IT security is the cornerstone in software development: it is essential to carry out an information security risk assessment and an impact assessment to ensure the privacy of sensitive data processed by the application in the project.
Cybersecurity must be the cornerstone of the software code development process. It is of fundamental importance to guarantee the safety requirements at every stage of its life cycle. From the embryonic stage of the project, it is necessary to undertake a path that has information security as its guiding thread.
According to this modus operandi, it is necessary to apply development rules and use professionals with specific skills. An information security risk assessment and an impact assessment are required to ensure the privacy of sensitive data processed by the application in the project.
Cybersecurity In Software Development: The Risks
In the development phase, attention to IT security is essential to minimize vulnerabilities related to possible programming errors, which can be exploited by the increasingly influential and constantly increasing cyber-attacks and affect the final product’s quality.
Protecting the code and data managed by the application under development and guaranteeing the IT security protection parameters ( integrity, confidentiality, and authentication ) must represent the main objectives of software security.
Cybersecurity In Software Development: The Phases
We will describe, below, the various phases of the software life cycle, according to a common denominator: guaranteeing the security requirements of the data, functions, and programming language.
These phases’ precise definition and organization constitutes a development model: the so-called software life cycle model. The model to which we will refer is for simplicity, a cascade model which, as the name suggests, is nothing more than a sequential succession in which, only after completing a phase, you move on to the next.
This does not prevent each phase from being revised to be eventually revised and corrected: in fact, some alternative models are less rigid than the one proposed to make the entire software production and management process more reliable.
Each phase must be verified and approved in compliance with specific guidelines consistent with the primary safety standards.
System Integration And Verification
This phase aims to assemble the product code, verify its actual compatibility, solve any interaction and security errors, and could not be considered conceptually distinct from the previous phase.
It is advisable to prepare a test plan with test cases and related acceptability criteria, simulating intrusions with various attack scenarios, keeping the test environment separate from the development one.
The objectives of the tests must allow for highlighting the degree of exposure of the software to known vulnerabilities and reviewing the source code for anomalies in the correct functioning of the security controls and operational specifications. Here are the best system integration services.
Delivery
In this phase, the system is distributed to users who verify its operation, identifying any anomalies or dissimilarities concerning the project specifications. To release the software in production, it is necessary to have passed an acceptance test to verify compliance with the functional and safety requirements, create system documentation, and plan user training.
Delivery takes place in two stages:
- Beta test: the system is distributed to a selected group of users to carry out tests in actual cases. The errors found should be corrected before the actual distribution of the product.
- Distribution: the software is permanently released to users. Errors found after this release are usually fixed in later versions or through appropriate corrective software.
Maintenance
This phase encompasses all the evolution of the system from delivery onwards. It, therefore, includes modifications and changes of various kinds. Furthermore, the maintenance phase, containing every activity that follows the delivery of the product, can account for well over half of the total costs of the entire life cycle.
Conclusions
The cost of correcting a vulnerability or error is higher later in the life cycle. For this reason, the safety requirements should be acquired and verified before development and production.
A planned test, verifying the completeness and consistency of the functions, the quality, the safety, and the functionality of the software, can help identify any anomalies when the cost for the correction does not significantly affect.
Even in the post-delivery phase (maintenance), periodic tests can be helpful. They can prevent the outcomes of any new vulnerabilities and/or attack techniques and monitor the application functionality following significant changes in the delivered product.
Fundamental to obtain a good result is to structure a project team by clearly defining roles and responsibilities such as the project manager, the security manager, programmers, systems engineers, testers, customers, suppliers, and end-users.
