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Difference between revisions of "CISO AppSec Guide v2: Executive Summary"

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[[Application Security Guide For CISOsVs2|< Back to the Application Security Guide For CISOs]]
 
[[Application Security Guide For CISOsVs2|< Back to the Application Security Guide For CISOs]]
  
__NOTOC__
+
== Executive Summary ==
  
== Executive Summary ==
+
One of the main responsibilities of CISOs is to make sure information security policies and standards are in place for protecting the company's assets. The main goals of these policies and standards is to protect confidential data from un-authorized access, ensure integrity and availability. Besides data, applications and software can also be considered among the company assets. that need to be protected. These applications and software might also be in scope for security assessments such as ethical hacking-pentesting, secure code reviews and threat modelling. The goal of these assessments is to identify and remediate vulnerabilities during the various phases of the SDLC that include requirementsdesign, implementation, deployment and operations. These application security assessments are often part of CISOs and SecDevOps managers responsibility to manage by make sure processes are followed to ensure compliance with standards and policies.  
The fact that applications ought to be considered company's assets is "per se" a good reason to put applications in scope for compliance with information security policies and standards. The impact of compliance with information security policies and standards for applications typically depends on the classification of the asset-data stored by the application, the type of exposure of the application to the users (e.g. internet, intranet, extranet) and the risk of the functionality that the application supports with the data (e.g. access to confidential data, transfer of money, payments, users administration etc). From an information security perspective, applications should be in scope for organizations specific vulnerability assessments and application security requirements. The security validations and certifications of applications follow specific security requirements such as the secure design, secure coding and secure operations. These are often part of the goals of application security standards. Therefore, compliance is a critical aspect of application security, and of CISOs responsibilities, but not the only one.
 
Application security spans other security domains that CISOs are responsible for. These can be summarized as (GRC) Governance, Risk and Compliance.  
 
  
* From the governance perspective, CISOs are responsible for institute application security processes, roles and responsibilities to manage them, and software security training and awareness for software developers such as defensive coding and vulnerability risk management for information security officers/managers.  
+
Although compliance might be a critical aspect of application security, it is not the only one. Application security spans other security domains that can be summarised as (GRC) Governance, Risk and Compliance. Putting application security in perspective of GRC helps to align this guide to CISOs roles and responsibilities when initiating, creating, managing and improving application security programs as summarised herein:
* From the risk management perspective, the risks managed by the CISOs also include application security risks, such as the risks of specific threats targeting applications that process confidential user data by seeking to exploit gaps in security controls as well as vulnerabilities in applications.
 
* Among CISOs security domains, compliance with regulations and security standards is often the one that gets the most attention from the organization's executive management. The aim of this guide, is to help CISOs fulfill compliance requirements as well as to use compliance requirements as one of the reasons for justifying investments in application security. For some organizations, managing risks of security incidents such as credit card fraud, theft of personal identifiable information, theft of intellectual property and confidential data is what gets most of the executive management attention, especially when the organization has been impacted by data breach security incidents.
 
  
 +
* From the governance perspective, CISOs might be responsible for institute application security processes, the roles and responsibilities to manage them including security training and awareness. Training might also include secure coding for software developers, threat modelling for application architects and vulnerability testing for pen testers.
 +
* From the risk management perspective, the risks managed by the CISOs might also include managing application security risks, such as the risks of exploit of gaps in security controls and application vulnerabilities.  SecDevOps managers might be responsible for application vulnerability management as well as managing application security throughout the software development life-cycle (SDLC).
 +
* From compliance perspective, compliance with application and software security standards might be among both CISO and SecDevOps managers role and responsibility to manage. Compliance with industry standards (e.g. PCI-DSS) might be one of the reasons for starting an application security programs for the organisation including hiring staff for managing and executing the various application security activities that the program/initiative entails.
  
=== Part I: Kick Starting An Application Security Program ===
+
=== Part I: How To Initiate Application Security Program(s) ===
  
 
----
 
----
[[CISO AppSec Guide v2: How To Start |Go to Part I: ]]
+
[[CISO AppSec Guide v2: How To Start |Go to Part I:]]
 +
 
 +
In part I we guide CISOs and SecDevOps managers in the initial steps that lead to the creation of an application security program. Initially is is important to creating awareness within the organisation in regarding the need to institute an application security program and then create business cases and gain commitments from the business/sponsors of the program. An example of creating awareness is to explain the difference between application and software security and between the approach of security built in vs. the security bolt on.  An example of creating a business case is save money spent on fixing vulnerabilities late in the SDLC by focus on proactive security (i.e. manage issue early in the SDLC) vs reactive  security (i.e. catch issues late in SDLC and apply costly patches to applications that are already deployed).
  
There might be different reasons to why a Chief Information Security Officer (CISOs) is tasked to start an application security program for the organisation. Elaborate on the evolving threat landscape targeting web applications.. audit, legal and compliance requirements.  
+
When creating the business cases for investing in application security, CISOs need to be real about cyber-threat risks and present to the business the overall picture of information security risks, not just compliance and vulnerabilities, but also security incidents and threat intelligence of threat agents targeting the organization information assets including for applications. The ability to communicate risks to the business empowers CISOs to articulate the business case for application security and justify additional spending in application security measures. This justification needs to consider the economical impact of security incidents compared with the costs of unlawful non compliance. Today's costs to the business due to the economical impacts of security incidents are much higher than the costs of non-compliance and failing audits. Often the severity of the impact of security incidents might costs CISOs their jobs and the company losing reputation and revenues. In part I of this guide we provide CISOs guidance on how to build a business cases from cyber-threat risk perspective with useful examples for estimating the business impact caused by exploitation of web application vulnerabilities.  
  
