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Building Security into Software with Security Policies & Static Analysis

Security, like quality, must be built into the application - not achieved through bug-finding
By Adam Kolawa
Article Rating:
February 19, 2008 04:15 PM EST
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 8,728

The common approach to securing applications is to try to identify and remove all of the application's security vulnerabilities at the end of the development process. However, this bug-finding approach is not only resource-intensive, it's largely ineffective. To have any chance of exposing all of the security vulnerabilities that may be nested throughout the application, the team would have to identify every single path through the application then rigorously test each and every one. And any error found would be difficult to fix, considering that the effort, cost, and time required to fix each one increases exponentially as the development process progresses. Most importantly, the bug-finding approach to security fails to address the root cause of the problem - the fact that security, like quality, must be built into the application.

Building security into an application involves designing and implementing the application according to a policy for reducing the risk of security attacks then verifying that the policy is implemented and operating correctly.

Published February 19, 2008 – Reads 8,728
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More Stories By Adam Kolawa

Adam Kolawa is the co-founder and CEO of Parasoft, leading provider of solutions and services that deliver quality as a continuous process throughout the SDLC. In 1983, he came to the United States from Poland to pursue his PhD. In 1987, he and a group of fellow graduate students founded Parasoft to create value-added products that could significantly improve the software development process. Adam's years of experience with various software development processes has resulted in his unique insight into the high-tech industry and the uncanny ability to successfully identify technology trends. As a result, he has orchestrated the development of numerous successful commercial software products to meet growing industry needs to improve software quality - often before the trends have been widely accepted. Adam has been granted 10 patents for the technologies behind these innovative products.

Kolawa, co-author of Bulletproofing Web Applications (Hungry Minds 2001), has contributed to and written over 100 commentary pieces and technical articles for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Java Developer's Journal, SOA World Magazine, AJAXWorld Magazine; he has also authored numerous scientific papers on physics and parallel processing. His recent media engagements include CNN, CNBC, BBC, and NPR. Additionally he has presented on software quality, trends and development issues at various industry conferences. Kolawa holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology. In 2001, Kolawa was awarded the Los Angeles Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the software category.

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