Modern business is becoming increasingly digitized – certainly a big step forward in the world of entrepreneurship, but it has also brought with it new dangers. We entrust our personal data to a multitude of apps, social media platforms, and websites we visit, right down to our credit card numbers. That’s why every self-respecting business owner should take care of the data security of their company and their customers. As of 2023, over 300,000 malware are generated every day. The IT environment must keep its ear to the ground to ensure the highest level of security for its digital products. Learn more about software security in this article.

Defining software security

Program security is an important component in the development of any digitalized product. It is implementing certain mechanisms that make your program resistant to external threats. Before launching a program on the market, it goes through several stages of security testing to ensure that it has a decent level of resistance to any malware, ransomware, and other attacks. The security balloon allows you to store and exchange data safely within the program and ensures uninterrupted operation even in the event of a malicious attack.

The very concept of providing such security is designed to ensure that the program initially works without the support of any third-party security elements. However, in reality, most often companies need additional protection because they did not pay enough attention to program security at the stage of its development. Nevertheless, modern companies try to invest enough time and money to improve their security, because the protection of digital products is becoming the No. 1 priority of the law, the consumer, and the entrepreneur.

Based on statistics, about 75% of all data breaches are due to human error. Therefore, in addition to developing protection, a software security engineer should also take care to educate users on the proper usage of an app or any other digital program to avoid becoming a victim of a malicious attack.

After we have familiarized ourselves with what is software security, let’s inspect its importance in the world of business and technology.

Why is it crucial to ensure the security of your digital products?

The success of any company depends a lot on the level of trust of its customers. The more people trust you, the more personal data accumulates in your website/application/software system. In addition, any business holds valuable data, such as financial information, trade secrets, projects in development, various kinds of contracts and communication, and much more.

Now imagine that someone has unauthorized access to your digital product’s system and has taken that information for malicious purposes. Some people don’t need to imagine. The average cost of a data breach in late 2023 – early 2024 is $4.45 million. This is a direct indication that many companies have made security lapses. Because of these events, you can expect the following:

Loss of reputation – once hackers have compromised a company’s reputation, it is very difficult to restore. This will lead to a large churn of customers, and new customers will become catastrophically few. It will take years of hard work and engagement of other resources to fix the reputation;
Huge fines – protecting customers’ and company’s digital data is not just a “must do” thing, it is every business owner’s responsibility according to protocols, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If an organization has committed a breach of these regulations, the size of their fine will be measured in the millions;
Bankruptcy – All the above events can be harbingers of such a sad end for any business. Loss of reputation means reduced sales. Various fines, lawsuits, and moral indemnities will hit your budget hard. It wouldn’t be surprising if the company can’t survive such a blow and goes bankrupt.

Software security vs. Cybersecurity. Main difference.

Security can be different. If we talk about cybersecurity and software security, these concepts will differ in their application.

Cybersecurity is the process of protecting network-based systems such as servers, electronic and cloud networks, mobile devices, and online data from malicious attacks. Often, cybersecurity is applied in business computer systems as enterprise security software and can protect against such dangers as:

Phishing attack

The most common type of attack is when an attacker impersonates a trusted person and unauthorized penetrates your data systems. Phishing attacks most often occur via email.

Malicious attack

More than four million sites on the Internet are infected with malware. Cybersecurity measures can prevent you from clicking on an unsafe link and further compromise your system with Trojans, worms, spyware, and ransomware.

Password attack

This type of attack involves cracking your password by brute force, keylogger, and dictionary attacks. The defense detects an excessive number of password attempts and blocks these attempts, while notifying the real user of the suspicious activity, asking them to confirm that it is you.

Software security is designed from the ground up along with the creation of the program itself. This means that the developers build the necessary security measures into the code itself and elsewhere in the program, minimizing its weaknesses for possible attacks and virus penetration. Programs are repeatedly tested to identify and prevent vulnerabilities in the program, such as:

Cryptographic failure – sensitive user data such as addresses, passwords, and account numbers should always be protected;
Lack of testing – malware is constantly being updated, becoming newer, stronger, and more cunning, so constant testing of the program is necessary to identify vulnerabilities as early as possible;
Weak access control – the program should provide a good level of user restriction.

