# Development

Building a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC): A Comprehensive Guide

Red Rocket TeamNov 28, 20244 min read

Definition and Key Principles of Secure SDLC (SSDL) Differences Between SSDL vs SDLC Security Focus Points in Each SDLC Phase Tools and Technologies to Support a Secure Phase in the Lifecycle Essential SDLC Roles and Responsibilities for a Secure Lifecycle The Long-term Advantages of Proactive Security Integration

As a rule, beginning entrepreneurs, while creating an application or software, think about how to attract customers and generate more profitability. Many of them completely forget about other important elements that ensure a normal software development life cycle. We are talking about security issues that deserve special attention.

Why should you take care of creating a secure development lifecycle? It's simple - you can look at the recent statistics about cybercrime in the world. For example, last year, one in two companies in the UK experienced a cyber threat. This is just one of the reasons why SDLC and security should always stand together.

When you're building software that will potentially be used by thousands of users in your country and around the rest of the world, it's important to make sure that data is protected. Imagine the losses an organization could suffer if crooks were to breach security and steal all the confidential information. We're here to educate startup owners, enterprises, and teams of experts on secure software development life cycle processes.

Definition and Key Principles of Secure SDLC (SSDL)

It is no secret that providing security measures is one of the most difficult processes for most modern developers. Some of them want to save their personal time, so they ignore such important processes as analyzing, testing, and detecting bugs. All this can have critical consequences for different parties, including the company, customers, employees, and software. To prevent these problems, let's understand this topic together in order.

We're starting from less to more, so we're going to explain what secure SDLC means. It stands for secure software development lifecycle. In simple terms, it's a set of activities, tools, and practices that help ensure a high level of security for the digital product you're working on. What does this include, and what are the key principles involved?

The whole process may involve different tasks for which developers and QA specialists are responsible. The main practices are inspections of written codes, detailed testing, analysis of security features, and looking for potential cyber risks.
The digital product development lifecycle has several stages. Each of them is accompanied by security practices.
SSDL requires knowledge, skills and experience to make a product safe for use by internal and external parties.

Obviously, you will need the right technical stack for all of the above tasks and processes. Some experienced developers answer the question of what is secure SDLC by saying that it is an incremental provisioning of the right level of security.

Differences Between SSDL vs SDLC

As you may have noticed, in this article, we use two terms - SDLC and SSDL. This can easily confuse many beginners when trying to get to a specific point. We propose to define how these two terms differ.

Explanation of SDLC features.

SDLC is a formal process that is used for planning, developing, testing, implementing, and supporting software. This is a guide for the developers and project managers that the final product developed in the software must be able to meet the user's needs and must also possess acceptable quality.

Explanation of SSDL features.

The secure software development life cycle is a supplement to the conventional SDLC, and SS includes security policies and mechanisms that can be integrated into each of the development phases. This centers on the strategic detection and elimination of the risks that would lead to finishing a product that not only works but is protected.

In simple terms, SDLC is a broader concept that encompasses the full lifecycle of digital product development. Conversely, SSDL is only a part of the full cycle that focuses on security issues for users. SSDL adopts a proactive approach to risk management, identifying and addressing vulnerabilities early to reduce the cost and impact of fixes.

Security Focus Points in Each SDLC Phase

SDLC in cyber security is an important topic that should be known to all the professionals on your team. Surely, you must first assemble a team of talented developers who have a vested interest in the success of the organization. Next, you need to break down the entire software development lifecycle into phases. As we have already mentioned above, each individual phase has its own specific security issues.

1. Planning

Security measures are planned prior to project kickoff within its goals and scope. A risk assessment, definition of the security objective, and compliance with particular regulations are part of this phase. The risk is assessed to predict vulnerabilities, and the security roadmap is developed to implement the protective measures. Security becomes an integral part of the process, with clear responsibilities for it, which are assigned to stakeholders. It’s important to create a secure development cycle by addressing any potential threats so early on.

