without security on the priority list can be detrimental to the legacy of that product. This is not breaking news, but we still see, time after time, that software is designed, developed, tested and released with just an after thought (maybe) about security. Sure, many software systems will never have a breach that makes it to the headlines, but that doesn’t mean the data was secure. Let’s explore why it is cheaper, faster and much more secure to prioritize security from the get-go.
A common trend is to have the “security” discussion late in the development process. Scrambling to fix or patch security gaps before launching the product causes re-work and delays the launch. Think of it as building a cheeseburger. If you build a cheeseburger and then decide you want to add pickles, you must deconstruct the burger, add the pickles, and then reassemble it. This is wasted time. If you design and plan the security features from the start, you don’t need to go back and fill in those gaps. Time equals money. The rework discussed above, directly adds costs to the development, not to mention postponing projects in queue.
Lets go back to the cheeseburger analogy again. After constructing the whole burger, it would be practically impossible to mix pepper into the ground meet, since it is already cooked. The same can be said about security in your software system. If the foundation or framework of your system is not secure, you can patch other areas indefinitely, but still have those foundational security vulnerabilities. We have seen system scrapped and rebuilt, because a system was built on an insecure framework. If this happens to you, you would walk away with your tail between your legs!
Lets skip the cheeseburger this time, imagine starting the project off with security as the number one requirement… Every step of the process, security impacts are assessed, from the design all the way to launching the system. Each step you plan for the next layer of security. Even better, monitoring systems are made to monitor for hints that a bad actor is testing the security. All of this lends to a smooth development process and everyone is happy with a product that is on time, and most importantly, secure.
At KRTN, we treat every project as we would our own. We will work with you to evaluate your data, uptime requirements and governance requirements to appropriately secure your intellectual property. During ongoing maintenance and while adding features, we perform impact analysis for security to ensure we don’t introduce weaknesses. It only takes one hole for the data to leak. We will build your system without holes to start!