Sometimes the need for starting an application security initiative need to be articulated as a business case for investing in an application security program. The business case might consist on  articulating the benefits on investing in software security and application security during the SDLC  as well as necessary to mitigate the possible impact to the business caused by exploit of vulnerabilities in web applications, software products and servicesIndustry security spending benchmarks and quantitative risk calculations provide support to security investment budget requests.
+
Managing risk is about prioritising the mitigation effort based upon the level of risk but also to align security priorities to the business priorities (i.e. referred to the appetite for risk of the organisation ). This alignment is the first step towards establishing the relevance of every security initiative and shows business management how security supports their mission. Besides alignment between application security and business priorities it is important to align to the capabilities of the organisation and specifically to the maturity of software security processes executed within the organisation. The main challenge that CISOs and SecDevOps managers might face is on where to put the focus/effort for the biggest gain by the "buck" being invested into the application security program. After a measurement of the software security maturity of processes (e.g. SAMM, BSIMM) being executed CISOs might find that the organisation is not ready yet to start an application security program without investment in tools, training and processes (i.e. ad-hoc process execution, no documented standards and sporadic use of tools). These measurements allow the CISO to gain visibility and assess company culture by asking the right questions.  
  
CISOs need to be real about cyber-threat risks and present to the business the overall picture of information security risks, not just compliance and vulnerabilities, but also security incidents and threat intelligence of threat agents targeting the organization information assets including for applications. The ability to communicate risks to the business empowers CISOs to articulate the business case for application security and justify additional spending in application security measures. This justification needs to consider the economical impact of security incidents compared with the costs of unlawful non compliance. Today's costs to the business due to the economical impacts of security incidents are much higher than the costs of non-compliance and failing audits. Often the severity of the impact of security incidents might costs CISOs their jobs and the company losing reputation and revenues.
+
Starting an application security program might also be triggered by compliance events such as the need to comply to specific industry standards (e.g. testing web applications for OWASP T10 to comply with PCI-DSS) or by a security event such as data compromise cause by an exploit of vulnerabilities in a web application.
  
''Map business priorities to security priorities'''
+
Independently from the "triggers" is is important that the CISOs set realistic expectations of the risk reduction that can be achieved based upon the resources out in place. and created a roadmap for creating the application security program including training of the software development team, on boarding of application security  tools and technologies following proof of concepts and pilots.
  
All security priorities must be able to be mapped to business priorities. This is the first step towards establishing the relevance of every security initiative and shows business management how security supports the mission. It also demonstrates to security staff how the staff supports the mission.
+
The most important aspect that CISOs and SecDevOps mangers need to focus upon during the initial phases of the application security program is to gain commitments from the sponsors of the application and software security initiative as well as from the application security stakeholders that, besides the business managers, include program managers, software  developers/engineers and testers. This level of commitment depends also on the approach taken by the organisation to push the application security initiative within the organisation.  Possible approaches are either a top down approach where in the driving seat is the CEO/business. Example of top down approach might include a two months freeze on development, every developer on security training, S-SDLC to be created and executed by all teams and for all projects. A bottom up approach is where in the driving seat are CISO and SecDevIps Managers  and there is need to partner and working together with DevOp managers that might agree to commit developers to secure training and demand secure code reviews and testing to be executed in compliance with application security standards.
  
=== Part II: How To Create An Application Security Program ===
+
=== Part II: How To Create Application Security Program(s) ===
  
 
----
 
----
  
[[CISO AppSec Guide: Criteria for Managing Application Security Risks|Go to Part II: Criteria for Managing Application Security Risks]]
+
[[CISO AppSec Guide v2: How To Create | Go to Part II:]]
  
 
Creating an an application security program involves  planning for the adoption of new application security activities, processes, controls and training. When planning for new application security processes and controls, it is important for CISOs to know on which application security domains to invest, in order for the business to deliver on its missions.  
 
Creating an an application security program involves  planning for the adoption of new application security activities, processes, controls and training. When planning for new application security processes and controls, it is important for CISOs to know on which application security domains to invest, in order for the business to deliver on its missions.  
  
 
'To build and grow an application security program, CISOs must:
 
'To build and grow an application security program, CISOs must:
 +
 +
""Create a Roadmap""
  
 
* Map business priorities to security priorities  
 
* Map business priorities to security priorities  
 
* Assess the current state using a security program maturity model  
 
* Assess the current state using a security program maturity model  
 
* Establish the target state using a security program maturity model  
 
* Establish the target state using a security program maturity model  
 +
 +
* Assess software maturity for processes, training and tools
 +
* Document the software security standards and process (S-SDLC and SecDevOps)
 +
* Document security testing standards
 +
* Plan for adoption of application security tools (SAST, DAST)
 +
* Plan train developers on secure coding and use of tools
 +
* Set goals-objectives and time to reach them as milestones to track
 +
 +
Flesh out:
  
 
''Assess the current state using a security program maturity model'''  
 
''Assess the current state using a security program maturity model'''  
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OWASP provides several projects and guidance for CISOs to help develop and implement an application security program. Besides reading this section of the guide, see the [https://www.owasp.org/index.php/CISO_AppSec_Guide:_Quick_Reference_to_OWASP_Guides_%26_Projects Appendix B: Quick Reference to OWASP Guides & Projects] for more information on the type of security engineering domain activities that can be incorporated within an application security program.
 
