Software Security Primer

As a developer, when you think of security, what comes to mind? Is it clear what are different aspects that need to be handled to make a software secure? And why you need to do that?

The objective of this article is to provide that view and articulate what controls should be in place and how. Details of how to apply those controls are not covered as they would require separate articles - and lot of content is available on the web anyway.

What is Software Security?

Security implementation of a software application can be classified in two parts:

1. Pre-deployment - building a secure software
2. Post-deployment - security of the environment where the software is running

Software Security is pre-deployment. It is the process of identifying risks and building controls (or Countermeasures as it is called in security terminology) in the software itself while it is being built.

Software Security is the focus of this post. We will see controls commonly used and what risks they mitigate.

For more details, see What is Software Security by Gary McGraw

Nature of security

A software application would generally have two aspects:

a. Services that provide some functionality

b. Data generated and consumed by the services

Security can be defined as defending the services and the data from unauthorized and malicious usage at all times.

Defending is the key word here. Defense literally means an act of resisting an attack. That means attacks can happen anytime and any number of times, and we need to keep protecting the system from these attacks.

That’s what makes security of a software application very difficult because it is not easy to get it right all the time.

Also, there is no room for error. One incident may be enough to destroy the reputation and business built over the years.

#security #programming #software-engineering #web-development #software-architecture #web-security #cyber-security #software-development

What is GEEK

Buddha Community

Software Security Primer

As a developer, when you think of security, what comes to mind? Is it clear what are different aspects that need to be handled to make a software secure? And why you need to do that?

The objective of this article is to provide that view and articulate what controls should be in place and how. Details of how to apply those controls are not covered as they would require separate articles - and lot of content is available on the web anyway.

What is Software Security?

Security implementation of a software application can be classified in two parts:

1. Pre-deployment - building a secure software
2. Post-deployment - security of the environment where the software is running

Software Security is pre-deployment. It is the process of identifying risks and building controls (or Countermeasures as it is called in security terminology) in the software itself while it is being built.

Software Security is the focus of this post. We will see controls commonly used and what risks they mitigate.

For more details, see What is Software Security by Gary McGraw

Nature of security

A software application would generally have two aspects:

a. Services that provide some functionality

b. Data generated and consumed by the services

Security can be defined as defending the services and the data from unauthorized and malicious usage at all times.

Defending is the key word here. Defense literally means an act of resisting an attack. That means attacks can happen anytime and any number of times, and we need to keep protecting the system from these attacks.

That’s what makes security of a software application very difficult because it is not easy to get it right all the time.

Also, there is no room for error. One incident may be enough to destroy the reputation and business built over the years.

#security #programming #software-engineering #web-development #software-architecture #web-security #cyber-security #software-development

Best Custom Web & Mobile App Development Company

Everything around us has become smart, like smart infrastructures, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, to name a few. The innovation of smart devices makes it possible to achieve these heights in science and technology. But, data is vulnerable, there is a risk of attack by cybercriminals. To get started, let’s know about IoT devices.

What are IoT devices?

The Internet Of Things(IoT) is a system that interrelates computer devices like sensors, software, and actuators, digital machines, etc. They are linked together with particular objects that work through the internet and transfer data over devices without humans interference.

Famous examples are Amazon Alexa, Apple SIRI, Interconnected baby monitors, video doorbells, and smart thermostats.

How could your IoT devices be vulnerable?

When technologies grow and evolve, risks are also on the high stakes. Ransomware attacks are on the continuous increase; securing data has become the top priority.

When you think your smart home won’t fudge a thing against cybercriminals, you should also know that they are vulnerable. When cybercriminals access our smart voice speakers like Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri, it becomes easy for them to steal your data.

Cybersecurity report 2020 says popular hacking forums expose 770 million email addresses and 21 million unique passwords, 620 million accounts have been compromised from 16 hacked websites.

The attacks are likely to increase every year. To help you secure your data of IoT devices, here are some best tips you can implement.

Tips to secure your IoT devices

1. Change Default Router Name

Your router has the default name of make and model. When we stick with the manufacturer name, attackers can quickly identify our make and model. So give the router name different from your addresses, without giving away personal information.

2. Know your connected network and connected devices

If your devices are connected to the internet, these connections are vulnerable to cyber attacks when your devices don’t have the proper security. Almost every web interface is equipped with multiple devices, so it’s hard to track the device. But, it’s crucial to stay aware of them.

