ACCORDING TO CERT AND OWASP (ORGANISATIONS DEVOTED TO ENSURING SECURITY IN THE ONLINE WORLD), VULNERABLE SOFTWARE IS AN EASY TARGET FOR HACKERS. THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ATTACKS RESULT FROM TARGETING AND EXPLOITING KNOWN, UNPATCHED SOFTWARE VULNERABILITIES AND INSECURE SOFTWARE CONFIGURATIONS. MANY OF THESE CAN BE AVOIDED WHEN GIVEN DUE CONSIDERATION IN THE DESIGN AND CODING PHASE.
“When building new software, it is imperative that developers give as much consideration to security as they do to all the other main elements (such as user interfaces and performance),” explains Kareem Tawansi, CEO of software development provider, Solentive Software.
In today’s society, software is a vital aspect in any organisation. “As more and more software is being relied upon in business (and the world generally), more people are joining the ranks of the hacker community and the decision not to invest in security (during the development stage) is less justifiable than ever,” explains Kareem.
“It’s roughly 20 times more expensive to fix software in production than while it’s being developed, which makes it a very easy decision to financially justify. It’s as simple as this; it just makes good business sense to focus on it at the beginning,” concludes Kareem.
As new technology emerges and workers instigate the BYOD notion to the workplace, businesses need to proactively approach this situation to guarantee that their environment is secure. With the hacker community on the rise and the threat they pose to business increasing, it is essential to be aware of security issues before applications are deployed.