Absence of Security in Initial Stages of System Engineering

Building a cyber secure system is one of the fundamental objectives of software developers and system engineers. Software developers focus on building feature-rich applications and improving user interaction and user experience. Security of applications and overall systems is left out to be tackled by third parties AFTER the system is developed.

The absence of security in the initial stages of System Engineering is the single most significant cybersecurity gap and risk in modern system development. ~Linda Rawson

Assurance Approach

Researchers have proposed different approaches to secure a system. Security by Design is an assurance approach; software and hardware developers try to secure systems by adopting practices like continuous testing, authentication safeguards, and adherence to best programming practices. This approach allows you to formalize infrastructure design and automate security controls so that you can secure every aspect of IT management and administration.

Security is an Organization Thing

Security in system engineering has a lot to do with WHO is involved more than vulnerabilities. The most important thing is to get the organization on board to embrace security. No exceptions. Implementing a DevSecOps approach ensures that security, development, and IT Ops teams work toward a joint security goal. If developers are onboarded with training that teaches them how to be hackers, they will write hacker-proof code.

Traditional Methods Need Adjusting

Security by Design helps secure the systems that were not networked initially, and security has not traditionally been considered in product design. One of the vital part goals of Security by Design is baking security into the design lifecycle, ensuring that data flows are secure, and authentication is appropriate.

Baking in Security

Baking in security is imperative as the entire IT landscape infrastructure has moved from just being client-server architecture to virtualization, cloud, a serverless environment, and containers, making it complicated for security practices. Cybersecurity should not be an afterthought; it should be baked in during the entire lifecycle of system development and deployment.

The variety of application development practices and frameworks should also be a motivation behind adopting cybersecurity. The conception, and partial reality, is cybersecurity is challenging and will slow the development cycle down. Modern software development lifecycle models have relaxed the perceived rigidity and are moving toward Agile methods.

The Waterfall model’s sequencing, emphasizing documentation at each phase before proceeding to the next phase, made it easier to include security controls at every step of the process. Baked in cybersecurity fit right into the rigid process.

Organizations are increasingly moving away from the waterfall model to rapid development cycles, where code is released monthly, weekly, daily, or even hourly.

The End Goal

Hardware and software should be treated together, integrated with cybersecurity early and frequently.

This blog was written by Linda Rawson, of DynaGrace Enterprises (dynagrace.com). For further information, please connect with Linda on LinkedIn, or contact her at (800) 676-0058 ext 101.

#cybersecurity #systemengineering #security #DevSecOps