Ensuring that your business’ network and sensitive data are all secure is vital in protecting your company’s reputation. It’s also important in making sure there are no interruptions to your business continuity. However, with cybercriminals being as determined as they are, they’re constantly using sophisticated tools and complex methods to infiltrate their target.
All of this means that it’s more challenging for developers to be ahead of cybercriminals in terms of protecting their software. Knowing all this, your team must detect security vulnerabilities in your network before malicious agents have the opportunity to exploit them.
Software security is the process of designing, creating, and testing software with security in mind and where the app identifies and resolves issues in itself. This involves a very proactive approach, primarily taking place during the pre-deployment stage.
In today’s modern world, a cyberattack can easily cost a company hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in data loss, issue resolution, and operational incapacity. This applies to organizations of all sizes. Common malicious attacks such as command injections, SQL injections, and buffer overflow can harm a business’ reputation and compromise valuable information.
Software issues are not all the same. Here we’ll break them down further:
Software security flaws are software defects that pose a high-security risk. A software defect often occurs due to a human error during the software development lifecycle, and security engineers have been concerned about its elimination for a long time. However, not all software defects will result in a security risk; those that do are security flaws.
If we consider a security flaw is the same as a software defect, then we must also assume that by removing all software defects, security flaws would also be eliminated. This theory, on the other hand, underlies the correlation between software engineering and secure programming.
Contrary to popular belief, not all security flaws necessarily result in vulnerabilities. Be that as it may, most security flaws can cause a code to be vulnerable to attacks as the program’s input data passes through a security partition on its way to the program. This can happen when a program carrying a security flaw is installed with certain execution rights greater than the user running the software.
On top of the flaws and security vulnerabilities that can be found in legacy software, the majority of new software developed also depends on previously developed components to function. Programs often utilize third-party components or other available off-the-shelf software.
Developers often do this practice as it saves them time and valuable resources during the production phase of their project. However, a consequence of using these unverified components is, no matter how flawless of a code a developer writes, the application is still privy to vulnerabilities because of a flaw in one of the used components.
Cyberattacks show no sign of letting up any time soon. Security professionals are predicting that these malicious activities will only grow in quantity and complexity. Because of this imminent threat, maintaining secure software is vital to ensure business continuity. The truth is, not every vulnerability can be completely foreseen or prevented, but the majority of these can still be avoided by observing the following methods:
From the very beginning, it’s important that your company already makes sure that all security requirements are correctly defined and followed throughout the entire software development lifecycle. The details should involve business objectives, company policies, risk management methodologies, and applicable regulations.
There’s a clear set of coding standards, such as SEI Cert C Coding Standard, CWE or Common Weakness Enumeration, and of course, the OWASP Secure Coding Practices. These are meant to help you and your company efficiently spot, prevent, and eliminate software weaknesses.
Once the primary development phase is completed, you must have your software reviewed by a qualified third-party who had no involvement in the initial stages of the development lifecycle. It’s of utmost importance that the software passes all the security requirements that have been set, and it must also address the identified risk information.
Significantly reduce the probability of vulnerability exposure by managing the number of unverified third-party components that your company uses. However, it’s unreasonable to believe that developers would fully refrain from obtaining components or software from third-party sources, especially for a development team that’s on a tighter deadline.
A way for an organization to be safer from risky elements though is by using secure and authentic software. Usually, these hold a code signing certificate from trusted brands, such as https://codesigningstore.com. By opting for elements such as these, you can be confident that these components and software have gone through a stringent review process to ensure confidence.
When executed properly, reusing secure and well-built components can help your development team speed up the software development lifecycle while also lowering project costs. Most importantly, making the most out of these secure functionalities would reduce the chances of introducing new security flaws or vulnerabilities in the software.
Continuously running, reviewing, and testing your software throughout the development lifecycle is important if you want to guarantee the success of the project. You must be aggressive in finding any existing weaknesses in your code to help with its timely elimination. A static code analyzer is something you can utilize during the testing stage since it’s an effective method in identifying and addressing the issue.
If you’re constantly looking out for vulnerabilities, you are restricting a malicious agent’s movements and their chances of breaching and attacking your network. It is of utmost importance for companies to regularly check, analyze, and examine code to learn any risks. Build a structured and effective response strategy to aid security professionals in reporting and logging flaws and weaknesses as soon as they arise.
There are a lot of benefits if you choose to partner with a software development vendor, especially if they’re a well-trusted firm with an established background. Partners such as these would help your company with efficient and secure software development projects, with a mixture of cost efficiency, flexibility, and professionalism.
Respected development companies often pride themselves in their expertise in the field of technology and security and are well-informed and up-to-date about the current hazards in the industry, as well as the best practices to mitigate them.
Choosing a software development partner is not an easy task that organizations should take lightly. There are many things to consider, such as credibility, experience, transparency, and trust.
With security being one of your primary concerns though there are few things you must first confirm with potential partners:
Do they support the security of developed software? Is it a common practice for them to add patches and modify the code when necessary?
Do they manually review code during the development lifecycle and regularly scan them for vulnerabilities?
It’s vital for your company to partner with a vendor that puts your software—and network —security as a priority. Meaning, regularly analyzing code, monitoring the system, and resolving vulnerabilities efficiently should be a regular part of their service.
We’ve listed down the top advantages of partnering with an offshore software development company to help you make the right decision for your company’s security and success:
An established offshore software development vendor is an expert in their industry, especially with network security. They are well-informed about the current risks and threats out in the field, and they make it a point to be updated with the best solutions to resolve them.
Working with the right company means you can have access to a team of software security professionals that would not only ensure your applications’ safety but also turn your business requirements into a dependable product.
It’s well-known that outsourcing provides businesses with a cost-efficient way to improve their business processes and expand their operation. It’s the same thing with outsourcing software development. By choosing an offshore development vendor, you save a lot on the development process while still getting high-quality service and reliable products.
The entire software development lifecycle demands a lot of valuable resources and time. It requires undivided attention, more so on the main objectives, from the initial planning to product deployment.
To support and sustain the project, you must have an assigned team managing the duties and maintaining the software. Outsourcing can help businesses minimize their liabilities while maximizing available resources.
In today’s market, companies are in constant competition to produce functional and innovative solutions the fastest. This is another benefit of partnering with an offshore development company.
Since they already have the tools, the manpower, and other needed resources, they could work on your project seamlessly. Unlike doing the development in-house where you’d need to hire and form the right team, conduct training, and perform research, which would take way more time.