Must-have practices to incorporate digital security

Now that you know some of the few problems your program or any other digital product may face, you are probably asking yourself: “What are the most effective practices of security in software development?”. Let’s take a look at the most reliable methodologies for software security today:

Provide comprehensive employee training

Developing a security training program should be something reasonable for business companies. Proper software training will go a long way in keeping you safe from human error, which could result in a system-wide infection or data breach. This program should include both digital security awareness for all employees and security awareness training for developers. It’s a good practice to conduct a malware attack simulation, so your employees have a better understanding of what it is, and how to spot it and stop it.

Secure Coding

As a developer, you have two options to ensure that your program is securely coded:

At the end of the development lifecycle – meaning test the completed code and subject it to repeated testing to find and fix any possible weaknesses that occurred during development;
In the development process – committing vulnerability testing after each stage of development.

For a thorough review of vulnerabilities, unit tests for key components and areas of the program should be included in the validation process. Any change in coding should be accompanied by retesting. You should also make sure that the protection you provide meets security standards.

There are about a dozen secure coding practices, and we’ll look at some of them below:

Enter verification – everyone has had times when we forgot to put a period when entering an email or got a letter or digit wrong when entering a password or phone number. Whenever this occurs, the program consistently shows an error and requests us to input the correct data. This is the data entry verification, which will help us avoid most vulnerabilities;
Authentication and password management – this will secure user login and prevent an intruder from cracking the password/ impersonating a trusted person. For this purpose, developers use reliable encryption methods for data storage and transmission, password storage, TLS to protect the user’s connection to the server, etc.;
The principle of the least privileges – that is, limiting access to the data of their digital product strictly to those users who are directly related to it. This helps reduce the risks of internal data leakage and other breaches. Establishing permission management will allow you, as the owner, to regulate access to certain data.

Static code analysis

This is an automatic process of examining source code for flaws. Developers can use it to automate program testing partially. By integrating static analysis tools into the development pipeline, you will be able to get testing results with every change in the code or appearance of a new building. This not only saves time and allows you to eliminate all possible defects quickly, but also helps you maintain the security standard regardless of developers’ knowledge. Static code analysis methods include the following:

Syntax analysis – checking for syntax errors in the code. Any little thing in the code is crucial, be it an indentation, a parenthesis, or a semicolon, and this type of static analysis helps you quickly track down and fix that error;
Management Analysis – tracking the flow of data through the code allows you to identify potential problems, which will show up as a warning in your analysis;
Security analysis is a check for weaknesses in a digital product, such as vulnerability to injection attacks or an overflowing buffer.

Utilizing popular libraries and frameworks

Well-known libraries and frameworks will help you avoid many vulnerability issues because they have a larger user base and are actively updated and maintained, promptly fixing weaknesses when they are detected.

In addition, they are most often open source, which means you can handle bug detection and fix it much easier, as the community can maintain a high level of code security.

Penetration testing

The essence of penetration testing is a simulation of hacking performed by a group of experts using the same hacking techniques as the attackers. In this way, you can assess the resistance of your digital product to attacks using new tools and tactics, and adjust your defenses if necessary. To ensure a decent level of security, it is recommended that companies conduct such tests monthly, paying special attention to a subset of their systems.

As technologies do not stand still, it is important to conduct safety assessments regularly. Many techniques become obsolete, while new security solutions replace them. In developing and implementing security strategies, you will be greatly assisted by solid technical support. It will regulate the security level of your program throughout its lifecycle, and keep your program secure following the laws. Your technical support team is a key player when assuring your software’s well-being.

Conclusion

Investing in software security is critical for every digitally transitioning company. Despite high maintenance costs, security assurance is the highest indicator of trust for customers. Keep up with digital security industry trends and you will be safe.

Software Security: Safeguarding Your Business Data

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