OWASP provides several projects and guidance for CISOs to help develop and implement an application security program. Besides reading this section of the guide, see the [https://www.owasp.org/index.php/CISO_AppSec_Guide:_Quick_Reference_to_OWASP_Guides_%26_Projects Appendix B: Quick Reference to OWASP Guides & Projects] for more information on the type of security engineering domain activities that can be incorporated within an application security program.
  
'''Building Security In the SDLC''
+
 
 +
""Create the software security process (S-SDLC and SecDevOps)""
 +
How to Build Security In the SDLC
 +
Articulate SecDevOps and DevSecOps and what entitles to.
 +
Building security During Agile and integration of security during CI and CD
 +
 
 +
'''Security Requirement Engineering'''  
 +
How can be done and when and how and when can be validated
 +
 
 
'''Secure Code Reviews'''  
 
'''Secure Code Reviews'''  
TBD
+
Manual and automated, role of peer reviewers and SAST and DAST
 +
 
 +
'''Secure Build Testing'''
 +
Breaking the builds for security 
  
'''Threat Modeling'''  
+
'''Threat Modelling & Architecture Risk Analysis'''  
  
 
A top-down approach to identifying threats and countermeasures, CISOs should consider a threat modeling technique also described in Part III. The threat modeling technique allows the target application to be decomposed to reveal its attack surface and subsequently its relevant threats, associated countermeasures, and finally, its gaps and weaknesses.  
 
A top-down approach to identifying threats and countermeasures, CISOs should consider a threat modeling technique also described in Part III. The threat modeling technique allows the target application to be decomposed to reveal its attack surface and subsequently its relevant threats, associated countermeasures, and finally, its gaps and weaknesses.  
  
'''Vulnerability Testing'''  
+
'''Security-Vulnerability Testing'''  
TBD
+
From ad-hoc to consistent execution of quality and timing.
 +
Lite testing vs Deep Dive Testing
 +
Framing threats, attacks and vulnerabilities in test scenarios
 +
Test Driven Security
  
'''Technology Risks'''  
+
'''Adoption of Application Security Tools'''  
 +
Articulate when and where in the SDLC to use them (which phase) who need to use and how are deployed including the value that they provide
  
'''Handling new technology'''  
+
'''Emerging Application Security Technologies""'''
 +
RASP document how can be piloted before deployment
  
New application technologies and platforms such as mobile applications, Web 2.0, and cloud computing services offer different threats and countermeasure techniques. Changes to applications are also a source of potential risks, especially when new or different technologies are integrated within applications. As applications evolve by offering new services to citizens, clients, customers and employees, it is also necessary to plan for mitigation of new vulnerabilities introduced by the adoption and implementation of new technologies such as mobile devices, web 2.0 and new services such as cloud computing. Adopting a risk framework to evaluate the risks introduced by new technologies is essential to determine which countermeasures to adopt to mitigate these new risks. This guide will provide guidance for CISOs on how to mitigate risks of new threats against applications, as well as of vulnerabilities that might be introduced by the implementation of new technologies.
+
'''Software Security Training'''
* Mobile applications
+
Articulate for who and what and document in official document
** Example concerns: lost or stolen devices, malware, multi-communication channel exposure, weak authentication
 
** Example CISO actions: Meeting mobile security standards, tailoring security audits to assess mobile application vulnerabilities, secure provisioning, and application data on personal devices.
 
* Web 2.0
 
** Example concerns: securing social media, content management, security of third party technologies and services
 
** Example CISO actions: security API, CAPTCHA, unique security tokens in form posts, and transaction approval workflows.
 
* Cloud computing services
 
** Example concerns: multi-tenant deployments, security of cloud computing deployments, third party risk, data breaches, denial of service malicious insiders
 
** Example CISO actions: cloud computing security assessment, compliance-audit assessment on cloud computing providers, due diligence, encryption in transit and at rest, and monitoring.
 
  
Today's threat agents seek financial gain such as by attacking applications to compromise users' sensitive data and company’s proprietary information for financial gain, fraud as well as for competitive advantage (e.g. through cyber espionage). To mitigate the risks posed by these threat agents, it is necessary to determine the risk exposure and factor the probability and the impact of these threats as well as to identify the type of application vulnerabilities that can be exploited by these threat agents. The exploit of some of these application vulnerabilities might severely and negatively impact the organization and jeopardize the business.
+
""Create A Strategy With Goals For Activities""
 +
* teams trained on software security and threat modelling
 +
* apps/products in scope for vulnerability testing, secure code reviews and static build testing and consistently executed during changes
 +
* secure coding standards documented and adopted
 +
* security requirements are documented and validated with testing during the validation phase
 +
* quality of reports is consistent for level of false positives
 +
* issues are identified and remediated according to compliance time frames
  
=== Part III: How To Manage An Application Security Program ===
+
""Application Security Program Deployment Plan""
 +
* Plan with milestones for reaching goals for activities and metrics to track goals
 +
* Plan should include governance model with roles and duties with RACI reflected in the previously created application security standards documents
 +
* Plan should include on boarding with tool and technologies including PoVs and PoCs before production deployment
  
 +
=== Part III: How to Manage Application Security Program(s) ===
  
 
----
 
----
  
 +
[[CISO AppSec Guide v2: How To Manage | Go to Part III:]]
  
 +
After the program has been created that is process and standards are documented, application security testing activities, use of tools and training need a plan for execution before these can be managed.
  
