The number of data breaches publicly reported in 2021 far exceeded the total for 2020, making 2021 a record year. With cyberattacks on the rise and bad actors and ransomware gangs demanding millions in ransom, cybersecurity has taken on new urgency.
In addition to more sophisticated hacking techniques, the rapid pace of tech adoption during the pandemic is another contributing factor fueling cybersecurity risks. A recent survey by Forrester shows 74% of companies attribute recent cyberattacks to vulnerabilities in technology put in place during the pandemic. As companies raced to enable remote work, develop new applications and roll out new consumer-facing digital solutions, cybercriminals saw new opportunities to identify vulnerabilities and to attack.
Cybersecurity threats can affect every business regardless of size and every individual, regardless of who they are or where they live. Even the most protected and advanced organizations are at risk: One of the world’s biggest cybersecurity companies recently fell victim to one of the largest breaches in history. It’s time for all companies to rethink their approach to boosting security in the software development process.
As a nearshore development partner for businesses around the world, we have embraced a ‘security by design’ mindset to keep our clients’ builds secure. To put security first and ensure it remains at the forefront of every engagement, we adopted a parallel build systems process to improve the integrity of the code we deliver. This also reduced the overall threat of potential attacks. How did we do this? There are three key components to developing and implementing a security-by-design mindset.
Embedded Security Expertise
It is critical that security experts become official members of every software development team. These specialists are there every step of the way from design to delivery, finding and fixing security flaws along the development journey. Instead of being brought in at the end of the process, they are deciding on new solutions and implementing protections in real-time alongside experts in design, user experience and coding. Each plays a role and works as an integrated member of the team providing advice and suggestions during Agile cycles and sprints.
Predictive Analytics
A recent survey showed that 96% of third-party applications deployed in cloud infrastructure contain known vulnerabilities. That rising risk can make it possible for bad actors to infiltrate thousands of organizations. Threat hunting tools can spot, anticipate and predict vulnerabilities in software development. Tools can automatically scan code as it is written to vet and diagnose vulnerabilities. Our team scans code while in production and reports risks and vulnerabilities and then immediately consulting with the rest of the team to work on the next secure version.
Continuous Learning
Security is changing quickly, and it’s never been more critical to ensure developers have the skills necessary to defend and protect corporate infrastructure, applications and digital solutions. With the threat landscape constantly evolving, new skills and continuous learning are required to stay ahead of the latest threats and fraud techniques. Part of our training is focused on deploying white hats, or ethical hackers, to breach our development environments and the applications we deploy. These experts then set about identifying weaknesses and helping to improve security. They also take our training to the next level and push our experts to continually learn and educate themselves on the latest threats and solutions. By upgrading their skills, security practitioners can stay ahead of cybercriminals.
Every day, enterprises face thousands of attacks on their systems, and malware continues to grow in frequency, volume and complexity. These attacks are not just coming from criminals looking to make a buck; there are growing fears of nation-state attacks escalating. These are often seen as the more dangerous threats to businesses. The best defense against cyberthreats is a strong offense anchored by a security by design mindset.
