Software security is dealing with new challenges since the shift to remote work has happened. IT security professionals must evolve and adapt in order to keep up with the requirements of cloud computing and IoT technologies. In a remote environment filled with endpoint networks, security is critical.
A new era for software development companies is on the rise and it involves focusing on building enhanced application security tools, scaling on-premise security tools to the cloud, and increasing IoT device protection.
This article highlights four software security trends that will shape the cybersecurity landscape in 2021.
Cloud Adoption
The new work-from-home working model is accelerating cloud app development to satisfy the needs of the remote workforce. Therefore, security teams must adapt to this cloud-based environment and get ready to face and mitigate threats.
“You can’t push code and then roll back to fix vulnerabilities, as it presents an opportunity for malicious actors to infiltrate your systems,” Maty Siman, Checkmarx CTO revealed in a recent report. “In 2021, the tools used for application security that integrate into the toolchain must work much more rapidly, scale to cloud environments, and present actionable findings in a format that developers can understand and use to make quick fixes.”
As cloud applications are gaining momentum, they are also becoming increasingly appealing to attackers, which have already developed techniques to take advantage of vulnerabilities in on-premises network access and compromise cloud environments.
“Malicious cyber-actors are abusing trust in federated authentication environments to access protected data,” the same report revealed. “The exploitation occurs after the actors have gained initial access to a victim’s on-premises network. The actors leverage privileged access in the on-premises environment to subvert the mechanisms that the organization uses to grant access to cloud and on-premises resources and/or to compromise administrator credentials with the ability to manage cloud resources.”
Cloud-Native Security
This is still a new concept in the world of cybersecurity, although 2021 will demand prioritizing locking down cloud environments, according to co-author and Checkmarx director of security research, Erez Yalon.
“If 2020 was the year of the API, 2021 will be the year where cloud-native security steals the spotlight,” Yalon wrote in the report. “APIs play a major role in cloud-native security, but the focus will turn to how cloud-based technologies continue to proliferate and increase in adoption across organizations. Securing the resulting ecosystems of interconnected cloud-based solutions will become a priority.”
Open-Source Vulnerabilities
Although open-source software is beneficial for several reasons, when it comes to security, it may leave the door open for threat actors.
“Rarely does a week go by without a discovery of malicious open-source packages,” Siman wrote. “Yes, organizations understand they need to secure the open-source components they’re using, and existing solutions help them in removing packages that are mistakenly vulnerable (where a developer accidentally puts a vulnerability into the package). But they are still blind to instances where adversaries maliciously push tainted code into packages. This needs to change in 2021.”
How To Address These Cybersecurity Trends With A Holistic Security Approach
In order to keep up with the fast-pacing rhythm imposed by increasingly complex cyber threats, a more comprehensive view across the security landscape is needed. Organizations that want to improve their security posture, will require a mindset that addresses the full security ecosystem. This will allow security teams to gain a clearer perspective on vulnerabilities and how they can overcome them.
