How To Ensure Cyber Security In Software Development: 12 best practices for outsourcing

The common phrase “information is power” has never been more relevant than today. But, as we know, with great power comes great responsibility. Every business out there deals with sensitive data and is tasked with the challenge to protect it.

As an outsourcing partner, we are used to designing bespoke solutions adherent to best cybersecurity standards for our clients and acquired a lot of experience in this field. 

In this article, we wanted to share the best practices we discovered to protect your company and data that you can easily incorporate.

Cyber security is the practice of protecting computer systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, damage, or threats.

In software development, it plays a crucial role in safeguarding software applications against potential security breaches. It involves implementing security controls and measures to mitigate risks and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and systems.

Identifying and mitigating software vulnerabilities is crucial. The most common include insecure authentication mechanisms, poor input validation, and inadequate error handling. Developers can reduce the risk of these vulnerabilities by implementing secure coding practices and conducting regular security audits.

Cyber attacks and threats pose significant challenges to software. Developers should be proactive to detect and respond to these attacks effectively. This involves implementing intrusion detection systems, conducting penetration testing, and staying updated with the latest security threats and attack techniques.

Protecting sensitive data is paramount in software development alike. This can be achieved through adopting proper network security measures, such as implementing firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and secure communication protocols. Encrypting data in transit and at rest can further enhance the security of the software.

It’s well understood that ensuring cyber security is a critical aspect of protecting digital assets, user data, and maintaining the trust of customers and stakeholders.

Implementing the following best practices throughout the software engineering lifecycle

Train developers to write secure code that avoids common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and insecure authentication.

The first step in this direction is creating a set of guidelines and standards. These should cover various aspects of the secure software development lifecycle like input validation, output encoding, secure authentication mechanisms, data storage, and encryption.

Next, document your practices. Documentation will guide your developers and help define measurable KPIs to ensure compliance. You can create them in any form: cheat sheets, code snippets, or examples. 

Finally, make sure your engineering resources also comply with your standards to ensure cyber security in software development.

Threat modeling is a structured process used to identify, assess, and mitigate potential cyber threats and vulnerabilities in software. It involves systematically analyzing the potential attack vectors and risks that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and systems. It's a vital part of cyber security in software development.

The goal of this process is to proactively identify and address security issues during the design and development phases, rather than attempting to fix them after deployment.

Conduct modeling exercises to identify potential security risks early in the project development. As said, analyze potential attack vectors and design appropriate mitigations to address them.

Here are the stages of a threat modeling process:

By regularly conducting threat modeling exercises, you can proactively identify potential security risks at an early stage and design robust mitigations to address them. It's a great way to strengthen your cyber security in software development practices.

To improve your cyber security in software development, perform frequent security testing, including static analysis (SAST) and dynamic analysis (DAST), to identify and fix vulnerabilities before deployment. 

Here's a brief explanation of these testing methodologies and their main differences:

SAST is a white-box method that analyzes the source code, bytecode, or binary code of an application without executing it. It examines the app's internal structure, data flows, and control flows to identify potential security vulnerabilities.

DAST is a black-box testing method that simulates real-world attacks by interacting with a running instance of the application. It focuses on identifying vulnerabilities that can be exploited during runtime, such as input validation issues, injection attacks, and authentication bypasses.

An ultimate scenario with maximal efficiency is applying interactive application security testing (IAST) and runtime application self-protection (RASP) for real-time defense.

IAST combines elements of both SAST and DAST. It aims to provide a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of an application's security vulnerabilities by analyzing code in a runtime environment. 

For its part, RASP is a technology that embeds cyber security controls directly into the application's runtime environment. Unlike other measures that focus on external protection, RASP operates from within the application itself, actively monitoring and defending against potential threats and attacks in real-time.

Establish a solid process for tracking and addressing vulnerabilities. Create a system for patch management and stay informed about the latest security patches and updates for third-party libraries and components.

One of the tenets of cyber security in software development is that your inner-company passwords should be as protected as the data of your clients. It's always a good idea to implement strong authorization mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication, for example, requiring a password and a unique code to log into a company's account.

To make sure you don't foster opportunities for security breaches, follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights. Restrict user access permissions to only what they need to perform their job responsibilities.

It's important to regularly review and update access policies to ensure they reflect changes in roles and functions.

One of the main principles of cyber security in software development is encryption. When it comes to data at rest, meaning the one stored or archived, employ encryption ensures to keep it unreadable even if it’s compromised. This is achieved by converting the plaintext data into ciphertext using encryption algorithms. The encrypted data can only be deciphered with the correct encryption key, acting as a digital lock.

