Organisations are under constant pressure to evolve their services, implement updates, and adapt to emerging technologies. However, each change—whether a feature update, patch, or system overhaul—can introduce vulnerabilities if security isn’t considered at every stage. Secure by Design Principle 10 ‘Make Changes Securely’, offers a framework to embed security into the entire lifecycle of your systems, ensuring that changes enhance functionality without compromising safety.
Why Security During Changes Matters
- Unintended Consequences
Changes, even minor ones, can inadvertently weaken your security posture. For example, an update might expose sensitive data, introduce misconfigurations, or create new attack surfaces. - Rising Threat Landscape
Cyber threats evolve rapidly, targeting organisations that fail to secure their development and deployment processes. An insecure change today could lead to a significant breach tomorrow. - Trust and Compliance
Customers, regulators, and stakeholders expect systems to remain secure, even as they evolve. Secure changes maintain trust and help organisations meet regulatory standards.
Embedding Security at Every Stage
To ensure security isn’t compromised during changes, organisations must integrate security considerations into each phase of the design, development, and deployment processes.
- Design with Security in Mind
- Threat Modelling: Before development begins, identify potential vulnerabilities and attack vectors.
- Set Security Standards: Define the security controls required to meet your organisation’s risk tolerance and regulatory needs.
- Plan for Updates: Include strategies for securely deploying patches and retiring components during the design phase.
- Secure Development Practices
- Code Reviews: Implement peer reviews that include a focus on secure coding standards.
- Automated Testing: Use tools like static and dynamic application security testing (SAST and DAST) to identify vulnerabilities early.
- Development Pipelines: Integrate security into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) workflows to automate checks during every build.
- Evaluate Changes for Security Impact
- Impact Analysis: Assess the security implications of changes before implementation. For example, will a new API create a backdoor for attackers?
- Testing in Isolation: Use staging environments to test updates before rolling them out to production.
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Involve security teams in change reviews to ensure all risks are accounted for.
- Secure Deployment and Retirement
- Monitor for Anomalies: Implement real-time monitoring to detect unexpected behaviours after deployment.
- Retire Components Safely: Securely decommission outdated or redundant systems, ensuring no sensitive data remains exposed.
Preventing Vulnerabilities During Updates
Updating systems is essential to address new threats, but poorly managed updates can inadvertently create vulnerabilities. Secure by Design principles help mitigate these risks:
- Timely Patching: Apply patches quickly to address known vulnerabilities, but only after testing their impact in a controlled environment.
- Rollback Plans: Prepare rollback strategies in case an update introduces unforeseen issues.
- Change Logs: Maintain detailed records of changes, including security assessments and testing results, to provide accountability and facilitate troubleshooting.
Benefits of Secure Changes
- Minimised Risk
- Operational Confidence
- Regulatory Compliance
- Enhanced Resilience
Conclusion
Incorporating security into every stage of the design, development, and deployment lifecycle is no longer optional—it’s essential. Secure by Design Principle 10 provides a roadmap for embedding security into change management, ensuring that systems evolve without compromising their integrity.
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