Security Measures Your Dev Team Needs to Implement During Their Next Project

More than eight out of 10 software breaches exploit vulnerabilities at the application level, according to a study by Carnegie-Mellon. Many of these security gaps are avoidable by putting the right security measures in place. Yet, software gets released with bugs and security flaws all the time. In fact, the State of Software Security report revealed that three-quarters of all applications have at least one security flaw.

The Importance of Software Security Measures

Software security is crucial, especially in today’s cloud-connected environment. A code vulnerability can be a gateway for threat actors to access proprietary data, customer information, and company networks. Because software is critical to business operations, breaches can cause significant disruption and expensive problems.

At the same time, the number — and severity — of cyberattacks is increasing. 75% of security professionals have reported an increase in the number of attacks. Generative AI tools have only added to the problem.

Critical Security Measures in Software

Keeping software secure from cybercriminals starts with a security mindset and deploying best practices.

Design with Security in Mind

Cybersecurity is not something you add at the end of the dev cycle. You need to design projects with security in mind from the very start.

DevOps teams focus on agile and scrum methodologies to drive projects forward and often don’t place enough emphasis on security. Solving these security challenges means changing the culture and embedding cybersecurity into every phase of development.

This is a holistic approach to anticipate, identify, and remediate security gaps as they arise, turning DevOps into DevSecOps.

Manage the Security Basics

Software developers also need to ensure the security basics are in place, including:

• Application firewalls
• Anti-virus programs
• Strict access and authentication controls
• Data encryption
• Network segmentation
• Software updates and patch management

Monitoring and Testing

The key to this strategy is monitoring and testing. Remote monitoring and management software (RMM software) can help developers spot potential problems. But what is RMM software? Rather than taking a break-fix approach, dev and support teams can be more proactive. Real-time monitoring during production and into deployment can help provide automated alerts and detailed reporting and analytics.

Continuous testing throughout development can prevent security flaws from slipping into production, while RMM software can help reduce support calls. Agents installed on client devices can help spot service-level issues before they become significant problems.

Threat Modeling

As part of the overall approach to security, software should also be exposed to threat modeling to look for flaws. Common strategies include:

• Identifying assets: Taking inventory of the important data, systems, processes, or other assets that need to be protected.
• Creating a system architecture overview: Documenting the design, architecture, code, systems, and processes so there is visibility into potential vulnerabilities.
• Decomposing the application: Breaking down the application into components and functions to analyze each one for threats.
• Actively identifying threats: Looking at each component to define potential threats like unauthorized access, data interception/tampering, lack of input validation, or injection attacks.
• Rating risks: Assigning qualitative ratings around damage potential and likelihood for each identified threat to prioritize higher-risk vulnerabilities.
• Threat mitigation: Develop mitigation strategies, security controls, or design changes to address the threats, with priority for higher-rated risks.
• Validating software: Retesting threat modeling at various stages after mitigation controls are implemented to evaluate effectiveness.

The goal is to systematically evaluate application security through the lens of potential attackers to proactively address vulnerabilities.

Identifying and Mitigating Security Flaws

Threat actors today are deploying increasingly sophisticated and dangerous attacks. With the stakes so high, dev teams must employ robust security regimens to identify and mitigate flaws. Building a holistic approach to security from project inception to deployment, along with such security measures monitoring, testing, and threat modeling, can help ensure optimal security practices.