Integrating Security Testing into Software Development Life Cycle

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Did you realize that over 44% of the cyber-attacks perpetrated each year target small businesses? Rather than waiting until your business falls victim to one of these attacks, you need to take preventative measures right now to prevent hacks and data breaches from happening. The measures you take to prevent cyber-attacks will depend heavily on the type of business you run and the type of technology you use daily.

If your business both develops and uses custom software to perform certain specified tasks, keeping these tools reliable and secure is imperative. In reality, the custom software security development process starts before it is built. Getting everyone on your development team to buy-in to a heightened level of security can be beneficial.

Are you looking for ways to infuse more security into your software development life cycle? If so, check out the helpful information below.

Routine Penetration Tests Are Crucial

As the development of a new piece of software starts to ramp up, team members will be focused on completing difficult tasks in a relatively short amount of time. Accomplishing this goal will require your team to compartmentalize certain tasks to ensure they are done quickly and correctly. SoftwaresoftwareMaking sure the work a team of developers has performed is secure is only possible when using penetration testing. These tests are designed to find and exploit security vulnerabilities in your software program.

Waiting until the last phase of software development to run these tests is a horrible idea. The best way to make the software development process more secure is by running penetration tests at every step of this process. By doing this, you can find security vulnerabilities and fix them before they do any damage. If you are like most business owners, penetration testing is not a subject you are familiar with.

Comprehensive Code Reviews

One of the biggest concerns you should have when building a piece of custom software is using sound coding practices. Not only will you need to review the various coding techniques on the market, you also have to find out the best practices for each one. Failing to abide by coding standards can result in lots of performance problems over time. Some development teams put-off reviewing code because of how time-consuming and difficult it is. Doing this will result in the problems in the code getting worse and more hidden.

The various parts of your new program will require thousands of lines of codes to be written. Even the smallest mistake in one of these lines can result in your software program not functioning properly. This is why you need to create and implement code review guidelines during a software development project. Ideally, you want your developers to review each other’s work. By doing this, you can keep everyone honest and find out where real issues exist.

Staying informed regarding changes in the coding language being used to develop your software is also important. With information about these changes, you can optimize the way you and your team use a particular coding language to create state-of-the-art software.

Obtain In-Depth Information About the Software Development Project

The main job you have as a business owner is organizing projects in a way that makes them easy to complete on time. Improperly structuring a project can result in important tasks falling through the cracks. Rather than dealing with the headaches, this can cause, you need to focus on gathering certain information before laying out a particular project. The more you know about who the software is for and what their needs are, the easier it will be to knock a project out of the park.

If you are building a piece of software for a client, take some time to meet with them and pick their brain. During this meeting, you need to mention software security to see where your client stands on this topic. Most people want to provide consumers or their employees with software that is secure and easy to use. Once you have information from the client regarding what they want, you should have no problem getting your project planned.

Put Someone In Charge of Software Security

Running a small business is one of the most challenging jobs on the planet. Most business owners have to pick their battles when it comes to the tasks they can take on during their workday. Overloading yourself with too many tasks or responsibilities can lead to lower productivity levels. Instead of trying to take on every task involved in running your business alone, work on delegating to your team members. If you are serious about the security of a custom software program, you need to have a person who is in charge of making this happen.

Having a member of management who knows about software security and how to develop reliable programs is crucial. Not only will having this help allow you to get the end result you are after with your security, but it also takes a lot of stress off of your plate. Taking the time to put a list of security standards into writing can be helpful for your team. If team members have a physical document they can refer to, they are less likely to make security mistakes.

As the technology you use to develop custom software changes, you will also need to change these guidelines. Ignoring the need for these updates can lead to your custom software becoming outdated and useless. Working with IT security professionals is a great way to figure out how to make these guidelines useful.

Start Security Your Software Today!

As you can see, proper software security can save you lots of time and money. Changing your approach to security during the software development process will not be easy. However, you need to stay the course so you can reap the rewards associated with a higher degree of software security.

Source: How to Integrate Security Testing into your Software Development Life Cycle

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