'
+
Activities can executed according to process requirements and application and products are required to follow security requirements during design, development and before deployment it is important to that SecDevOps managers have resources such as project managers to be able to track and manage execution for the process as well as  measure and report on  the benefit of the program in term of increased security of the application/product that is being developed and highlight this to the business sponsors.
'
 
From the risk management strategic point of view, the mitigation of application security risks is not a one time exercise; rather it is an ongoing activity that requires paying close attention to emerging threats and planning ahead for the deployment of new security measures to mitigate these new threats.  
 
  
CISOs must prioritize security issues in order to identify areas needing attention first. To make informed decisions on how to manage application security risks, CISOs often need to assess the costs of fixing known vulnerabilities and adoption of new countermeasures and to consider the risk mitigation benefits of doing so. Costs vs. benefits trade offs are critical to decide on which application security measures and security controls to invest in to reduce the level of risk. Often CISOs need to explain to executive management the risks to applications and to articulate the potential business impacts for the organization in case applications are attacked and confidential data is breached.
+
'''Articulate process and program execution management vs risk-vulnerability management'''
Security risks are business risks only when all three risk characteristics exist:
 
* Viable threat
 
* Vulnerability that may be exposed
 
* Asset of value
 
To systematically prioritize risks for investment, CISOs should consider a risk scoring methodology known as the Common Vulnerability Scoring System Version 2.0 (CVSSv2). To help regularly communicate application risk to the business executives, CISOs may consider providing “emerging cyber-threat awareness” reports to executive management.
 
Once application security and software security investments are made, it is important for CISOs to measure and report the status of governance, risk and compliance of the application security program to Executive Management. Furthermore, CISOs need to show the effectiveness of the application security program investment and its impact on business risk.
 
  
CISOs also need metrics to manage and monitor the people, processes, and technologies that make up the application security program.  Example metrics for measuring governance, risk and compliance of application security processes are also included.  
+
Articulate process management
 +
CISOs and SecDevOps need to create a plan and metrics to manage and monitor the people, processes, and technologies that make up the application security program.  Example metrics for measuring governance, risk and compliance of application security processes are also included.  
  
 
Security metrics consist of three categories:
 
Security metrics consist of three categories:
Line 112: Line 137:
 
* How well is the organization meeting security policies, technical standards, and industry practices?  
 
* How well is the organization meeting security policies, technical standards, and industry practices?  
 
* How consistently are we executing security SLAs? By application? By division? By channel?
 
* How consistently are we executing security SLAs? By application? By division? By channel?
 +
  
 
'''Application security risk metrics'''
 
'''Application security risk metrics'''
 +
From the risk management strategic point of view, the mitigation of application security risks is not a one time exercise; rather it is an ongoing activity that requires paying close attention to emerging threats and planning ahead for the deployment of new security measures to mitigate these new threats.
 +
 +
CISOs must prioritize security issues in order to identify areas needing attention first. To make informed decisions on how to manage application security risks, CISOs often need to assess the costs of fixing known vulnerabilities and adoption of new countermeasures and to consider the risk mitigation benefits of doing so. Costs vs. benefits trade offs are critical to decide on which application security measures and security controls to invest in to reduce the level of risk. Often CISOs need to explain to executive management the risks to applications and to articulate the potential business impacts for the organization in case applications are attacked and confidential data is breached.
 +
Security risks are business risks only when all three risk characteristics exist:
 +
* Viable threat
 +
* Vulnerability that may be exposed
 +
* Asset of value
 +
 +
To systematically prioritize risks for investment, CISOs should consider a risk scoring methodology known as the Common Vulnerability Scoring System Version 2.0 (CVSSv2). To help regularly communicate application risk to the business executives, CISOs may consider providing “emerging cyber-threat awareness” reports to executive management.
 +
Once application security and software security investments are made, it is important for CISOs to measure and report the status of governance, risk and compliance of the application security program to Executive Management. Furthermore, CISOs need to show the effectiveness of the application security program investment and its impact on business risk.
  
 
* Vulnerability risk management metrics - What is the Mean Time to Repair on an annual basis? On a monthly basis? By application? By division? What are the known security issues in production?  
 
* Vulnerability risk management metrics - What is the Mean Time to Repair on an annual basis? On a monthly basis? By application? By division? What are the known security issues in production?  
Line 126: Line 162:
 
* Metrics for software security investments - Which SDLC phase have identified the most security issues? What is the maturity of the corresponding security practices in each SDLC phase? What is the urgency for more security people, process, and technologies in each SDLC phase? What are the cost-savings between security testing versus downstream vulnerability penetration testing? What are the cost-savings between issues identified in each phase?
 
* Metrics for software security investments - Which SDLC phase have identified the most security issues? What is the maturity of the corresponding security practices in each SDLC phase? What is the urgency for more security people, process, and technologies in each SDLC phase? What are the cost-savings between security testing versus downstream vulnerability penetration testing? What are the cost-savings between issues identified in each phase?
  
