Skip to main content

Applying Security Concepts to Software Design - An insiders' story

One of main tenants of secure application development is to include Information Security Planning at the earliest in the projects that are executed. It has been our experience, that to include or to make provisions for security and related concepts into the application at a later date is very difficult and expensive.

The major design model that we use are the TOGAF open standards and SUP – a derivative of RUP customized for use in our organization. It is mandatory that a resource from the Information Security Team is included from the inception stage in any projects. We ensure that projects do not exclude the Information Security aspect of the project by ensuring that no projects get approval to procure or be issued a Project ID (for project tracking as well as for resource allocation) unless an approval is provided by the IT Integration and Security team.
We have found that this has vastly improved our project delivery schedules as well as to improve the Information Gathering stage, wherein projects are properly scoped and documented with all the elements including Information Security taken into consideration even before the elaboration stages.

The other major advantage that we realized was that the project has elements that map the data flow in the organization. Over time as the new projects started evolving it became obvious that we had a complete mapping of the various interaction between systems and the nature of data flows in the organization.

A few elements that flowed from the interactions was that we were able to improve the audit functions as well as operations and address certain weaknesses that were inherent that there were orphan applications that did not have the proper authorizations to be on the Information Technology landscape.

To summarize the major benefits in applying security concepts in design are

1. Better understanding of the Information Security landscape and the interactions between varied applications even before they leave the inception phase
2. Effective control over the flow of data as well as data at rest and identification of controls necessary to ensure protection of assets.
3. Operational efficiencies and quicker turn around as the applications are better designed and evolved.
4. Provides inputs for compliance with federally mandated requirements
5. Efficiency in improvements and collection of audit data as elements of audit, access control included and derived early and easier to develop into an functioning ecosystems.
6. Integration with already existing Information Security Systems in line with resource availability and technology exposure.

However we also found that the introduction of the concepts lead to
1. Information Concepts lead to new learning curve for new teams not exposed to Information Technology Concepts
2. Security considered a bottleneck for efficient development of products and services
3. Technology implementation restricted to proven technologies and resources
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where are we headed ... A crystal ball into Cybersecurity in the next five years .. Are we ready?

  The future of Cyber Security: Trends and Predictions for the Next 5 years The field of cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and the threats are only getting more sophisticated. In the next five years, we can expect to see a number of trends emerge in the field of cybersecurity, including: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is already being used by cybercriminals to develop more sophisticated and targeted attacks. As AI continues to develop, it is likely that cybercriminals will be able to use it to even greater effect. The increasing use of cloud computing. Cloud computing has many benefits, but it also introduces new security challenges. Cloud-based data is often more vulnerable to attack than data that is stored on-premises. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is connecting billions of devices to the internet, which creates a vast new attack surface for cybercriminals. IoT devices are often poorly secured, making them easy targets for attack. The shor...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shifting Landscape of Knowledge and the Nobel Prize

Our recent conversation sparked some interesting thoughts about the prestigious Nobel Prize and the distribution of its recipients across the globe. Inspired by a user's search history, we delved into the fascinating patterns and potential implications of who gets recognized for groundbreaking achievements. The initial point of discussion centered on the user's search activity, which revealed an interest in various scientific and technological topics, as well as a specific search for "Nobel Prize winners by country." This led us to explore the geographical distribution of Nobel laureates, and a question arose: why does it seem that certain schools and countries, particularly in the West, have a higher representation? We considered several factors that might contribute to this observation: Historical Dominance in Science: Historically, Western nations have often been at the forefront of scientific research due to earlier investments and established infrastructure. V...
Post a Comment
Read more

Red Team Blue Team Exercises - A Roadmap to follow to test the efficacy of controls

  Scenario 1: Phishing Attack Red Team Playbook Day 1: Send out phishing emails to the blue team. Monitor the blue team's response. Day 2: Analyze the blue team's response and identify any vulnerabilities. Report the findings to the blue team. Blue Team Playbook Day 1: Train employees on how to identify and avoid phishing emails. Monitor for phishing emails. Day 2: Analyze the phishing emails sent by the red team. Identify any vulnerabilities in the organization's phishing detection and response processes. Develop a plan to improve the organization's phishing detection and response processes. Analysis The red team's phishing attack was successful in getting several employees to click on the phishing links. This shows that the organization needs to improve its employee training on phishing awareness. The blue team was able to identify and contain the phishing attack, but it took them several hours to do so. This shows that the organization needs to improve its phishi...
Post a Comment
Read more