It’s Fri, 19 Jul 2024 and the world has just experienced a widespread technical outage where the Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike pushed out a routine software update that inadvertently crashed customers’ Windows systems. That outage caused disruption to organizations across the globe, big and small, impacting air travel, hospitals, banks and insurance services (to name a few).
While that incident wasn’t a cyber attack, what it did show is that no matter how big of a company you are, no matter how big your clients are, mistakes can still be made. So whether an incident is down to a mistake or a result of something malicious, it’s why cyber security is such a critical aspect of ensuring business continuity.
Nobody would have expected or planned for the issues that occurred as a result of the issue deployed by CrowdStrike (and many businesses are still recovering from now) and while it’s never possible to completely remove risk there are certain steps businesses can take to reduce it – It’s critical that as an organisation you not only understand the potential security vulnerabilities within your own code or software, but even more-so you need to have visibility on your entire software supply-chain (companies and services you rely on for your infrastructure to run smoothly).
In the example of CrowdStrike, what’s been apparent is that many companies who were affected didn’t even know that they were using the service, or that it could have such a critical impact on their operations.
For Business Leaders and Boards it’s not only essential to ensure your digital assets are protected and backed up independently to act as a fail-safe against failures like this, but also to ensure you have access to the right information and potential risks within your software infrastructure.
So ask yourself – are your digital assets secured and backed up somewhere that you and your management team can access independently whenever you need? And do you have access to the analysis and insights about your code to inform future decision making?
If you answered no to either of those questions, or simply want to understand more about cyber security and how to mitigate against potential threats when it comes to your company’s code and software development – then read on as we explore the different types of cyber security risks and what techniques you can deploy to minimize them.
The modern Cyber Security landscape
Cyber security isn’t just a modern phenomenon. For as long as businesses have relied on technology and software to power their operations, the risks around cyber attacks and IT breaches have been there. However, in today’s digital age where every company is in some way a software company, the cyber security landscape has evolved into a complex and ever-changing battleground. Cyber threats have become increasingly sophisticated, with hackers leveraging advanced techniques to exploit vulnerabilities in software and systems. The proliferation of internet-connected devices, AI and the rapid adoption of cloud computing have expanded the attack surface, making it easier for cybercriminals to find and exploit weaknesses. High-profile data breaches and ransomware attacks have become alarmingly common, impacting organizations of all sizes and industries. These incidents not only result in significant financial losses but also damage reputations and erode customer trust.
For businesses, the stakes have never been higher. The cost of a cyber security breach extends far beyond immediate financial losses; it includes legal liabilities, regulatory fines, and the long-term impact on brand reputation. As cyber threats continue to evolve, it is crucial for business leaders to stay informed and proactive in their approach to cyber security. This involves not only investing in advanced security technologies but also fostering a culture of security awareness within their organizations. By understanding the modern cyber security landscape and its implications, business leaders can make informed decisions to protect their software assets and ensure the resilience of their operations in the face of ever-present cyber threats.
Our mission here at The Code Registry is to demystify software development and the complexities around code and security. We believe that all leadership teams should be equipped with both the knowledge and understanding to play an active role in the decision making to both assess potential risks and protect against them.
Common Cyber Security threats in code and software
Within the complexity of software development, understanding the myriad of cyber security threats that can compromise your code is essential for safeguarding your business. Cyber attackers are continually evolving their tactics, making it imperative for organizations to have access and visibility of potential vulnerabilities in order to remain vigilant and proactive.
While code and software vulnerabilities are significant, there are several other types of cyber security threats that businesses must be aware of. These threats can impact various aspects of an organization, from infrastructure and hardware to personnel and data handling practices, for more information on these threats we’d recommend this article from ConnectWise.
For the purpose of this article we are focussing on the most common cyber security threats in code and software and below aim to highlight how they operate and the potential damage they can inflict.
- Malware and Ransomware: Malware, including ransomware, is malicious software designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to systems. These attacks can lock users out of their systems, demanding a ransom for regained access, often leading to significant financial and operational disruptions.