=== Part IV: How To Incorporate Improvements in An Application Security Program ===
+
'''Handling Application Changes Due to Integration With Emerging Technologies '''
  
----
+
New application technologies and platforms such as mobile applications, Web 2.0, and cloud computing services offer different threats and countermeasure techniques. Changes to applications are also a source of potential risks, especially when new or different technologies are integrated within applications. As applications evolve by offering new services to citizens, clients, customers and employees, it is also necessary to plan for mitigation of new vulnerabilities introduced by the adoption and implementation of new technologies such as mobile devices, web 2.0 and new services such as cloud computing. Adopting a risk framework to evaluate the risks introduced by new technologies is essential to determine which countermeasures to adopt to mitigate these new risks. This guide will provide guidance for CISOs on how to mitigate risks of new threats against applications, as well as of vulnerabilities that might be introduced by the implementation of new technologies.
* Incorporating the lesson learned from security incidents
+
* Mobile applications
* Efficient use of Resources and optimisation
+
** Example concerns: lost or stolen devices, malware, multi-communication channel exposure, weak authentication
* Adoption of New Application Security Tools and Technologies
+
** Example CISO actions: Meeting mobile security standards, tailoring security audits to assess mobile application vulnerabilities, secure provisioning, and application data on personal devices.
* Continuous Integration and Development Improvements
+
* Web 2.0
 +
** Example concerns: securing social media, content management, security of third party technologies and services
 +
** Example CISO actions: security API, CAPTCHA, unique security tokens in form posts, and transaction approval workflows.
 +
* Cloud computing services
 +
** Example concerns: multi-tenant deployments, security of cloud computing deployments, third party risk, data breaches, denial of service malicious insiders
 +
** Example CISO actions: cloud computing security assessment, compliance-audit assessment on cloud computing providers, due diligence, encryption in transit and at rest, and monitoring.
 +
 
 +
Today's threat agents seek financial gain such as by attacking applications to compromise users' sensitive data and company’s proprietary information for financial gain, fraud as well as for competitive advantage (e.g. through cyber espionage). To mitigate the risks posed by these threat agents, it is necessary to determine the risk exposure and factor the probability and the impact of these threats as well as to identify the type of application vulnerabilities that can be exploited by these threat agents. The exploit of some of these application vulnerabilities might severely and negatively impact the organization and jeopardize the business.
 +
 
 +
'''Highlighting Issues and Concerns Based Upon Metrics and Measurements'''
 +
* Focus on positive highlighting the benefits (e.g. security vulnerabilities are identified and prioritised for remediation timely)
 +
* Discuss possible causes for program execution stalling with stakeholders and try to address the concerns
 +
* Fight common misconceptions that software security impacts cost/budget, development releases and performance
 +
* Adress push backs from developers that are tired to rebuild software for fixing vulnerabilities, project managers that worry about delay of releases for products, CISOs that worry about releasing with vulnerabilities not remediated and business that worry about staying within budget constraints as well as that want to see value on investment
  
 +
=== Part IV: How to Improve Application Security Program(s) ===
  
 +
----
 +
[[CISO AppSec Guide v2: How To Improve | Go to Part IV:]]
  
   
+
* increase or re-state commitment from business sponsors to support the program and to provide budget increase
 +
* Incorporating the lesson learned from security incidents and released vulnerabilities/exploits
 +
* Incorporating feedback from business and from software development units
 +
* Efficient use of tools and focus on optimisation available manual resources
 +
* Increase focus on automation for processes including security tools for vulnerability testing
 +
* Automated source code validation and audits of false positives in reports
 +
* Real time protection and detection with instrumentation
 +
* Continuous Integration & Development Security Improvements
 +
* Following the application security strategy goals
 +
* Focus on identity and remediate vulnerabilities early during the SDLC
 +
* Improve the maturity of execution of software security activities
 +
* Promote benchmarking measures for process improvements
 +
* Measure both threat risk levels and vulnerability risks
 +
* Institute escalation procedures for problems
 +
* Nurture security champions/evangelists
 +
* Accountability and responsibility
 +
* Focus on motivations to do better including awards and incentives
  
 
[[Category:OWASP Application Security Guide For CISO Project]]
 
[[Category:OWASP Application Security Guide For CISO Project]]

Latest revision as of 02:49, 7 November 2017

< Back to the Application Security Guide For CISOs

Executive Summary

One of the main responsibilities of CISOs is to make sure information security policies and standards are in place for protecting the company's assets. The main goals of these policies and standards is to protect confidential data from un-authorized access, ensure integrity and availability. Besides data, applications and software can also be considered among the company assets. that need to be protected. These applications and software might also be in scope for security assessments such as ethical hacking-pentesting, secure code reviews and threat modelling. The goal of these assessments is to identify and remediate vulnerabilities during the various phases of the SDLC that include requirements, design, implementation, deployment and operations. These application security assessments are often part of CISOs and SecDevOps managers responsibility to manage by make sure processes are followed to ensure compliance with standards and policies.

