Open Source Technologies have gained massive adoption in the software industry and today there is no apprehension in adopting them to quickly implement a custom enterprise solution. However, extreme caution should be held while integrating these open source technologies as they are highly vulnerable from cybersecurity threats. Ensuring App Security during the design and development phases is one of the key value adds for an enterprise IT team when they work with us.

Best Practices for Secure Software Development

In the digital economy, Security cannot be an afterthought. Security has to be an aspect considered at every decision point in the design process. The Right way to approach Security is to integrate security into the Software Development Life Cycle itself. While there are no standard practices, we adopt some key guidelines and best practices for a secure software development life cycle

The following are some of the best practices we adopt for infusing security by design in our software products:

 

Requirements Gathering

Identify regulatory and compliance assumptions: A business security executive helps assess legal or compliance (Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) HIPAA, GLBA, etc.) risks involved and provide alternatives.

Functional Design

Update the regulatory and compliance assumptions are incorporated in the application design document.

Data Classification

Data classification is a crucial step. Based on the sensitivity of data being collected, stored and transmitted, the data should be classified. The results determine to what extent the data needs to be secured.

Prepare System Boundary Document

This document identifies the boundary where the control is transferred to or from the external system. This document helps identify areas where extra security controls need to be put in place. It can also serve as an input to the threat modeling document.

Review by Business Security Executive

The functional document should be reviewed and signed off by the business security executive after ensuring adherence to regulatory and compliance policies.

Security Design Document

Based on the inputs from the above process, we create a security design document which incorporates the following elements:

  • Identify and document technical assumptions for storing user-identity related information
  • Prepare misuse cases
  • Prepare a threat model
  • Data backup strategies
  • Data transmission strategies
  • Authentication strategy