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2014 Open Source Development and Application Security Survey Analysis

Adrian Lane July 9, 2014 No Comments

Open source software is ubiquitous. Nearly every company is running some. Many organizations are not even aware of it – or at least weren’t until the Heartbleed vulnerability. Then they discovered what many firms already know: there is open source running in your company, and it’s an integral part of your operations. Earlier this year I participated in the 2014 Open Source Development and Application Security Survey, as I have done the last couple years. As a developer and former development manager – and let’s face it, an overtly opinionated one – I am always interested in adding my viewpoint to these inquiries, even if I am just one developer voice among thousands. But I have also benefitted from these surveys – looking at the stuff my peers are using, and even selecting open source distributions based on this shared data. So when Sonatype, the organization that conducts this survey, asked me to perform an independent analysis of the data, I jumped at the chance. I wanted to give back to the community, and perhaps share a unique perspective on what the survey results mean and how open source development is dealing with security-related issues. This research paper is the result of that work. I was given the raw data prior to the official release of the report, and a few questions immediately jumped out: Are developers worried about security? Do they have security policies? How did Heartbleed affect the survey results? Is open source more trustworthy than commercial software? How and when are components banned? I discuss these topics and more in the paper. You can find the official survey results at http://www.sonatype.com/about/2014-open-source-software-development-survey. And our research paper is available for download, free as always: 2014 Open Source Development and Application Security Survey Analysis Thank you to Sonatype – both for giving us access to the data and for licensing this research to accompany their results! Share:

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Securing Enterprise Applications

Adrian Lane June 16, 2009 No Comments

We cover application security extensively on this blog, but normally we are trying to demystify a specific technology area to help companies understand what to look for in products, and how to differentiate real capabilities from marketing fluff. But in light of recent conversations with large enterprises it has become clear that most of these firms have gaps in their security program, specifically in and around the major enterprise applications which are core to their business. This is surprising because platforms like SAP and Oracle have been in place for over a decade, so you might expect that every facet of security to have some coverage by now. And they are surprised to hear these gaps exist, after thinking their tools and processes provided complete coverage. So we decided to take a look at application platforms and highlight the common deficiencies we see. Here is an except from our paper: Supply chain management, customer relationship management, enterprise resource management, business analytics, and financial transaction management, are all multi-billion dollar application platforms unto themselves. Every enterprise depends upon them to orchestrate core business functions, spend tens of millions of dollars on software and support. We are beyond explaining why enterprise applications need security to protect these investments – it is well established that insiders and persistent adversaries target these applications. Companies invest heavily in these applications, hardware to run them, and teams to keep them up and running. They perform extensive risk analysis on their business implications and the costs of downtime. And in many cases their security investments are a byproduct of these risk profiles. Application security trends in the 1-2% range of total application investment, so we cannot say large enterprises don’t take security seriously – they spend millions and hire dedicate staff to protect these platforms. That said, their investments are not always optimal – enterprises may bet on solutions with limited effectiveness, without a complete understanding of the available options. It is time for a fresh look. We are happy Onapsis reached out to sponsor this research paper, and embraced our Totally Transparent Research model. You can download a PDF directly: SecureEnterpriseApps_FINAL.pdf Share:

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