The Imperative of Security by Design

Security by Design transcends the traditional approach of treating security as a peripheral or a final-stage checklist item. It is about proactively identifying and addressing potential security vulnerabilities from the outset of the development process. This preemptive approach not only enhances the security posture of the final product but also optimizes development time and reduces costs associated with post-deployment fixes.

Unveiling the 3E Framework

The 3E Framework, conceptualized by Security Compass, is a comprehensive strategy comprising three fundamental steps: Educate, Embed, and Empower. This framework is designed to foster a culture where security is an integral part of the development process, not an afterthought.

1. Educate: Cultivating a Security-Minded Culture

The first pillar, Educate, underscores the importance of building a deep-seated awareness and understanding of security principles among all stakeholders involved in the development process. It involves extensive training, workshops, and continuous learning initiatives to keep the team updated on the latest security trends, threats, and best practices. Education shifts the perception of security from being a hindrance to an enabler of innovation and reliability in software development.

2. Embed: Integrating Security Expertise into Teams

Embedding security expertise directly within development teams is crucial for translating knowledge into action. The Security Champions program exemplifies this approach by designating and training selected team members to spearhead security practices within their respective teams. These champions serve as the nexus between security and development, ensuring that security considerations are woven into the development lifecycle at every stage.

Empower: Enabling Proactive Security Practices

With a well-educated workforce and embedded security experts, the final step is to empower teams to apply these principles actively. This entails integrating security requirements from the project’s inception, conducting thorough threat modeling, and ensuring continuous security testing throughout the development process. Empowerment leads to the creation of software that is secure by design, meeting both customer expectations and regulatory requirements.

Addressing Implementation Challenges

Implementing the 3E Framework is not without its challenges. Key among these is the friction between security and development teams, often stemming from differing priorities and pressures. Security requirements can also be complex and overwhelming, creating bottlenecks in manual processes that fail to scale with the demands of modern software development. Moreover, verifying security requirements often relies on cumbersome, error-prone manual methods.

To overcome these challenges, fostering a culture of collaboration is essential, leveraging automated tools to streamline security practices and integrating security considerations seamlessly into existing workflows. By doing so, organizations can bridge the gap between security and development, ensuring a harmonious and efficient process that upholds security standards without compromising development speed or innovation.

The Road Ahead

The journey towards mastering Security by Design through the 3E Framework is ongoing. It requires a commitment to continuous improvement, adaptation based on feedback, and celebrating successes along the way. By educating, embedding, and empowering, organizations can build a resilient, secure foundation for their software, ultimately fostering trust and confidence among users and stakeholders.

Security Compass remains dedicated to guiding organizations through this transformative journey, offering expertise, tools, and support to make Security by Design both attainable and effective. Embracing the 3E Framework is not just about enhancing security; it’s about securing a future where technology drives progress, free from the constraints of cyber threats.

Pathway to Secure by Design: How We Can Support Your Journey

To delve deeper into mastering Security by Design with the 3E Framework and overcoming the challenges within your organization, Security Compass is here to assist. Our team of experts can guide you through each step of the process, from education to empowerment, ensuring that security is seamlessly integrated into your development lifecycle. Contact us to learn how we can help your organization become secure by design. Together, we can build a secure future for your software today.

FAQ: Security by Design and the 3E Framework

What is Security by Design?
Security by Design is a proactive approach to software development where potential security vulnerabilities are identified and addressed from the beginning, making security an integral part of the entire development process rather than an afterthought.

Why is Security by Design important?
Security by Design is critical for mitigating risk and ensuring resilience against the increasingly sophisticated and evolving digital threats, optimizing development time, and reducing costs associated with post-deployment fixes.

What is the 3E Framework by Security Compass?
The 3E Framework is a comprehensive strategy designed by Security Compass, comprising three fundamental steps: Educate, Embed, and Empower, aimed at seamlessly integrating security into the software development lifecycle.

The post Mastering the 3E Framework: Elevating Your Security by Design Practices appeared first on Security Compass.

This guide analyzes the features, costs, benefits, and potential drawbacks of various threat modeling tools. In the following sections, you’ll find expert insights on the essence of threat modeling, what to consider when choosing the right tool for your needs, and in-depth descriptions of solutions. 

We’ll guide you through specifics such as integration capabilities, user scenarios, and the pros and cons of each tool. By the end of this guide, you’ll be well-equipped to make informed decisions that bolster your software’s defense mechanisms tailored to the unique requirements of your project or organization.

Understanding threat modeling is fundamental in today’s environment, where cyber threats are ever-evolving, and security measures must be proactive rather than reactive.

What Is Threat Modeling?

Stay tuned as we delve into what threat modeling entails and how to select the ideal tool that aligns with your security objectives and budgetary considerations. Threat modeling is a proactive approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential security threats in software systems at an early stage of development. 

