Building and maintaining secure software is not a one-team effort; it requires the collective strength and collaboration of security, engineering, and operations teams. This is according to CASA Software – a digital transformation organisation comprised of a highly skilled team of technology professionals. The company partners with Veracode, a global leader in Application Risk Management for the AI era, to secure software from code development to cloud deployment.
“Teams must understand the workflows and objectives of their counterparts,” says Rameez Edros Account Director CASA Software. “Misunderstandings and misalignments can lead to frustrations, increased security risks, and hindered progress in achieving organisational goals,” he says.
Edros breaks it down into the specific teams involved, as follows:
Security:
The security team plays a crucial role in safeguarding an organization’s assets, data, and systems from potential threats. The primary goal of the security team is to identify vulnerabilities, implement security controls, and ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations. But this area is not without its challenges such as limited visibility into the development process, difficulty deciphering which alarms going off are the most important, and the need to balance security with business agility.
Development:
The software engineering and development team is responsible for creating and maintaining software applications that power a business. Their goal is to deliver high-quality code that meets functional and security requirements. However, they face challenges such as time constraints, pressure to meet deadlines, and a lack of available security expertise. Balancing the need for speed and security can be a delicate task for development teams.
Operations:
This team ensures the smooth functioning of the company’s infrastructure, systems, and applications. Their goal is to maintain high availability, scalability, and performance. They face challenges such as managing complex environments, handling incidents and outages, and maintaining security while implementing changes. The operations team plays a critical role in guaranteeing the company’s systems are secure and operational.
Edros highlights Veracode’s guidelines for building trust among teams. “In a nutshell this can be summarised as: engage, solicit feedback, and respond to that feedback. It is also advisable to conduct testing and proof of concepts to demonstrate the effectiveness of security measures. Documenting this buy-in and sharing it with others can help avoid opposition and potential obstacles. Additionally, highlighting the work of specific teams or developers can raise awareness of security initiatives and earn positive recognition, further building trust and promoting collaboration.”
A problem shared is a problem halved.
Edros says establishing a shared responsibility mindset fosters collaboration. “This means security is not solely the responsibility of the security team but is a collective effort of all teams involved in the development and operation of software systems. By instilling a shared responsibility mindset, teams understand that security is an integral part of their roles and responsibilities. “This mindset encourages proactive involvement in identifying and addressing security vulnerabilities throughout the development lifecycle. It also promotes accountability and ownership, ensuring security is not an afterthought but a fundamental consideration in every decision and action. Businesses can reinforce this mindset by providing security training and awareness programmes for all team members. This helps to build a common understanding of security best practices and the importance of integrating security into every stage of the development process.”
Integrating Security into the Development Process.
When security is integrated into each step of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), it becomes a shared responsibility. “Developers, testers, architects, and other team members work together to identify and address potential vulnerabilities, implement secure coding practices, and conduct regular security code reviews and testing. This collaborative approach ensures that security is not an afterthought but an integral part of the development process,” he adds.
Measuring Success and Demonstrating Risk Reduction.
Edros confirms that as companies strive to integrate security into the development process, it is crucial to measure the success of these efforts and demonstrate the reduction in risk. “By defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for security, development, and operations, businesses can track progress and align their security practices with their overall goals. Additionally, establishing metrics to measure risk reduction and technical debt reduction provides quantifiable evidence of the effectiveness of security integration.” Edros emphasises that to effectively communicate these results, organisations should create dashboards and reports that provide a clear overview of the metrics and KPIs, enabling stakeholders to understand the value of security efforts and make informed decisions. “Using a unified platform for your testing solutions makes this step much easier.”
Defining KPIs for Security, Development, and Operations.
To measure the success of security integration into the development process, it is essential to define KPIs that align with organizational goals. Edros notes these KPIs should encompass security, development, and operations aspects. “Examples of security KPIs include the number of vulnerabilities identified and remediated, the percentage of code coverage by security tests, and the time taken to patch critical vulnerabilities. Development and operations KPIs may include metrics such as deployment frequency, mean time to recovery, and customer satisfaction.”
Security is not the responsibility of a single individual or department.
It requires the collective effort of all stakeholders. “By working as a team, all areas of businesses can help to build a strong defence against potential threats, reduce vulnerabilities, and achieve elite status in their security practices. Remember, security is a team effort, and by embracing this mindset, companies can create a secure and resilient environment for their software development and cloud infrastructure. Veracode’s world-class platform enables the establishment of continuous security around legacy and cloud-native applications. Veracode and the CASA Software team support customers to seamlessly integrate and automate security into their entire SDLC. In this way, security and development are brought together and provide a vehicle to define and implement a set of security policies that align to the business criticality and operating environment of software in production,” concludes Edros.