So what is a secure software development lifecycle? It’s a process that produces secure, reliable software. Is your business looking for ways to improve its security and reliability? If so, the development life cycle may be just what you’re looking for! This article will go over five key points of this lifecycle that will help you produce stable and reliable code.
Planning
This is the first step of secure software development. You need to establish a secure plan for your project’s security. How will you keep track of vulnerabilities? Who is responsible for fixing them? What are the priority levels, and how urgent are they? These questions must be answered before any code gets written! Once your security plan has been established, it’s time to get into a more detailed analysis. Spend some time upfront doing thorough risk assessments on each part of the application (both technical and non-technical). This may require bringing in outside help depending on what systems or information needs protecting. Ensure these people understand their roles; there should always be clear communication between developers, testers, operations staff & management throughout this process!
Development and Design
This step involves deciding the best way to implement each feature and how it connects with other parts of your application. The more you can do this early on in the process, the better off you’ll be! This is where having a secure code-style guide comes into play. Your code should follow safe coding practices at all times. This phase requires close cooperation between developers & testers throughout some intensive testing cycles! You need an automated test suite that covers as much functionality as possible without impacting performance too severely. Make sure these tests are run regularly (preferably after every commit), so if any regressions occur, they can be identified quickly.
Coding
The coding stage is perhaps the most crucial part of a stable software development lifecycle. We can’t emphasize enough how important it is to make sure your code follows certain coding practices at all times.
Testing
Incorporating secure testing processes as early as possible in the SDLC helps ensure you find vulnerabilities quickly and don’t miss any issues after launches, such as Heartbleed or Shellshock. This phase requires close cooperation between developers & testers throughout some intensive testing cycles! You need an automated test suite that covers as much functionality as possible without impacting performance too severely. Make sure these tests are run regularly (preferably after every commit), so if any regressions occur, they can be identified quickly.
Monitoring
After a release has been made, monitoring for any issues that might have been missed in a regression test is essential to secure the SDLC. When there are vulnerabilities, or if you need more testing for your project(s), consider hiring an external security team to help find them quickly and accurately before they impact users. This will save time & money when it comes down to fixing these problems!
To conclude, a secure software development lifecycle is an integral part of any project. Through safe coding practices, secure code reviews, and testing, there are many ways to secure your SDLC while also maintaining a high-quality product for users!
