Software development has evolved from the long development cycles with a lot of risk on release, to streamlined integrated flows of that continuously deliver valuable increments. Thanks to continuous integration, DevOps practices and agile development methods, software development teams have successfully shifted the development and integration risk to the left of the development streamline.

Now it is time for the next step, also software and data security risks have to make the same shift left. All too often, data and cybersecurity is seen as an obstacle in the smooth development process. Secure Software Life Cycle promises that by taking the right actions at every step of your development streamline and sharing the responsibility and ownership of developing secure software in the team, safety of software will be improved, and risks will be lessened. The Secure SDLC model is straightforward; it recommends security considerations and security testing practices for every phase of development. Next to that, Secure SDLC also strongly recommends building on your DevOps processes and growing them into DevSecOps practices, so that just like testing before, security risks are detected early, security testing is standardized and automated, and well-defined security gates are built into your development process.

Every development team can start implementing Secure SDLC now by adopting these best practices:

• Educate and train your developers: Secure SDLC goes hand in hand with creating secure coding guidelines, setting clear expectations, raising security awareness amongst developers, and training them in secure coding.
• Have clear security requirements so that the development team can easily act with all the processes and tools available to solve the issue.
• Maintain a growth mindset: Secure SDLC will change the way teams work and interact, so empower them, keep an open mind and sponsor initiatives.
• Tie implementation to other initiatives: for well-established applications and teams it is often easier to tie SSDLC changes to modernization efforts (e.g. Cloud transformation; or DevOps initiatives).
• Tackle big problems first: the most important and most actionable issues should be addressed first, especially when it comes to older and larger applications. A triage approach can be helpful to set priorities.

Has your organization already managed to shift left the risks and responsibilities of building secure software?

Do you need help and advice to transform your software development process and adopt DevSecOps practices?

Then get in touch with us at hello@privatum.be. Stay ahead of the curve!

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