- Software Supply Chain Attacks: These attacks target vulnerabilities in third-party software components and dependencies that businesses integrate into their own software. By compromising a single supplier, attackers can infiltrate multiple organizations, causing widespread damage and data breaches.
- Phishing and Social Engineering: Phishing attacks use deceptive emails and websites to trick users into revealing sensitive information, such as login credentials. Social engineering exploits human psychology, manipulating individuals into performing actions or divulging confidential information, often leading to unauthorized system access.
- SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): SQL injection attacks involve inserting malicious SQL code into a query, allowing attackers to access or manipulate databases. Cross-site scripting (XSS) exploits vulnerabilities in web applications, enabling attackers to execute malicious scripts in a user’s browser, potentially stealing data or hijacking user sessions.
- Zero-Day Exploits: Zero-day vulnerabilities are previously unknown flaws in software that attackers exploit before developers have a chance to fix them. These exploits are particularly dangerous because they are unpatched and can be used to carry out highly effective attacks before detection and mitigation measures are implemented.
How poor coding practices can lead to vulnerabilities
As already mentioned, software development and coding is a highly complex and vast arena spanning hundreds of coding languages, architectures and infrastructure. How one developer or team produce code, secure it and deploy it may differ vastly from another. While this article is designed for Business leaders who may not have an in-depth understanding of the specifics of writing and deploying code, we feel it is essential to at least give some explanations on the different types of poor or bad coding practices that can lead to potential threats. Below are 5 of the most common forms of bad practices all businesses and development teams should be aware of and avoid.
- Failing to Validate Input:
- Explanation: Imagine you’re accepting online orders. If you don’t check to make sure customers enter valid shipping addresses, some might enter nonsense or harmful data. Similarly, if software doesn’t check the data users input, attackers can insert malicious commands to harm the system.
- Impact: This can lead to attackers taking control of the software or accessing sensitive information.
- Using Hard-Coded Credentials:
- Explanation: This is like leaving your house key under your welcome mat. If a developer puts a password directly into the code, anyone who sees the code can find and use that password.
- Impact: If attackers find these passwords, they can easily access and control the system.
- Neglecting to Sanitize Data:
- Explanation: Think of this as not washing your hands before eating. In software, sanitizing data means cleaning it to remove anything harmful. If data isn’t sanitized, harmful data can be processed by the software, causing damage.
- Impact: This can allow attackers to insert harmful scripts or commands, leading to data theft or software malfunction.
- Lack of Regular Code Audits and Reviews:
- Explanation: Just like regular health check-ups catch problems early, regular code reviews check for mistakes and vulnerabilities in the software. Skipping these reviews is like ignoring maintenance on your car until it breaks down.
- Impact: Undetected issues can accumulate, making the software more vulnerable to attacks.
- Using Outdated or Unpatched Third-Party Libraries and Dependencies:
- Explanation: This is like using old, recalled parts in a machine. Software often relies on pieces of code written by others, called libraries or dependencies. If these aren’t kept up to date, known vulnerabilities can be exploited by attackers.
- Impact: Even if your own code is secure, outdated components can create vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.
Implementing best practices for secure software development
If you are a Business Owner, CEO, Founder or simply the person ultimately responsable for your businesses software budgets – you would be forgiven if you simply relied on trust that your development team are following all the well known best practices.
However, trust, assumptions or even contractural stipulations (when using external development partners) won’t mean much in the event of a security breach or cyber attack. Therefore it is critical to outline and monitor the development and maintenance of any business software system in relation to coding best practices. These can be grouped into 4 key areas that are possible to measure against using tools and performance metrics.
