Shift Left on Security: Webinar Recap

Cybersecurity is everyone's business. Nearly every day when you open the tech news there is something covering a new esoteric vulnerability that researchers have discovered, massive data breach, or a cybersecurity attack.

Some vulnerabilities that are discovered are truly remarkable. A recent discovery by researchers was that they were able to recover secret keys from non-compromised devices using video footage of their power LED obtained from a commercial video camera 16 meters away. Is it time to start putting black tape over all our power LEDs as well as our webcams? Boarding up the windows?

Although these attention-grabbing attacks seem straight out of a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie, the reality is that many of the high-profile hacks you hear about using much more mundane methods and could have been prevented if good development security practices were in place.

Shifting left on security and having a good grasp of OWASP principles is a great foundation, but so is the need to have a strong security culture, with a focus on continuous learning.

We recently hosted a webinar with our senior developers Daniel Dekel and Joseph Cooney in partnership with the Johner Institute. Titled “Shift Left on Security”, the session highlighted the critical need to address security concerns right from the get-go in the software development life cycle.

Here are some key takeaways they shared:

• Prioritise responsible handling and managing sensitive and personal data.
• Use secure frameworks and libraries, alert mechanisms and conduct threat modelling.
• Give your teams hands-on security training and implement best practice security policies.

The webinar also covers details on a Red Team Workshop we conducted at Patient Zero, where participants worked in small teams to solve hacking challenges against the clock. A Red Team Workshop is a bit of training, a bit of teamwork, and a lot of fun, all centred around cybersecurity.

Tune into the webinar to hear more insights about pushing left on security, and the Red Team Workshop we conducted.