Although compliance might be a critical aspect of application security, it is not the only one. Application security spans other security domains that can be summarised as (GRC) Governance, Risk and Compliance. Putting application security in perspective of GRC helps to align this guide to CISOs roles and responsibilities when initiating, creating, managing and improving application security programs as summarised herein:

  • From the governance perspective, CISOs might be responsible for institute application security processes, the roles and responsibilities to manage them including security training and awareness. Training might also include secure coding for software developers, threat modelling for application architects and vulnerability testing for pen testers.
  • From the risk management perspective, the risks managed by the CISOs might also include managing application security risks, such as the risks of exploit of gaps in security controls and application vulnerabilities. SecDevOps managers might be responsible for application vulnerability management as well as managing application security throughout the software development life-cycle (SDLC).
  • From compliance perspective, compliance with application and software security standards might be among both CISO and SecDevOps managers role and responsibility to manage. Compliance with industry standards (e.g. PCI-DSS) might be one of the reasons for starting an application security programs for the organisation including hiring staff for managing and executing the various application security activities that the program/initiative entails.

Part I: How To Initiate Application Security Program(s)


Go to Part I:

In part I we guide CISOs and SecDevOps managers in the initial steps that lead to the creation of an application security program. Initially is is important to creating awareness within the organisation in regarding the need to institute an application security program and then create business cases and gain commitments from the business/sponsors of the program. An example of creating awareness is to explain the difference between application and software security and between the approach of security built in vs. the security bolt on. An example of creating a business case is save money spent on fixing vulnerabilities late in the SDLC by focus on proactive security (i.e. manage issue early in the SDLC) vs reactive security (i.e. catch issues late in SDLC and apply costly patches to applications that are already deployed).

When creating the business cases for investing in application security, CISOs need to be real about cyber-threat risks and present to the business the overall picture of information security risks, not just compliance and vulnerabilities, but also security incidents and threat intelligence of threat agents targeting the organization information assets including for applications. The ability to communicate risks to the business empowers CISOs to articulate the business case for application security and justify additional spending in application security measures. This justification needs to consider the economical impact of security incidents compared with the costs of unlawful non compliance. Today's costs to the business due to the economical impacts of security incidents are much higher than the costs of non-compliance and failing audits. Often the severity of the impact of security incidents might costs CISOs their jobs and the company losing reputation and revenues. In part I of this guide we provide CISOs guidance on how to build a business cases from cyber-threat risk perspective with useful examples for estimating the business impact caused by exploitation of web application vulnerabilities.

Managing risk is about prioritising the mitigation effort based upon the level of risk but also to align security priorities to the business priorities (i.e. referred to the appetite for risk of the organisation ). This alignment is the first step towards establishing the relevance of every security initiative and shows business management how security supports their mission. Besides alignment between application security and business priorities it is important to align to the capabilities of the organisation and specifically to the maturity of software security processes executed within the organisation. The main challenge that CISOs and SecDevOps managers might face is on where to put the focus/effort for the biggest gain by the "buck" being invested into the application security program. After a measurement of the software security maturity of processes (e.g. SAMM, BSIMM) being executed CISOs might find that the organisation is not ready yet to start an application security program without investment in tools, training and processes (i.e. ad-hoc process execution, no documented standards and sporadic use of tools). These measurements allow the CISO to gain visibility and assess company culture by asking the right questions.

Starting an application security program might also be triggered by compliance events such as the need to comply to specific industry standards (e.g. testing web applications for OWASP T10 to comply with PCI-DSS) or by a security event such as data compromise cause by an exploit of vulnerabilities in a web application.

Independently from the "triggers" is is important that the CISOs set realistic expectations of the risk reduction that can be achieved based upon the resources out in place. and created a roadmap for creating the application security program including training of the software development team, on boarding of application security tools and technologies following proof of concepts and pilots.

The most important aspect that CISOs and SecDevOps mangers need to focus upon during the initial phases of the application security program is to gain commitments from the sponsors of the application and software security initiative as well as from the application security stakeholders that, besides the business managers, include program managers, software developers/engineers and testers. This level of commitment depends also on the approach taken by the organisation to push the application security initiative within the organisation. Possible approaches are either a top down approach where in the driving seat is the CEO/business. Example of top down approach might include a two months freeze on development, every developer on security training, S-SDLC to be created and executed by all teams and for all projects. A bottom up approach is where in the driving seat are CISO and SecDevIps Managers and there is need to partner and working together with DevOp managers that might agree to commit developers to secure training and demand secure code reviews and testing to be executed in compliance with application security standards.

Part II: How To Create Application Security Program(s)


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Creating an an application security program involves planning for the adoption of new application security activities, processes, controls and training. When planning for new application security processes and controls, it is important for CISOs to know on which application security domains to invest, in order for the business to deliver on its missions.

'To build and grow an application security program, CISOs must:

""Create a Roadmap""

  • Map business priorities to security priorities
  • Assess the current state using a security program maturity model
  • Establish the target state using a security program maturity model
  • Assess software maturity for processes, training and tools
  • Document the software security standards and process (S-SDLC and SecDevOps)
  • Document security testing standards
  • Plan for adoption of application security tools (SAST, DAST)
  • Plan train developers on secure coding and use of tools
  • Set goals-objectives and time to reach them as milestones to track

Flesh out:

Assess the current state using a security program maturity model'

Accessing process maturity is a prerequisite for adoption of application security and software security processes. One criteria that is often adopted by organizations is to consider the organization's capabilities in application security domains and the maturity of the organization in operating in these domains. Examples of these application security domains include application security governance, vulnerability risk management, regulatory compliance and application security engineering; such as to design and implement secure applications. Specifically in the case of application security engineering, adopting software security assurance is often necessary when there is not direct control on implementing the security of such software since it is produced by a third party vendor. A factor to consider in this case is to measure the software security assurance using a maturity model. A pre-requisite for measuring software security assurance is the adoption of a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (S-SDLC). At high level, S-SDLC consists of embedding "build security in" security activities, training and tools within the SDLC. Examples of these activities might include software security processes/tools such as architectural risk analysis/ threat modeling, secure code reviews/static source code analysis, application security testing/application vulnerability scanning and secure coding for software developers. A reference to OWASP software assurance maturity model as well as to the several OWASP projects dedicated to software security and S-SDLC are provided in this guide as well.