As a fundamental aspect of secure software development, threat modeling serves as a structured process that guides teams through analyzing the design of their systems, identifying potential security risks, and prioritizing actions to address these risks before adversaries can exploit them.

The process generally includes several core activities:

1. Identifying security objectives: Clearly defining what needs to be protected within the system to guide the threat modeling process.
2. Creating architectural diagrams: Visualizing the system’s components, data flows, and boundaries to understand where threats could emerge.
3. Enumerating potential threats: Using classification frameworks to list possible security threats systematically, such as STRIDE (Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, and Elevation of Privilege).
4. Assessing risks: Determining the likelihood of each threat and its potential impact on the system to prioritize responses.
5. Defining countermeasures: Outlining the methods and controls required to prevent, detect, or mitigate identified threats.

By integrating threat modeling into the software development lifecycle (SDLC), organizations can prevent costly security incidents and foster a culture of security mindfulness that permeates through all stages of development. 

Furthermore, threat modeling aligns teams towards a common security goal, providing a clear roadmap for engineers, architects, and security professionals to collaborate effectively on software projects. Next, we’ll explore what factors should influence your choice of a threat modeling tool and why they are crucial for effectively securing your application.

What to Consider When Selecting a Threat Modeling Tool

The choice of a threat modeling tool should consider cost, usability, versatility, integration capabilities, scalability, and support availability to ensure a good fit for your organization’s needs.

When evaluating threat modeling tools, looking beyond the surface-level features and considering how a tool will function within your organization’s environment and processes is essential. Here are key considerations to keep in mind:

Cost

Determine your budget and consider the total cost of ownership, including initial purchase, maintenance, and potential upgrades. Free tools can be a great starting point, but ensure they provide sufficient functionality for your needs. For enterprise solutions, weigh the investment against the value it provides.

Usability

The tool should have an intuitive interface with clear documentation and onboarding resources, making it accessible for all team members, including those with less security expertise.

Versatility and Methodologies

Find a tool that supports various threat modeling methodologies, such as STRIDE or CAPEC, to tailor your approach to different projects or organizational requirements.

Integration Capabilities

Choose a tool that integrates seamlessly with your existing DevSecOps tools and workflows. This integration helps maintain efficiency and automates aspects of the threat modeling process.

Scalability

Ensure the tool can handle your organization’s growth, both in terms of the size and complexity of projects it can support.

Support and Community Engagement

When choosing a free threat modeling tool, consider the level of support offered by the tool’s provider and the presence of a vibrant community for sharing best practices, updates, and troubleshooting advice.

Additional factors may include:

• Customization: The ability to customize the tool to address specific security needs, policies, and compliance standards relevant to your organization, industry or sector.
• Collaboration Features: As threat modeling is often a cross-functional activity, look for features that enable collaboration among team members.
• Reporting and Documentation: Rich reporting capabilities can help communicate the findings and required actions to stakeholders effectively.
• Active Development: A tool actively maintained and developed ensures that you benefit from the latest security practices, approaches, and fixes for any issues.
• Reputation: Research the tool provider’s market standing, user reviews, and responsiveness to security issues.

By considering these considerations, you can make an informed decision that enhances your threat modeling efforts and contributes meaningfully to your software’s overall security posture. In the subsequent sections, we will explore various threat modeling tools and analyze how they stack up against these considerations.

Detailed Analysis of Free Threat Modeling Tools

In this section, we’ll provide a deeper insight into each of the free threat modeling tools previously mentioned, highlighting their capabilities, ideal use cases, and potential limitations.

1. OWASP Threat Dragon

OWASP Threat Dragon is an excellent choice for a holistic, integrative approach to threat modeling, offering versatility without compromising cost. 

2. Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool

The Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool is an excellent fit for organizations invested in the Microsoft environment, offering a smooth learning curve. 

3. PyTM

PyTM is the go-to threat modeling tool for developer-driven security in Python-centric organizations. 

4. SeaSponge

SeaSponge stands out for its simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for quick, agile threat assessments. 

5. IriusRisk Community Edition

The IriusRisk Community Edition strikes a robust balance between the complexities of enterprise threat modeling tools and the affordability of open-source platforms. 

6. Threat Composer

Threat Composer is a simple threat modeling tool designed to help identify security issues and develop strategies to address them efficiently. It supports a non-linear threat modeling process, encouraging iterative design and development. 

By examining the pros and cons of these free threat modeling tools alongside the factors to consider when choosing a tool, organizations can match their unique needs to the strengths of each platform. From open-source accessibility to integration with existing workflows, the right tool exists to master the ongoing battle against cyber threats while aligning with your team’s expertise and resources.

