Advantages of a Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Most organizations have an SDLC process in place that helps them streamline their development process. However, the rising complexity and number of business risks associated with insecure applications have made it necessary to integrate security into all the stages of the software development life cycle (SDLC), thus making it a secure SDLC.

Moreover, attackers are increasingly becoming more sophisticated in exploiting security vulnerabilities and attacking businesses. Cyberattacks are now more difficult to trace, let alone address.

Companies adopt a secure software development life cycle approach to detect and mitigate security threats. As such, it is not limited to developers or the security team. Cross-functional teams can easily adopt a secure SDLC mechanism to facilitate better security across various stages of the SDLC.

Let’s examine what a secure software development life cycle (SDLC) really means and why you should consider adopting one.

What is a Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?

A secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC) is a framework that defines the entire development process for building a software product while integrating security at all stages—from the planning to the design, development, testing, and deployment stages.

Typically, secure software development lifecycle processes are divided into the following stages:

Phase 1: Requirement Collection and Analysis

This stage establishes the software application's security requirements. Security experts analyze the application's key security risks, such as functionality, the type of information application being used, etc. It also includes an internal security risk assessment and audit to avoid future conflicts.

Phase 2: Design

During this stage, security is built into the design of the software application. We perform threat modeling, which has four stages: decomposing the application, categorizing, prioritizing, and mitigating security risks. We also design countermeasures to address the security threats identified and the security requirements.

Phase 3: Development

In the development phase, we ensure that code is developed securely using security controls identified during the design phase. Organizations also host training sessions for developers to help them better understand the secure software development life cycle and enable them to perform unit testing of application security features. Also, the developers' code is reviewed to ensure it does not introduce security vulnerabilities.

Phase 4: Testing

Once the application is in the testing phase, it is checked to ensure that it meets security standards and in-depth security testing is performed, including penetration testing, integration testing, further static code analysis, dynamic analysis, etc.

Phase 5: Deployment & Maintenance

In the deployment phase, all security controls are checked once more, including secure code review (static analysis), dynamic, configuration, container security, etc., and then deployed. After that, continuous monitoring and mitigation programs are run to identify security vulnerabilities in running applications and address them in a timely manner.

Importance Of a Secure Software Development Life Cycle

As enterprises compete to stay ahead of their competition, they aim to deliver rapid software program releases to their customers with state-of-the-art features. Coming up with innovative solutions and developing them alone is a big challenge in itself, let alone ensuring the software is secure.

Instead of just performing security testing at the end, when the pressure’s high and you’re closing in on your deadline, it’s much better and easier to embed security into all stages. Contrary to popular belief, which is that security holds back the development process, a secure SDLC is an efficient and effective way to bake security into different stages of the development process.

It brings together all the stakeholders involved in the project to ensure that the software application is secure.

Developers can begin by educating themselves on the best secure coding practices and frameworks for better security. They should also consider using automated tools to identify security risks in the code quickly.

In addition to this, the management team can also leverage a secure SDLC to design a strategic approach for a more secure product. For instance, they can perform a gap analysis to understand what policies/activities currently exist in their organization and their effectiveness.

Setting up security policies that not only help you with high-level concerns like compliance but also allow you to embed it at the most basic level is necessary. If this sounds overwhelming, you can hire security experts who can assess your security needs and devise a roadmap that helps your organization enhance your security.

Top Advantages of a Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

There are countless advantages of using a secure software development life cycle. Here are some of the top ones that you should know about.

  1. Early identification of security vulnerabilities helps reduce costs to implement security controls and mitigation processes of vulnerabilities. The security vulnerabilities are fixed during the development process, instead of deploying patching software, which is much more costly when compared to addressing the problem in real-time during the SDLC.

  2. Another advantage of secure SDLC is it helps build a culture of security that is more likely to catch issues not only in development but in other areas of an organization as well.

  3. Since security is integrated from the design stage in a secure SDLC, important security decisions are documented before development begins. Both the management and development team are aware of the project's security risks and concerns. This, in turn, helps fine-tune the development strategy to ensure secure code is built as the SDLC progresses.

  4. One of the major advantages of a secure SDLC is that it helps reduce the organization's intrinsic business risks. Whether it’s common security attacks like SQL or XML injections or critical security issues like DoS (denial of service), companies that fall victim to cybersecurity attacks tend to lose a lot more than anticipated.

Data breaches can damage market reputation and stock value, weaken customer relationships, reduce customer retention rates, and decrease sales. A secure SDLC helps prevent most security vulnerabilities in a timely manner, thereby protecting an organization from several cyberattacks.

Is a Secure Software Development Life Cycle Right for You?

Adopting a secure software development life cycle is the need of the hour. We understand that projects and applications have advanced and complex features, but security is no longer optional or a bottleneck for your development process.

Our security teams identify where and how security vulnerabilities can impact your software and applications. While you focus on your operations and delivery, we take care of the “secure” part of your SDLC for your projects.

At Cypress Data Defense, we focus on integrating security into all stages of the SDLC to ensure you don’t face the wrath of cybersecurity attacks and lose out on your customers’ data.

We perform threat modeling, create security test cases, conduct penetration testing, and other tests throughout the SDLC process. By leveraging automated tools and working with expert security testers, we work efficiently and help you cut costs for your projects. You can reach out to us here.