Establish the target state using a security program maturity model

Not all organizations need to be at the highest maturity. The maturity should be at a level that it can manage the security risk that affects the business. Obviously, this varies among organizations and is driven by the business and what it accepts as risk as part of continuous collaboration and transparency from the security organization.

Once a target state is identified, CISOs should build a roadmap that identifies its strategy for addressing known issues as well as detecting and mitigating new risks.

OWASP provides several projects and guidance for CISOs to help develop and implement an application security program. Besides reading this section of the guide, see the Appendix B: Quick Reference to OWASP Guides & Projects for more information on the type of security engineering domain activities that can be incorporated within an application security program.


""Create the software security process (S-SDLC and SecDevOps)"" How to Build Security In the SDLC Articulate SecDevOps and DevSecOps and what entitles to. Building security During Agile and integration of security during CI and CD

Security Requirement Engineering How can be done and when and how and when can be validated

Secure Code Reviews Manual and automated, role of peer reviewers and SAST and DAST

Secure Build Testing Breaking the builds for security

Threat Modelling & Architecture Risk Analysis

A top-down approach to identifying threats and countermeasures, CISOs should consider a threat modeling technique also described in Part III. The threat modeling technique allows the target application to be decomposed to reveal its attack surface and subsequently its relevant threats, associated countermeasures, and finally, its gaps and weaknesses.

Security-Vulnerability Testing From ad-hoc to consistent execution of quality and timing. Lite testing vs Deep Dive Testing Framing threats, attacks and vulnerabilities in test scenarios Test Driven Security

Adoption of Application Security Tools Articulate when and where in the SDLC to use them (which phase) who need to use and how are deployed including the value that they provide

Emerging Application Security Technologies"" RASP document how can be piloted before deployment

Software Security Training Articulate for who and what and document in official document

""Create A Strategy With Goals For Activities""

  • teams trained on software security and threat modelling
  • apps/products in scope for vulnerability testing, secure code reviews and static build testing and consistently executed during changes
  • secure coding standards documented and adopted
  • security requirements are documented and validated with testing during the validation phase
  • quality of reports is consistent for level of false positives
  • issues are identified and remediated according to compliance time frames

""Application Security Program Deployment Plan""

  • Plan with milestones for reaching goals for activities and metrics to track goals
  • Plan should include governance model with roles and duties with RACI reflected in the previously created application security standards documents
  • Plan should include on boarding with tool and technologies including PoVs and PoCs before production deployment

Part III: How to Manage Application Security Program(s)


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After the program has been created that is process and standards are documented, application security testing activities, use of tools and training need a plan for execution before these can be managed.

Activities can executed according to process requirements and application and products are required to follow security requirements during design, development and before deployment it is important to that SecDevOps managers have resources such as project managers to be able to track and manage execution for the process as well as measure and report on the benefit of the program in term of increased security of the application/product that is being developed and highlight this to the business sponsors.

Articulate process and program execution management vs risk-vulnerability management

Articulate process management CISOs and SecDevOps need to create a plan and metrics to manage and monitor the people, processes, and technologies that make up the application security program. Example metrics for measuring governance, risk and compliance of application security processes are also included.

Security metrics consist of three categories:

  • Application security process metrics
  • Application security risk metrics
  • Security in the SDLC metrics

Application security process metrics

These support informed decisions to decide where to focus the risk mitigation effort and to manage application security risks more effectively. These risk management goals are usually very organization specific and depend on the type of organization and the industry sector that the organization does business with, to decide which application security risks should be prioritized for action.

  • How well is the organization meeting security policies, technical standards, and industry practices?
  • How consistently are we executing security SLAs? By application? By division? By channel?


Application security risk metrics From the risk management strategic point of view, the mitigation of application security risks is not a one time exercise; rather it is an ongoing activity that requires paying close attention to emerging threats and planning ahead for the deployment of new security measures to mitigate these new threats.

CISOs must prioritize security issues in order to identify areas needing attention first. To make informed decisions on how to manage application security risks, CISOs often need to assess the costs of fixing known vulnerabilities and adoption of new countermeasures and to consider the risk mitigation benefits of doing so. Costs vs. benefits trade offs are critical to decide on which application security measures and security controls to invest in to reduce the level of risk. Often CISOs need to explain to executive management the risks to applications and to articulate the potential business impacts for the organization in case applications are attacked and confidential data is breached. Security risks are business risks only when all three risk characteristics exist:

  • Viable threat
  • Vulnerability that may be exposed
  • Asset of value

To systematically prioritize risks for investment, CISOs should consider a risk scoring methodology known as the Common Vulnerability Scoring System Version 2.0 (CVSSv2). To help regularly communicate application risk to the business executives, CISOs may consider providing “emerging cyber-threat awareness” reports to executive management. Once application security and software security investments are made, it is important for CISOs to measure and report the status of governance, risk and compliance of the application security program to Executive Management. Furthermore, CISOs need to show the effectiveness of the application security program investment and its impact on business risk.

