OEMs: Is Your Software Secure?
The hackers are out there – more numerous and sophisticated than ever. They are hungry for data and business logic: private information including your intellectual property, business secrets and customer financial and personal data they can use and abuse. What’s more, they are poised to infiltrate and compromise the applications you are building right now. Without the right security to protect your innovative software solutions, Big Data = Big Threat.
Encryption won’t help: Protecting one point in the system is no longer sufficient if the pathway to the data is not secure. Any vulnerability along that path means the entire system is vulnerable. As you know, today’s e-criminals are ingenious in discovering new pathways. Years ago, they started at the network and hardware levels and now they are going right to the application layer.
Billions of dollars today are spent blocking threats on the network or searching for malware or viruses throughout the network – but it still may not be enough. While these defenses are effective for external attacks, they are insufficient for blocking attacks against applications, which today comprise the majority of threats. The ratio of cyber-attack protection spending is in massive imbalance – 23 to 1 on network security versus application security where the money should go.
The days of the static website – so easy to scope and protect – are long gone. The number and diversity of applications and software are growing at dizzying rate. With outsourced development, legacy applications, coupled with in-house development employing 3rd party, open source and commercial, off-the-shelf software, the environment is a highly complex and fast-changing one, leaving many new exposures and vulnerabilities open to ever-more sophisticated hackers. Considering this tangled web of supply chain relationships and the evolving methods through which modern applications are built, the security threat becomes even more challenging to tackle with one-size fits all defense solutions.
Safety-savvy developers and IT administrators are now looking to Software Security Assurance (SSA) to ensure the right security is embedded into the SDLC development process. The first step is testing the software at whichever lifecycle stage it’s in, whether it’s a legacy app that you are upgrading or reprogramming, or new software you are developing. Leveraging a security gate somewhere throughout the process is always the first place to start.
Looking for some clear advice on the best protection for your apps? Nth Generation can get you on track with the best security solutions for developers on the market today – including HPE Fortify, a leader in this arena. Reach out to us at info@nth.com or leave your comments below.