Secure software development entails the utilization of several processes, including the implementation of a Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) and secure coding itself.
Considering the surge in successful cyberattacks taking advantage of software vulnerabilities, it’s become essential for organizations to purchase and use only the safest software.
This is why a secure software development policy is essential. A secure software development policy is a set of guidelines detailing the practices and procedures an organization should follow to decrease the risk of vulnerabilities during software development.
In addition, the policy should provide detailed instruction on viewing, assessing, and demonstrating security through each phase of the SDLC, including risk management approaches.
It’s essential that a secure software development policy establish rules. The team members of organizations must clearly understand their duties, receive thorough training and undergo strict employee screening.
Instituting segregation of duties ensures no one person has total control or knowledge of a project. Testing protocols need to assess all employee work in order to ensure acceptable standards.
One of the keys of secure software development is input data validation, the process of ensuring that input data is accurate and complies with the requirement of the input field.
All data originating from outside the software, whether from clients’ or other interface applications, must always be treated as questionable. Issues arising from vulnerabilities at input are carried through the system to output.
Equally important is the encoding of data before execution. One of the vulnerabilities that facilitate many injection attacks is when the database is not adequately isolated from the running code.
Though isolation may curtail, to some extent, some of these attacks, a better standard security measure is to encode data, making it safe before it is used. Encoded data is transformed into unrecognizable executable statements before being passed to the respective interpreter.
Want to learn more? Tonex offers Secure Software Development Training, a 3-day hands-on course where participants learn techniques and guidelines for developing secure software.
Best industry practices are discussed to prevent security vulnerabilities in web-based, mobile, common business applications, enterprise, defense and embedded software systems. Secure Software Development Training course contains a mix of lecture, case studies, workshops and hands-on exercises that emphasize secure application and software development.
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.