3. Change default usernames and passwords

When we use the default usernames and passwords, it is attackable. Because the cybercriminals possibly know the default passwords come with IoT devices. So use strong passwords to access our IoT devices.

4. Manage strong, Unique passwords for your IoT devices and accounts

Use strong or unique passwords that are easily assumed, such as ‘123456’ or ‘password1234’ to protect your accounts. Give strong and complex passwords formed by combinations of alphabets, numeric, and not easily bypassed symbols.

Also, change passwords for multiple accounts and change them regularly to avoid attacks. We can also set several attempts to wrong passwords to set locking the account to safeguard from the hackers.

5. Do not use Public WI-FI Networks

Are you try to keep an eye on your IoT devices through your mobile devices in different locations. I recommend you not to use the public WI-FI network to access them. Because they are easily accessible through for everyone, you are still in a hurry to access, use VPN that gives them protection against cyber-attacks, giving them privacy and security features, for example, using Express VPN.

6. Establish firewalls to discover the vulnerabilities

There are software and firewalls like intrusion detection system/intrusion prevention system in the market. This will be useful to screen and analyze the wire traffic of a network. You can identify the security weakness by the firewall scanners within the network structure. Use these firewalls to get rid of unwanted security issues and vulnerabilities.

7. Reconfigure your device settings

Every smart device comes with the insecure default settings, and sometimes we are not able to change these default settings configurations. These conditions need to be assessed and need to reconfigure the default settings.

8. Authenticate the IoT applications

Nowadays, every smart app offers authentication to secure the accounts. There are many types of authentication methods like single-factor authentication, two-step authentication, and multi-factor authentication. Use any one of these to send a one time password (OTP) to verify the user who logs in the smart device to keep our accounts from falling into the wrong hands.

9. Update the device software up to date

Every smart device manufacturer releases updates to fix bugs in their software. These security patches help us to improve our protection of the device. Also, update the software on the smartphone, which we are used to monitoring the IoT devices to avoid vulnerabilities.

10. Track the smartphones and keep them safe

When we connect the smart home to the smartphone and control them via smartphone, you need to keep them safe. If you miss the phone almost, every personal information is at risk to the cybercriminals. But sometimes it happens by accident, makes sure that you can clear all the data remotely.

However, securing smart devices is essential in the world of data. There are still cybercriminals bypassing the securities. So make sure to do the safety measures to avoid our accounts falling out into the wrong hands. I hope these steps will help you all to secure your IoT devices.

If you have any, feel free to share them in the comments! I’d love to know them.

Are you looking for more? Subscribe to weekly newsletters that can help your stay updated IoT application developments.

#iot #enterprise iot security #how iot can be used to enhance security #how to improve iot security #how to protect iot devices from hackers #how to secure iot devices #iot security #iot security devices #iot security offerings #iot security technologies iot security plus #iot vulnerable devices #risk based iot security program

Custom Software vs Off-the-shelf Software: How to select a better one for your business?

Custom Software or Off-the-shelf software, the question in mind for many business personnel. Read this blog to get help to make the right decision that will benefit your business.
For a business that wants to upgrade and modernize itself with the help of software, a common dilemma it is whether to go for custom-made software or opt for off-the-shelf software. You can find many top software development companies worldwide, but before that all, you should first decide the type of software –an off-the-shelf software or a custom one.
This blog aims to overcome the dilemma and accord some clarity to a business looking to automate its business processes.

#custom software vs off-the-shelf software #custom software development companies #top software development companies #off-the-shelf software development #customized software solution #custom software development

For secure code, maintainability matters

Author Robert Collier said that “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” That’s especially true when it comes to security. By now we all understand that securing your systems isn’t as simple as installing a firewall and calling it a day. Instead, it’s multiple actions and strategies in concert, implemented consistently over time. And believe it or not, one small but important strategy is simply writing code that’s reliable (bug-free) and maintainable (easy to understand). Yes, I know that sounds too simple, and possibly even self-serving. So in this post I’ll lay out some of the evidence for how writing reliable and maintainable code means you’re inherently writing more secure code.

