Building Robust Software: A Guide to Cybersecurity Best Practices

In today's technically driven world full of so many business applications and software, securing it from cybercriminals is of paramount importance. Gone are the days, when cyber attackers keep a close watch on your software password and decode the code to take out sensitive information. Just like the rapidly growing technology, even cyberattacks have become more sophisticated.

Application security must be done in coordination with modern-day cybersecurity practices, policies, and methodologies. With this, organizations need not find themselves at a crossroads to bridge the gap between secured software development and meeting hacking uncertainties.

Here in this blog, we will be reflecting necessary light on cybersecurity best practices of secure software development, followed by unwinding common cybersecurity threats. And, later talk about measures to best secure your valuable and data-driven application.

So, with no further ado, let's get started on the same.

Cybersecurity Threats and its Common Types

A cybersecurity threat is a clear indication of a suspicious entity entering into your software for the malicious purpose of gaining unauthorized access to the network. The purpose is to launch an attack on your software to gain valuable data and provide unexpected harm.

But that's not all about cyber threats to your business software. There are several types of cybersecurity threats you should be aware of. Thus, we bring forth some essential tips on threats that are necessary to know to follow particular cybersecurity awareness tips.

1. Malware

Malware is a kind of malicious software or code used by cybercriminals to pose a serious threat to your software. It's a program inserted into your valuable software to steal sensitive information, insert malicious code, affect your data, and attack the operating system. As a result of malware, you may find uncalled functional and data damage to your software further affecting the overall organization's reputation.

Serious threats of malware for your software:

• Voilatin privacy of your software while allowing unauthorized entities to get access to the same.
• Locking the user's data or device with a further threat of leaking valuable information.
• Adding a trojan horse into the software allows users to download malicious software posing it to be authentic software.
• Gathering sensitive information of your software including but not limited to usernames, passwords, codes, credit card numbers, and more.
• Self-replacing the program with malicious worms.

2. Ransomware

As the name itself implies, Ransomware is another malicious attack on your software. Ransomware prevents users from getting access to their accounts or the software. To access the same, they have to pay a ransom or a fee through an online payment method. To gain access, users have to pay in terms of bitcoins.

Serious threats of ransomware for your software:

• Ransome enters into your software and encrypts the files you have.
• Cybercriminals will ask for ransom from your side to provide access to the software.
• There is a further threat of cyber attackers holding the data of your software unless you pay the ransom to take hold of the same.

3. Spam & Phishing

At some point in time, you must've witnessed some unwanted emails or messages visible in your email box. Neither you have subscribed to a particular website nor asked for such emails. Such instances are clear indications of serious cyberthreat caused by unauthorized entities.

So, to be precise, spam and phishing include unwanted, undesirable, and unsolicited emails and messages visible in your mailbox. In case, you click on any link mentioned in the email or message, then there are chances of losing your sensitive personal information.

4. Corporate Account Takeover

An integral cybersecurity tip for employees is becoming aware of the Corporate Account Takeover (CATO) cyber threat, rapidly growing these days. CATO is more like an unreliable business entity that poses as real-time business professionals sending your authorized access to wire and ACH transactions. In this case, unauthorized funds are transferred to accounts fully controlled by untrusted cybercriminals.

Several enterprises are under serious threat because of CATO which could result in huge business-specific financial loss or even leakage of valuable data. This form of cybersecurity threat can pose a serious danger to your software, computer systems, and more.

5. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks

DDoS stands for increasing website traffic or access to software with the help of overwhelming traffic from unauthorized sources. As a result, your software's functional speed goes slow, preventing access to users, and allowing people to stay away from your software.

This particular Distributed Denial of Service attack is caused by cybercriminals infecting computers with Botnets to plant malware into your system.

Principles of Secure Software Development

To safeguard your business information, follow some predefined principles of secure software development and stay away from unexpected cyberattacks. Here, we have listed down essential principles of software development keeping its security and data protection in mind.

• Security as Code

One of the significant principles of protected business software development is security as code. It implies transforming manual processes to automation as per scriptable components within the software development life cycle. This principle involves writing the software scripts to ensure the maximum level of security, performing vulnerability assessments, and automating remediation.

• Giving Least Privilege

The Least Privilege is another crucial secure software development principle that involves providing Identity and Access Management (IAM) access to users. It implies every component of your software should be operated with the least privileged access to the same. It implies necessary functions to be performed as per the least privilege available that further lead to reduced accessible attacks.

• Securing the Defaults

Securing the Default principles certainly mandates the default settings to be operated to safeguard the software from attacks, data leaks, and other threats. This approach allows all the end users to stick to the default software settings that include features like allowing multi-factor authentication, using safe passwords, turning off extra services, and more.

• Separation of Duties

Separation of Duties (SoD) means dividing the software development tasks and duties to limit the access as per the respective function. For instance, developers will not have access to the CI/CD pipeline and won't be allowed to deploy the production of software. Similarly, other development responsibilities are divided to limit access to an optimum extent.

Best Practices for Secure Software Development with Cybersecurity Measures

Let's have a look at some essential information security best practices to consider as an integral part of your software development process. And further follow the same after deploying.

• Secure Development Lifecycle

One of the integral cybersecurity best practices to follow is from the development stage itself. Make sure to include necessary security patches as an important part of your software development lifecycle. Start discussing and implementing the required security patches starting from the requirement gathering process to final deployment. Doing this will help you keep security as a continuous part of the process and prevent uncalled cyberattacks.

• Securing Data

Sensitive data related to your software should be secured first. To do the same, follow sensitive data encryption both in the rest and transit stages. It is essential to use strong data encryption algorithms to protect valuable usernames, passwords, codes, and more.

• Authentication and Authorization

Authenticating users with a strong mechanism is another information best practice to follow. It is essential to only allow authorized and trusted users to get access to your business software that too after using strong usernames and passwords. To do the same, you can enable multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, and other authentication techniques. Doing this will further help you prevent unauthorized entities from accessing your software.

• Network Security

It is of integral importance to enable strong and protected network security for running the software with ease. As an enterprise, you can choose a strong network security measure to run the software without causing any information or accessibility stress.

• Enforce Strong Security Policies

As an enterprise, you must adopt the recent, trending, and updated security policies at timely intervals to safeguard your software against attacks and threats. It is of critical importance to stay updated regularly with the current security policies, follow a strategic approach to adopt the same and change your software settings accordingly.

• Incident Response and Management

Do develop a cyberattack incident report plan for the enterprise to take necessary steps in safeguarding the system. Prepare an outline of how to respond when an incident of cyberattack is detected and particular security measures are followed to safeguard the software. Moreover, this response plan must include communication channels, response time, management process, etc.

• Compliance and Regulations

Strictly adhere to the available industry regulations and software security compliance to follow the necessary standards and protect your system. For instance, you should meet the compliance associated with GDPR, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and several others.

• Training and Awareness

Last but not least, start training your software development team to create secure code, understand different types of cyber attacks, and follow the above-mentioned cybersecurity best practices to prevent threats. For this, you must encourage a security awareness culture and follow several software security activities to stay ahead of the attacks.

Conclusion

To sum up it all, cybersecurity is a multi-faceted approach to secure software development from start to finish. It's a necessary endeavor for enterprises to reduce the risk of cyberattacks like data leakage, data theft, unauthorized access, data lock, or any other. Follow the necessary cybersecurity tactics to stay ahead of the ongoing risk of vulnerabilities and fully protect the software to ensure seamless development.

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