Speaker
Abstract
Shift left? Spread left? Regardless of terminology, we want to be thinking about security earlier on in the development lifecycle. Ideally whilst we are still gathering the business requirements.
But how do we do that? Not everyone can think up security requirements on demand and we need to do this constantly for each new feature or development.
As a project lead for the OWASP Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS), a list of requirements for building secure software, this is something I have spent time working on as well as discussing with a variety of development teams. In this talk I want to show you what we came up with.
After a brief overview of what the ASVS is, we will then talk about how to:
- Get buy-in for security at this stage
- Balance trade-offs and prioritize different security requirements
- Trim the ASVS to focus on your current context
- Make the process repeatable and maintain a view of security state
You should leave the talk with not only a better understanding of the ASVS but also clear ideas on how you can take this and implement it as part of your own organization's requirements process.
Interview
I come from a security background. I started off in the hacker world doing breaking and penetration testing. Gradually I realized that if security people want to improve the security of software and be able to build things securely, we need to work alongside developers. Specifically, how can we bring security knowledge and security guidance to developers in a way that matches the way that they're working, day to day.
So that is the basis of my work today, working with development teams and helping them with their software security processes, either to implement them or to improve them, but in a way that fits with their existing processes and brings them higher value.
I'm one of the co-leaders of the OWASP ASVS project, which is a really great project for giving comprehensive guidance, over a variety of different areas on how to build software in a secure way. The problem with the ASVS is that it is very large. There are about 280 requirements in total. So, how do we make it accessible? How do we make it usable?
The motivation behind the talk is to bring some ideas of how to do this and how to break it down into manageable chunks. We want to find ways of integrating it into the overall software lifecycle in a way that doesn’t add friction or slow things down.
The talk is aimed at people who've got experience with development and are familiar with different working methods but have seen the challenge of trying to maintain development velocity whilst also trying to integrate security.
Ultimately, I think anyone who's interested in how to make security more usable for themselves and their teams will benefit from this session.
The focus is on ideas that are actionable, and I'll show examples of things I've used within actual organizations during the talk.
Aside from what I wrote in the abstract, I hope people leave feeling confident that security doesn’t have to be slow and painful as long as it is planned and targeted correctly.
Topics
QCon London 2023 is a three day conference for senior software engineers, architects and team leads. An international program committee of working engineers selects every session. Patterns and practices, not products and pitches.
Part of the track
Building Security in Earlier Hosted by Stefania Chaplin Founder & CEO @DevStefOps, Previously Solutions Architect @GitLab, AWS Certified Security - SpecialityFrom the same track
Monday 27 March
10:35 Windsor (5th Fl.) Session security Security Checks Simplified: How to Implement Best Practices with Ease Varun Sharma CEO and Co-Founder @Step_Security Many organizations are confronted with multiple issues flagged by security tools; are you struggling with security remediation? If so, this talk is for you. 11:50 Mountbatten (6th Fl.) Session cloud How to Build a Successful Cloud Capability on a Heavy Regulated Organization Ana Sirvent Principal DevOps Engineer @KPMG UK On KPMG, working in a highly regulated industry ourselves, we know and feel the pain of enabling innovation and teams to do what they do best. 13:40 Windsor (5th Fl.) Session security Sustainable Security Requirements with the ASVS Josh Grossman Application Security Consultant & CTO @BounceSecurity Shift left? Spread left? Regardless of terminology, we want to be thinking about security earlier on in the development lifecycle. Ideally whilst we are still gathering the business requirements. 14:55 Rutherford (4th Fl.) Unconference Unconference: Building Security in Earlier Shane Hastie Global Delivery Lead @SoftEd, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods @InfoQ What is an unconference? An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. Attendees come together, bringing their challenges and relying on the experience and know-how of their peers for solutions. 16:10 Westminster (4th Fl.) Panel Panel: Building Security in Earlier Ana Sirvent, Josh Grossman, Varun Sharma, Henry Tze Software security is an essential aspect of any digital product, yet it is often neglected until the late stages of the development lifecycle. This approach leaves organizations vulnerable to cyberattacks, which can result in costly data breaches, reputational damage, and legal liabilities. 17:25 Whittle (3rd Fl.) Session automation Getting Developers into F1 Driver Seats with Security? Henry Tze Lead Cloud Security Engineer @Virgin Media O2 At Virgin Media O2, we are in a race of digital transformation which requires many different types of skillsets and people. This resulted in waves of hiring new blood, contractors and skilling up existing engineers/developers.