Secure Coding Standards: Work with an experienced software engineer or cyber security specialist to outline the essential secure coding standards and practices that all developers working on your organizations code and software should follow. This would typically be a document with guidelines across the following areas of coding:
- Security by Design
- Password Management
- Access Control
- Error Handling and Logging
- System Configuration
- Code dependency analysis
- Software Supply Chain and licence documentation
- Commit and deployment traceability
Code Reviews and Audits: The above list of coding standards may be a daunting prospect and you might be wondering how on earth you would be able to ensure adherence with such a complex list of standards to measure against. The good news is that the major part of ensuring best practices is actually the simple act of having an independent way of reviewing and assessing your software. If you, as the representative of your organization have access to the full detail of potential risks and vulnerabilities within your software and code, then your development team will naturally be more vigilant than if they knew there was limited transparency. With the latest tools and AI-powered technologies, this is now possible with The Code Registry. As the graphic below shows, our platform provides business leaders with a completely holistic view of their entire suite of IT projects and repositories covering everything they need to know about the latest code changes, potential security risks and outdated components. By using a tool like The Code Registry you are empowering yourself and your business to have the knowledge needed to direct your development roadmap and make informed business decisions.
Automated Security Testing: Automation is probably the single most important aspect of ensuring your businesses code and software is secure. Most good developments teams will be using some form of security or code scanning tool during their development processes to check code prior to deployment (which is great). Unfortunately this only covers you against new code being written. Code and software, like most technology becomes outdated, therefore it is critical to continually scan your entire codebase, including legacy code, for potential security issues.
The Code Registry offers comprehensive support for automated security testing, ensuring that your software remains robust and secure throughout its development lifecycle. Our platform integrates seamlessly with a wide range of automated security testing tools, allowing you to continuously monitor your code for vulnerabilities without manual intervention. By leveraging our advanced scanning capabilities, we can detect and report security flaws in real-time, enabling your development team to address issues promptly and efficiently. Our automated testing framework covers everything from static code analysis to dynamic testing, ensuring thorough coverage of potential threat vectors. Additionally, The Code Registry provides detailed reports and actionable insights, helping you prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities based on their severity and impact. With our support, you can maintain a strong security posture, reduce the risk of cyber attacks, and ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations.
Continuous Learning and Prioritization: The final aspect is about supporting your development team, both internal or external, in their training and development. But not only that, it’s being part of the conversation when reviewing progress and planning development. As a leadership team it is often all too easy to only focus developing new functionality and features that are needed to drive revenue or improve operational efficiency – But if all the focus is on pushing forward, you are ensuring that your development team are not prioritizing maintenance and fixing security issues or updating open source components. This is why as business leaders you need to strike the right balance of directing the proactive development of features while also making sure your team have sufficient time and focus to address legacy code or newly arisen fixes and security vulnerabilities. A good way to achieve this is by keeping regular comparison reports to see if the number of security vulnerabilities in your code are increasing, or the number of outdated components and dependencies are becoming severely out of sync.
The Role of Leadership in Cyber Security
First and foremost the most important role of leadership when it comes to cyber security is having it on the leadership teams agenda. Whether you are a small start-up, or a large enterprise organisation, the first item under IT in any leadership or board meeting should be an update on your current suite of digital assets and their respective security status.
If we imagine an organisation that’s running a few websites, a customer portal, a mobile app and maybe some internal software that helps with operational efficiencies, you might have more than 10 individual code repositories, all of which are being accessed and maintained by a team of developers and which will be subject to external updates from open-source libraries or potential breaches in coding standards.
Therefore it is paramount that you, as a board and leadership team, are able to not only see how many digital assets sit within your organisation, but also understand the current security risk associated with them. Only by understanding this are you able to direct focus to areas of the business that require attention.
A simple agenda surrounding Application & Software Security would be;
- Review number of applications and software within the organisation and what their role is
- Simple scoring system of current security risks associated with each application or piece of software.
- Recommended priorities to be addressed
- Longer term proactive security measures that could be implemented.
By doing this you will ensure that your businesses Software and Applications are at the forefront of every board members mind and can be a discussion point for internal priorities and policies.
What next?
If you own or run a business and are concerned about your lack of visibility when it comes to your software and IT security – then book a demo with out team today. In under 20 minutes we’ll cover off everything you need to know about creating an independent code vault and how. tounderstand the complexities of software development and associated security vulnerabilities.
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