a long-term strategy that will level up security in all areas of your development, making your product more secure.
Building Security in Maturity Model (BSIMM) is a security model that measures software security and maturity, comprising 12 practices organized into four domains: governance, intelligence, SSDL touchpoints, and deployment.
It provides an objective view of your current software security initiative (SSI), gives you insight into how your SSI matches the SSIs of other BSIMM members in your industry and shows year-over-year progress.
The Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) firstly was designed as a set of internal methods for Microsoft’s own product protection.
Later, the company shared these practices with the world. Microsoft SDL is an authoritative methodology that provides time-proven best practices and tips to companies on how to achieve better software security.
Microsoft SDL is constantly being tested on various company’s software and is regularly updated to respond to ever-evolving security risks, covering most aspects of security.
At NIX, we adhere more to OWASP Software Assurance Maturity Model (SAMM) because it’s an authoritative model that’s fully defined, measurable, and easy to follow—even for those not involved in security. It allows companies to analyze current software security practices, build a security plan in specific iterations, demonstrate progressive enhancements in security procedures, and measure security-related activities.
We often also use a more advanced OWASP project called the DevSecOps Maturity Model (DSOMM), which implements an extended set of SAMM and also covers ISO.
Below is the comprehensive framework we use for a 360° security audit. After assessing and deeply analyzing your current business needs, our team applies only the components that will help you achieve the level of security you need.
Regulation compliance is an essential base that needs to be considered at the early stages of the secure SDLC—check if your business idea implies compliance with industry-specific requirements or country limitations and if you can meet those standards.
In case of violations, there could be serious consequences—from jeopardizing the organization’s reputation to hefty fines and even bankruptcy or legal liabilities.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the core of Europe’s privacy legislation that requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens. The GDPR additionally controls personal data exportation outside the EU. GDPR protects primary identity data, healthcare-related data, biometric data, and more.
Any organization that stores or operates personal information about EU citizens must comply with GDPR—even if they don’t have a business in the EU—and keep those guidelines during all stages of the secure SDLC.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) allows any California resident the right to see all data the company has collected on them and a list of all third parties that own this data. Moreover, California law entitles consumers to sue organizations if they think the act was violated—even if there is no breach in security.
All organizations in California that have at least $25 million of annual revenue must comply with the CCPA. Likewise, companies of any size with personal data on at least 50,000 people fall under this regulation. Remember to ensure that your software meets these standards from the very beginning of the secure SDLC.
HIPAA refers to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and assures patients’ protected health information (PHI) remains confidential.
HIPAA-covered entities are individuals or companies that receive, forward, or update electronically protected health information (ePHI) or electronic health records (EHRs).
Every business that deals with patient health information should ensure they use HIPAA-compliant software and follow procedures to maintain the security of this information to avoid sensitive data breaches and secure the SDLC.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a collection of requirements to ensure that all companies that process, store, or transmit credit card data are protected.
PCI DSS applies to those who work with and are associated with payment card processing. This includes wholesalers of all sizes, financial organizations, point-of-sale software vendors, and developers who build and manage the infrastructure for payment processing.
Before we begin reviewing best practices, let’s look at what secure SDLC-related challenges many developers face:
Fortunately, our experience allows us to overcome these potential problems in the most effective manner. We’ll tell you exactly how we do this in the next paragraph.
Development and security teams need to receive precise requirements that are easy to follow. This applies to all security tips, recommendations, and manuals. Any vulnerabilities discovered during the testing stage of the secure software development life cycle should be easy to fix. It’s ess
Secure SDLC goes side-by-side with a set of related processes, including:
These will help effectively incorporate secure SDLC and put all the pieces together to see the big picture.
Training must be a crucial part of your organization’s security DNA and be performed regularly, not just once a year. Having well-established security training for your employees will go a long way in protecting your data and assets.
Since the secure SDLC will change the way security and development teams operate and interact, it’s vital that everyone approach the experience with an open mind. The security team should strive to empower developers to secure their applications on their own.
It’s better to focus on the most pressing issues and actionable solutions, rather than fixing every vulnerability you find. While the latter approach will work for new or small applications, it won’t necessarily work for legacy software and will require much more effort from the development team.
A triage approach can be useful since it not only prevents security hurdles in the production stage but also ensures that existing vulnerabilities are addressed and eliminated.
If the software is already built, it’s often easier for the engineering team to implement secure SDLC changes if they are performed alongside other modifications such as cloud migration and DevOps initiatives.
Finally, let’s check the trends that will define best practices for secure SDLC in the coming years.
With the popularization of preventative security measures, early and continuous testing will likely gain momentum in the coming years. This practice requires testing techniques to be applied from the very beginning, rather than later in development. Ultimately, this allows development teams to deliver high quality products on time and on the lowest possible budgets.
Microservices involve breaking up a software solution into independently deployable modules (services). Because code is fragmented, security practices are expected to include this architecture as well, as it adds vulnerabilities to the code. These include improved isolation mechanisms and zero-trust security models.
Since artificial intelligence and machine learning have been actively used by hackers, development companies must take specific measures using the same solutions to counter their attacks. In particular, advanced solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning can automate the detection of threats and anomalies, as well as speed up response to incidents.
Container isolation provides a robust security mechanism by isolating applications within their own dedicated environments. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access and minimizes the impact of security breaches, making it a crucial component of a secure software development lifecycle.
NIX builds software with particular emphasis on security, based on in-depth technical knowledge and 30+ years of experience providing solutions for industries with high-security requirements.
We have a top-notch in-house team with extensive experience implementing high-security standards in various fields that constantly sharpen their skill sets and stay caught up with ever-evolving industry demands. Our responsibilities include conducting security training programs for testers and developers, continually advancing their development, testing skills, and enhancing core processes.
Furthermore, we can engage in solving cybersecurity challenges for existing products and help you build long-term strategies for new software. Contact us to discuss how we can help your business grow through secure software development.
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