Overview of Enterprise Threat Modeling Tools

Enterprise threat modeling tools are feature-rich solutions designed to meet the complex demands of large-scale security environments, offering scalability, integration, and advanced analytical capabilities. Large organizations often grapple with intricate security challenges that require a robust and sophisticated set of features from their threat modeling tools. 

Enterprise threat modeling tools are equipped to handle the scalability necessary for large projects and the integrations demanded by complex IT ecosystems. These tools often come with enhanced support and onboarding resources, and they cater to a variety of compliance needs and advanced reporting criteria.

As we dive into the world of enterprise threat modeling tools, we’ll look at some of the leading solutions that are helping organizations streamline their security processes, comply with global regulations, and create a proactive culture of security by design.

1. SD Elements

SD Elements by Security Compass enables enterprises to operationalize proactive security and compliance best practices in a scalable and integrated manner, enhancing their application security posture. 

Enterprise threat modeling is a critical aspect of cyber security, particularly for large organizations facing complex and constantly evolving threats. A tool like SD Elements brings a comprehensive and tailored approach to threat modeling that aligns with the intricate requirements of enterprise IT environments. It provides automation, deep integration capabilities, and a scalable framework that supports a security-by-design philosophy.

2. ThreatModeler

ThreatModeler offers an automated, scalable solution that empowers enterprises to create and manage comprehensive threat models easily.

3. IriusRisk

IriusRisk provides a comprehensive platform for threat modeling with a strong focus on automation, collaboration, and integration within the secure development lifecycle. 

4. securiCAD by foreseeti

SecuriCAD by Foreseeti pioneers cybersecurity threat modeling with a simulation-driven approach, offering proactive insights and defense strategies. 

5. Arxan Threat Analytics

Arxan Threat Analytics provides real-time threat defense insights, making it a formidable asset for enterprises prioritizing mobile and application security. 

6. Axure RP

Axure RP, while traditionally a UX/UI prototyping tool, can serve as a sophisticated platform for the visualization segment of threat modeling. 

Each of these enterprise tools offers a unique set of capabilities to streamline threat modeling for large organizations. 

By evaluating these tools against specific requirements such as compliance, automation, and team collaboration, enterprises can choose a threat modeling platform that not only supports their current needs but also scales with their future growth. 

These platforms can become integral to an organization’s cybersecurity defense, empowering them to stay ahead of emerging threats and maintain robust security practices.

Adding these tools to the list of paid enterprise threat modeling solutions provides a broader perspective on the options available to large organizations. It’s crucial to assess each tool not only on its threat modeling capabilities but also on how it fits into the overall security ecosystem of the enterprise. 

Using these tools effectively can enhance a company’s ability to understand, communicate, and mitigate potential threats to its digital products.

Selecting the Optimal Threat Modeling Tool: Tailoring to Your Needs

Selecting the best threat modeling tool requires carefully analyzing your organizational needs, security goals, and the specific features that will empower your team to build resilient systems.

To make the right choice, match the tool’s capabilities with your project size, complexity, and industry-specific requirements. Consider the following questions to guide your decision:

• Does the tool align with your existing development and security workflows?

• Does it offer the necessary scalability as your organization grows?

• Can it integrate with other systems and tools you currently use?

• How does it contribute to regulatory compliance and meeting industry standards?

• What is the learning curve, and does the tool provider offer adequate support?

You can identify which solution will serve you best by answering these questions and revisiting the details provided for each tool in this post. Remember, the most expensive or sophisticated tool is not always the right one; it’s about finding the fit that complements your team’s expertise and enhances your security posture without unnecessary complexity.

Conclusion: Securing Your Software Development Lifecycle

Effective threat modeling is essential for securing your software development lifecycle, reducing risks, and ensuring that security is a priority from the onset. 

As cyber threats continue to evolve, the need for robust threat modeling becomes even more critical. With the right tool in hand, your team can anticipate and mitigate potential threats, contributing to a more secure application. 

The tools discussed in this guide range from free, open-source solutions ideal for small projects or budget-conscious teams, to comprehensive enterprise-grade platforms designed for large organizations facing complex security challenges.

Embrace the tool that best aligns with your needs and make threat modeling an integral part of your security strategy. The investment in time and resources will pay dividends in your software’s resilience and data protection.

Additional Resources

For those eager to expand their knowledge and dive deeper into threat modeling and cybersecurity, here are additional resources that may be useful:

• OWASP Threat Modeling Project
• Microsoft’s Threat Modeling Tool Training
• Security Compass Resources

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Threat Modeling Tools

• What is threat modeling in cybersecurity?

Threat modeling is proactively identifying, understanding, and managing cybersecurity threats. It involves analyzing the design of your systems to find potential security issues, and their respective mitigations. 

• How does threat modeling improve software security?

By incorporating threat modeling, teams can identify potential security flaws early in the development process, allowing for cost-effective and timely mitigations and reducing the likelihood of security incidents. 

