Automating Secure Coding Training
More and more companies, from national retailers to financial powerhouses, are emphasizing secure coding training for their developers. After all, it creates a culture of security-minded teams and incentivizes ongoing excellence for software that everyday users rely upon. The latest approach within secure coding training now links real-time vulnerability detection with training curriculum—allowing infosec teams visibility into areas of development they need to focus on most.
Individualized analysis of a company’s software that finds areas of needed improvement can not only vastly improve security but also illustrate to all involved (from the most junior developer to the highest C-level exec overseeing products) that security-related training at the development level is anything but a cost center. Instead, it’s a differentiator and can reduce costs in the long run.
Staying on Top of Vulnerabilities at Breakneck Speed
To provide a separate industry example, let’s take the never-ending variety of building materials that are tested by individual labs—and even governments and regulators—to see if they withstand certain levels of wind and weather conditions. Those types of tests can allow materials manufacturers and builders to know what they must address (or fix) to make both their materials and fasteners safer—or even safest. The same can be true in secure coding, but that testing can be even more immediate, ongoing and within the organization itself—not requiring lengthy, disconnected third-party evaluations that delay innovation and progress.
Measuring Twice, Cutting Once Really Does Pay Off
When secure coding training is not part of the ongoing development process, it lends itself to a reactionary company stance – one that centers its safety largely on code fixes that address vulnerabilities and other issues only after software is released and end users are “paying” for it. Yet, today’s users demand an improved user experience; their expectations are not met if a company uses this ‘development first, analyze/react later’ approach. Clearly, hiring top development talent and effective management is key, but it cannot possibly replace the value of taking a look at software as it’s created.
Those builders that rely on physical materials that have undergone extensive testing also realize the value of measuring twice and cutting once—the age-old axiom among carpenters. And the reason? It’s a whole lot easier and safer to eliminate do-overs or make improvements from the onset. Plus, their leaders love the lower costs that accompany that focus on proactivity.
Secure Coding Now = Less Reputational Damage Later
By combining the power of vulnerability detection with automated training programs that use real-life coding challenges for developers, a company can often identify an issue and fix it during development. And that will ultimately save headaches down the road. And although it’s likely impossible to remove all vulnerabilities, it’s the major vulnerabilities that can result in severe, lengthy downtimes—and that means the company’s reputation can take a real hit.
By baking vulnerability identification and rectification into the actual development process, the industry is taking a big step forward in the software and cybersecurity space that further illustrates how marrying innovation with learning processes can significantly improve outcomes.