  • Vulnerability risk management metrics - What is the Mean Time to Repair on an annual basis? On a monthly basis? By application? By division? What are the known security issues in production?
  • Security incident metrics - What security issues have been exploited? Were they known issues that were released in production? What was the cost to the business?
  • Threat intelligence reporting and attack monitoring metrics - Which applications are receiving more attacks than others? Which applications have upcoming expected peak usage?

Security in the SDLC metrics

One often neglected aspect when spending on software security is the economics of dealing with insecure software applications. The investment in software security to identify and fix security issues prior to release of software in production actually pays for itself because it saves the organization money. Patching vulnerabilities after applications are released into production is very expensive; it is much cheaper than to invest in secure architecture reviews to identify design flaws and remediate them prior to coding, as well as to invest in secure code reviews to identify and fix security bugs in software during coding, and to ensure that releases are configured correctly.

  • Metrics for risk mitigation decisions - What is the Mean Time to Repair by an application's risk category? Does it meet expectations? What is the risk heat map by application? By division? By channel?
  • Metrics for vulnerability root causes identification - What are the root causes of vulnerabilities for each application? Is there a systemic issue? Which security practices have been best adopted by each development team? Which development teams need more attention?
  • Metrics for software security investments - Which SDLC phase have identified the most security issues? What is the maturity of the corresponding security practices in each SDLC phase? What is the urgency for more security people, process, and technologies in each SDLC phase? What are the cost-savings between security testing versus downstream vulnerability penetration testing? What are the cost-savings between issues identified in each phase?

Handling Application Changes Due to Integration With Emerging Technologies

New application technologies and platforms such as mobile applications, Web 2.0, and cloud computing services offer different threats and countermeasure techniques. Changes to applications are also a source of potential risks, especially when new or different technologies are integrated within applications. As applications evolve by offering new services to citizens, clients, customers and employees, it is also necessary to plan for mitigation of new vulnerabilities introduced by the adoption and implementation of new technologies such as mobile devices, web 2.0 and new services such as cloud computing. Adopting a risk framework to evaluate the risks introduced by new technologies is essential to determine which countermeasures to adopt to mitigate these new risks. This guide will provide guidance for CISOs on how to mitigate risks of new threats against applications, as well as of vulnerabilities that might be introduced by the implementation of new technologies.

  • Mobile applications
    • Example concerns: lost or stolen devices, malware, multi-communication channel exposure, weak authentication
    • Example CISO actions: Meeting mobile security standards, tailoring security audits to assess mobile application vulnerabilities, secure provisioning, and application data on personal devices.
  • Web 2.0
    • Example concerns: securing social media, content management, security of third party technologies and services
    • Example CISO actions: security API, CAPTCHA, unique security tokens in form posts, and transaction approval workflows.
  • Cloud computing services
    • Example concerns: multi-tenant deployments, security of cloud computing deployments, third party risk, data breaches, denial of service malicious insiders
    • Example CISO actions: cloud computing security assessment, compliance-audit assessment on cloud computing providers, due diligence, encryption in transit and at rest, and monitoring.

Today's threat agents seek financial gain such as by attacking applications to compromise users' sensitive data and company’s proprietary information for financial gain, fraud as well as for competitive advantage (e.g. through cyber espionage). To mitigate the risks posed by these threat agents, it is necessary to determine the risk exposure and factor the probability and the impact of these threats as well as to identify the type of application vulnerabilities that can be exploited by these threat agents. The exploit of some of these application vulnerabilities might severely and negatively impact the organization and jeopardize the business.

Highlighting Issues and Concerns Based Upon Metrics and Measurements

  • Focus on positive highlighting the benefits (e.g. security vulnerabilities are identified and prioritised for remediation timely)
  • Discuss possible causes for program execution stalling with stakeholders and try to address the concerns
  • Fight common misconceptions that software security impacts cost/budget, development releases and performance
  • Adress push backs from developers that are tired to rebuild software for fixing vulnerabilities, project managers that worry about delay of releases for products, CISOs that worry about releasing with vulnerabilities not remediated and business that worry about staying within budget constraints as well as that want to see value on investment

Part IV: How to Improve Application Security Program(s)


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  • increase or re-state commitment from business sponsors to support the program and to provide budget increase
  • Incorporating the lesson learned from security incidents and released vulnerabilities/exploits
  • Incorporating feedback from business and from software development units
  • Efficient use of tools and focus on optimisation available manual resources
  • Increase focus on automation for processes including security tools for vulnerability testing
  • Automated source code validation and audits of false positives in reports
  • Real time protection and detection with instrumentation
  • Continuous Integration & Development Security Improvements
  • Following the application security strategy goals
  • Focus on identity and remediate vulnerabilities early during the SDLC
  • Improve the maturity of execution of software security activities
  • Promote benchmarking measures for process improvements
  • Measure both threat risk levels and vulnerability risks
  • Institute escalation procedures for problems
  • Nurture security champions/evangelists
  • Accountability and responsibility
  • Focus on motivations to do better including awards and incentives