2. Design

The design phase of the SDLC is where security takes shape as part of the software architecture. Attack vectors are predicted and compensated for with threat modeling. The system architecture integrates secure design principles like least privilege and fail-safe default. Data flow diagrams are analyzed to quality to determine the weak points, ensuring the data is handled with confidentiality.

3. Development

In the development stage, experts concentrate on writing secure code according to the best practices. It provides secure coding guidelines so developers won't get common vulnerabilities like buffer overflow or SQL injection. Such security flaws get caught earlier with automated tools such as the static analysis scan that gives you an opportunity for real-time fixes. First of all, you need to train developers to recognize the possibility of threats. So, it is at the coding stage that security is taken as a priority, and vulnerability is not included in the software.

4. Testing

The security measures fabricated could be verified in this section of the testing phase. Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) is used tools to simulate real-world attack scenarios to find the application's weak points. Security experts perform penetration testing, essentially testing threats to help understand system resilience.

5. Deployment

The transition into the deployment phase is about how you integrate security in SDLC phases to begin production. The application is deployed through secure protocols such as encrypting sensitive data and using strong authentication methods to secure the application. The sensitive information is avoided by reviewing the configuration files.

6. Maintenance

In the maintenance phase, the attempt is continuous. Vulnerabilities found are released with regular updates and patches to help keep the system safe. Application activity is monitored for unusual patterns by security monitoring tools looking for potential threats. Periodic audits and compliance checks ensure the application stays updated with changing security standards.

Tools and Technologies to Support a Secure Phase in the Lifecycle

Of course, working with a lot of data and code on your own is a challenge that is difficult to handle. That's why you'll need to assemble a tech stack of tools, programs, and advanced methodologies. We have several tools that will allow you to ensure efficiency throughout the digital product development lifecycle in a safer way.

Static application security testing (SAST). SAST tools analyze source code for vulnerabilities early in the development phase. Why? It allows developers to address issues even before deployment. Examples: SonarQube and FortifySAST. These programs scan for common flaws, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting, ensuring secure coding practices.
Dynamic application security testing (DAST). DAST tools assess applications in their running state, simulating real-world attacks to uncover vulnerabilities. Example: FortifyDAST. It tests the application’s behavior under various conditions, identifying issues like misconfiguration and weak authentication mechanisms. By integrating these tools into the cloud SDLC, organizations can maintain a robust security posture and minimize risks
Software composition analysis (SCA). SCA tools analyze third-party components, libraries, and dependencies for known vulnerabilities. Examples: Dependency Check and Dependency Track. They provide critical insights into the security posture of external components.

As you may have already realized, the tools and technologies you choose will determine how secure your product will be. You should pay more attention to selecting the leading tools in today's IT market.

Essential SDLC Roles and Responsibilities for a Secure Lifecycle

Secure software development requires a coordinated effort from multiple SDLC roles, each contributing to the overall security of the software.

Before developing a digital product, you should plan your team's collaboration in detail. We recommend you read more about RACI charting, which will help you in organizing the project implementation.

The Long-term Advantages of Proactive Security Integration

Having security included in the SDLC provides long-term benefits for organizations. By finding and resolving risks early in the development process, it helps lower the cost of dealing with vulnerabilities. Through the use of this approach, potential disruptions that may be caused by breaches are minimized, and the system performance and reliability are consistent.

Furthermore, protecting data can build up customer trust and in turn boost brand reputation. Proactive security will also ensure compliance with the industry regulations, thereby avoiding costly fines and legal issues. Embedding security in every phase improves workflows, lowers technical debt, and creates a strong security base from which to respond to changing cybersecurity issues.

Final thoughts

As you can understand, secure software development life cycle processes are something you need to take care of to prevent financial risks. Security determines how satisfied your customers will be with your digital product. This ensures that software users' data will be safe from fraudsters and other threats.