Poor maintainability contributed to Heartbleed

To make the case for how maintainable code contributes to security, I’ll start with the Heartbleed Bug. Remember that one? It was a serious vulnerability in OpenSSL that allowed attackers to steal sensitive information with a really trivial attack that XKCD illustrates beautifully. David A. Wheeler teaches a graduate course in secure development at George Mason University. He wrote an extensive analysis of the vulnerability. In it, he laid part of the blame on the difficulty of simply understanding the code involved: “Many of the static techniques for countering Heartbleed-like defects, including manual review, were thwarted because the OpenSSL code is just too complex. Code that is security-sensitive needs to be ‘as simple as possible’.”

When the Heartbleed Bug was eventually found, it was actually detected by human review rather than static analysis. It’s worth noting explicitly here that the problem wasn’t caught in peer review, but long after the merge by independent security researchers. In his analysis, Wheeler discusses why Heartbleed wasn’t found sooner. “Little things like code formatting matter,” he says, “since badly-formatted code is much harder for humans to review.” Code Smell / Maintainability rules for things like code formatting and naming conventions are often dismissed as trivial, maybe because they’re about things so foundational that people take them for granted. As Wheeler points out, that doesn’t mean they’re not important.

Wheeler suggests that attention to maintainability leads to more secure software, and continues that “The goal should be code that is obviously right, as opposed to code that is so complicated that I can’t see any problems.” And of course, that’s what Code Smell rules help you do - write code that’s maintainable and easy to read so that it’s possible for it to be "obviously right".

Experts: Bugs and Code Smells are security ‘weaknesses’

Of course, Wheeler’s just one person, and opinions are like belly buttons, right? So let’s look at another source: the CWE, which makes the case for both maintainability and reliability as contributors to security.

I want to start with the 2020 CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses, which is an expert-sourced subset of the CWE. But first, some background: CWE stands for Common Weakness Enumeration. It’s a crowd- (of experts) sourced list of common software and hardware weaknesses that have “security ramifications”. It has about 1,300 entries, including quite a few that are used for categorization. The Top 25 is a list of “the most common and impactful issues experienced over the previous two calendar years.” Given this build-up it would be reasonable to assume that all 25 CWEs in the list describe security vulnerabilities. But by my count, nearly a third are bugs. Bugs that could lead to security breaches, but bugs nonetheless. For instance, lucky number 13 in the list is CWE-76, NULL Pointer Dereference.

In fact by one count, about 60% of CWEs aren’t vulnerabilities at all. CWE-699 is the Software Development view. It “organizes weaknesses around concepts that are frequently used or encountered in software development”. It contains 40 sub-categories, including  Complexity Issues, Numeric Errors and Bad Coding Practices. Of the 59 leaf listings under Bad Coding Practices, the first is the beautifully emblematic CWE-478, Missing Default Case in Switch Statement.

#security #coding #code-review #software-maintenance #software-development #secure-software-development #cpp #cpp-security

Offshore Software Development - Best Practices

With the rise of globalization and the worldwide lockdown due to the pandemic, most of the work has been done by remote working processes and professionals from their homes. This lockdown has proved the efficiency of remote development and enhanced the trust in offshore software development industry.

To make the most out of the benefits of offshore software development, you should understand the crucial factors that affect offshore development. This is why you should read this guide for the best practices when hiring an offshore software development company. Despite the size and the industry of the business, offshore software development is not beneficial for every entrepreneur in many aspects to make the optimum use of talents in technology across the globe.

Here are some of the top reasons why offshore development is beneficial for your business.

• Offshore development teams can work on flexible timing to provide you with the best possible software development practices.
• Get access to the talents across the world from your home to develop the top of the line software with the help of offshore development companies.
• Assured high quality and next-generation technology expertise with duly NDA signed with respect to the priorities of the business.
• With flexible recruitment models, you can hire the freelance developers, remote development team, or an entire offshore development company with respect to the size of your business.
• Build high-end software applications from one corner of the world by hiring software developers across the world.
• Get immediate access to the best resources without hiring them on a permanent basis.

To avail of all these benefits, you should have clear goals, a list of requirements, and features that are mandatory for your software product.

Here are a few tips to help you find the best offshore software development company. Build a top-notch software application by following the listed best practices.

#web development #how to start offshore software development company #offshore meaning #offshore software development best practices #offshore software development company #offshore software development company in india #offshore software development cost #offshore software development statistics #outsource software development