Similarly, data in transit, i.e. the one being transmitted over networks or between systems, also needs to be encrypted to prevent eavesdropping or interception. Encryption will make it difficult for attackers to gain access or manipulate the information, ensuring it remains secure while traveling.

To effectively protect sensitive data, implement strong encryption algorithms such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which is widely recognized and recommended for its security. AES uses symmetric encryption, where the same key is used for both ciphering and deciphering. Additionally, ensure keeping up with the latest encryption standards and practices, as stronger algorithms may emerge over time.

Key management is another critical aspect of encryption. It involves securely generating, distributing, and storing encryption keys. Utilize secure practices such as generating random and unique keys, periodically rotating them, and storing them in a secure location separate from the encrypted data.

Secure APIs are another way to provide cyber security in software development. If your software interacts with external systems or provides APIs, you need to secure them against attacks like injection, parameter manipulation, and authentication bypass as well.

To do this, you can follow these key steps:

It's vital to remember about all the elements of your software infrastructures such as configurations for servers, databases, and other components.

Maintaining secure configurations for servers, databases, and other components is crucial for a robust security posture. Here are some key steps to follow:

By following these steps, you can maintain a secure configuration for your servers, databases, and other components, reducing the risk of a security breach. This improves your company's cyber security in software development.

Conduct regular code reviews and encourage peer testing, collaborative efforts can help identify and address vulnerabilities early.

Code reviews help ensure the work done is fail-proof and safe by reviewing it with a fresh eye. By regularly conducting them, developers can catch vulnerabilities that might have been overlooked initially.

Peer testing, on the other hand, involves having other developers or team members test the software independently to find any flaws or security loopholes. A stranger’s perspective also significantly adds to the code’s security.

Encouraging a regular collaborative approach to code reviews and peer testing will greatly improve the effectiveness of identifying and addressing security threats. It will allow for catching issues early in the process and minimizing the risk of vulnerabilities slipping into production.

CI/CD are the practices and processes that aim to improve the efficiency, quality, and speed of software development and deployment.

Continuous Integration (CI): CI involves the frequent integration of code changes from multiple developers into a shared repository. Each time a developer makes a commit, automated build and testing processes are triggered to quickly detect and address any possible integration issues, such as conflicting changes or broken builds. CI ensures that the codebase is always in a stable and functional state, peeding up delivery by saving time for fixing errors.

Continuous Deployment (CD) / Continuous Delivery: CD is the practice of automatically deploying code changes to production or staging environments after passing through the CI process. Continuous Delivery refers to automatically preparing code changes for deployment, ensuring they are in a deployable state at any time. Continuous Deployment, on the other hand, goes a step further by fully automating the deployment process, and pushing code changes to production as soon as they pass all tests and checks.

To implement CI/CD, development teams typically use various tools and technologies, such as version control systems (e.g., Git), automated build and testing tools (e.g., Jenkins, Travis CI, CircleCI), containerization platforms (e.g., Docker), and deployment orchestration tools (e.g., Kubernetes). These tools work together to automate the entire software development lifecycle, from code changes to deployment.

Security awareness training helps create a more security-conscious and proactive development team, ultimately leading to the creation of more secure and resilient software applications. It is an essential component of an overall cybersecurity strategy for any organization engaged in software development.

The primary goal of this training is to equip employees with the skills and knowledge necessary to identify, address, and prevent security vulnerabilities and threats throughout the software development lifecycle.

There is no cyber security in software development without proper training and education. Educate developers and other team members about security best practices, emerging threats, and the importance of maintaining a security-first mindset. You can start by sharing this article with them!

Incident Response planning refers to the systematic and pre-defined approach that an organization follows to effectively detect, respond to, mitigate, and recover from cybersecurity incidents, data breaches, and other unexpected events that could compromise the security and integrity of its systems, data, and operations.

It involves several key components:

Develop a robust response plan to address security breaches effectively.

Remember that these plans should be tailored to the specific needs and risks of each organization. Besides, regular updates and adjustments should be made to address emerging threats and changes in the organization's infrastructure and environment.

Speaking of updating and maintenance, keep up to date with the latest cybersecurity news, trends, and emerging threats. This knowledge empowers you to proactively address potential vulnerabilities in your software and adjust security measures accordingly.

By following these rules, you can minimize the risk of security breaches and ensure the continued integrity and protection of your software.

When outsourcing software development, it is crucial to ensure cyber security. This can be achieved by selecting a reliable outsourcing partner with a strong focus on this.

Reliable outsourcing partners understand the value of security and its impact on their reputation, so they’ll happily share all the information and certifications showcasing their security expertise.

Here are some ways we at SENLA ensure security when working with our Clients:

By following these steps, you will ensure the cyber security of custom software development and minimize the risk of data breaches or other security incidents.