Best Practices for Lean Teams to Improve Application Security Maturity

Lean teams have always aided the success of application development projects. These teams’ methodologies, approaches, and goals fast-track a project’s success and contribute to application security maturity. Without impenetrable security in applications, the entire project could turn out to be useless or become a threat to users. Weak security, therefore, becomes a waste of time and resources for both team and the client. AppSec is highly essential for lean teams as it helps them to find and fix security vulnerabilities and prevent unauthorized access & modification of applications. Also, it helps the team to mitigate the effects of security attacks.

As lean teams ensure application security, it is imperative to focus on application security maturity. This concept shows them how advanced they are regarding their total (not partial) software security approach. An ASM model provides lean teams with strategic tools to help them quickly detect and address security issues. Let’s discuss the best practices for lean teams to improve AppSec maturity.

5 Ways Lean Teams Can Improve Application Security Maturity

Listed below are the five ways lean teams can improve application security maturity:

1. Setting the Bar: Ensuring the Same Security Controls/Scans Apply to the Entire Repository Portfolio

To improve application security maturity, it is essential to focus on one/same security strategy that approaches the entire repository portfolio in the same/similar manner while also providing optimum security. 

This enables the chosen security strategy to identify, detect, and respond to cyberattacks and security risks uniformly and without delay or compromise. Applying the same security control to the entire application’s portfolio bumps up the application security maturity level while setting the bar for optimal security.

2. Widening the Bar: Using Multiple Security Scanning Techniques

Another way to improve application security maturity is to implement multiple security scanning techniques to detect vulnerabilities. Security scanning techniques are known to single out any form of irregularity that may threaten an application’s security. The irregularity could be found within the application (during internal scanning) or outside it (during external scanning). Once a scan identifies these threats, it triggers a form of alert or awareness to notify of their invasions.

It is possible for a cyberattack to bypass one security scanner, but almost impossible to go undetected by multiple scanners. Also, if one of the scanning techniques malfunctions, others can still carry on their work without falling victim to compromise.

Using multiple security scanning techniques to check for security risks and vulnerabilities further widens the bar for maintaining maximum security. Examples of security scanning techniques are DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing), and SAST (Static Application Security Testing). At GuardRails, we can integrate our security scanning systems with yours to catch vulnerabilities at any stage of development. 

3. Stop the Bleeding: Showing Vulnerabilities Directly to Developers and Providing Training

Once the security scanning techniques can identify cyber threats, they should be shown directly to the developers for elimination. Adopting the developer-first method ensures that developers take care of security vulnerabilities instead of the lean teams.

However, for developers to successfully remove all threats and attacks, they should have adequate training on how to fix these security loopholes. They should also be aware of the most vulnerable points in the application and where to expect most attacks. 

By doing this, the developers handle application development and are also in charge of maintaining application security and attaining application security maturity. In addition, developers should be trained regularly to check for security issues and respond to them. An example of this form of developer training is GuardRails’ JIT training. 

4. Raising the Bar: Codifying Vulnerabilities From Other Sources

Identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities via scanning techniques sets and widens the bar. Codifying vulnerabilities, however, raises the bar’s standards and the level of the application security maturity up to par.

During security scanning, the scanner can miss out or fail to identify a threat and its source. However, a penetration testing (pen testing) report for the application will produce a detailed analysis of the application’s security vulnerabilities. If a critical vulnerability that the scanning couldn’t detect shows up, it is essential to codify this vulnerability as a new rule for the scanner. This way, whenever the threat shows up again, the security scanner will be able to identify it.

5. Reducing the Security Debt: Prioritizing Specific Vulnerability Classes

One of the ways to set your application security maturity level higher is your ability to prioritize security vulnerability classes and focus on eradicating the most vulnerable aspects of applications.

It is almost impossible to attain total security and zero risks in application security. However, knowing how to prioritize security risks and attend to them or address them in their order of vulnerability guarantees and ensures optimal security.

This will allow you to distinguish between vulnerability classes of utmost importance and most damaging impact and sort them out in order of priority (from the most to the least detrimental or impactful). Classes of vulnerabilities you should learn to prioritize and fix include design flaws, OS (Operating System) flaws, application flaws, and buffer overflows. 

Conclusion

Attaining the highest application security maturity status possible should be the goal of every organization. This is because the higher the application security maturity status, the stronger and more impenetrable the application security becomes.
Implementing the five practices discussed above can go a long way toward bumping up the application security maturity level, depending on how well you take to these practices. If you are currently faced with security issues and need help to attain application security maturity, we can offer you the help you need. Contact us at GuardRails today to get started.

The post Best Practices for Lean Teams to Improve Application Security Maturity appeared first on GuardRails.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from GuardRails authored by GuardRails. Read the original post at: https://blog.guardrails.io/best-practices-for-lean-teams-to-improve-application-security-maturity/