• Can threat modeling be integrated into Agile and DevOps practices?

Yes, many modern threat modeling tools offer integrations with CI/CD pipelines and support Agile and DevOps workflows, enabling real-time threat assessments and continuous security. 

• Is there a one-size-fits-all threat modeling tool?

No, because every organization has different needs based on their size, industry, and specific security requirements. Selecting a tool that aligns with your team’s capabilities and project complexities is important. 

• What is the best threat modeling tool?

The “best” tool depends on factors like your team’s structure, development environment, and security requirements. Tools like OWASP Threat Dragon are excellent for those seeking a free, open-source solution, whereas enterprise tools like SD Elements or ThreatModeler provide more advanced features suitable for large organizations. 

• Are there any free threat modeling tools available?

Yes, several free tools like OWASP Threat Dragon, Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool, and PyTM offer robust threat modeling capabilities. 

• What factors should I consider when choosing a threat modeling tool?

Key considerations include the cost, ease of use, supported methodologies, integration with your current toolchain, scalability to handle project growth, and the type of support provided by the community or vendor.

• Can non-security experts use threat modeling tools effectively?

Many tools are designed to be user-friendly and come with educational resources, making them accessible to non-experts. However, having a team member with security knowledge can enhance the process.

The post 12 Essential Threat Modeling Tools for Enhancing Your Cybersecurity Posture appeared first on Security Compass.

Expanding Depth and Breadth of Security and Training Content and Integrations

To provide a good customer experience, all organizations must strive for a Security by Default end state  “products that are secure to use out of the box.”  Releasing products with vulnerabilities puts customer data at risk. Threat actors having access to personally identifiable information will do irreparable harm to customers.  The burden of putting strong security measures in place (i.e. strong passwords or multi-factor authentication)  should not fall upon your customers.

To achieve the Security by Default end state, organizations must adopt a Security by Design approach. Security by Design is the philosophy of ensuring that systems are built securely from the very beginning of the development process. However, implementing Security by Design is not a one-size fits all solution, as organizations, departments, and teams all have different needs. The right solution to adopt or optimize your Security by Design approach must address your organization’s current needs, integrate with your existing tech stack, and reduce the number of security requirements your developers have to address.

Security Compass, the Security by Design company, has developed two developer-centric solutions, SD Elements and Application Security Training (formerly eLearning), which allows organizations to embed product security early on in the development process.  Both solutions enable organizations, departments, and teams to release secure code faster through training, automatically identifying and prioritizing software threats, recommending countermeasures, and reducing the risk of insecure design.

With the release of SD  Elements 2023.2, Security Compass is making Security by Design easier than ever for software development teams. New features now available in SD Elements 2023.2 include:

• Improvements to the SD Elements survey
• New and updated security content
• Enhanced user lifecycle management experience
• New and updated Just-In-Time-Training (JITT) modules and Application Security Training courses

Survey Enhancements

The SD Elements survey is the most essential aspect of a threat model. To create a complete threat model, the survey can require collaboration amongst multiple users across teams, depending on the complexity of the system. Prior to the 2023.2 release, it was challenging for users to identify what changes had been made. For the stakeholder who is responsible for submitting the survey, there was no ability to review the changes.

With the 2023.2 release, any changes made in the survey will now be highlighted. When the owner is ready to submit the survey, they will be directed to a confirmation page where they will have the opportunity to review all the changes. This update will reduce the time spent reviewing survey answers.

User Lifecycle Management Enhancements

It is the responsibility of the SD Elements administrator to oversee the user lifecycle management experience. In previous releases, we addressed onboarding by adding the ability ​​to import groups and roles from identity providers into SD Elements. However, this feature only worked via API and not directly within the SD Elements user interface (UI). Reactivating suspended users was also a challenge prior to this release. If an identity provider does not allow for scheduled reactivation, then this must happen manually within SD Elements, which is a labor-intensive process.

With the SD Elements 2023.2 release, SD Elements is enhancing the onboarding experience and automating the reactivation of inactive users.The new onboarding experience allows organizations to leverage SD Element’s current Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication, extending SD Elements SAML configurations via UI to provide the ability to map Identity Provider (IdP) groups to SD Elements group(s) and map IdP roles to SD Elements roles.  With scheduled reactivation, SD Elements administrators can set a date to activate a suspended user’s identity. Once the date arrives, the user will automatically be granted access to SD Elements.

New Security Content

SD Elements 2023.2 now provides the following security content library updates:

• ISO 21434 (Automotive Industry): New developer-centric recommendations and out of the box countermeasures for how to satisfy ISO 21434 requirements
• OWASP IoT Top 10: New and updated developer-centric recommendations for how to address the most common security risks that can make IoT devices vulnerable
• OWASP Privacy Top 10: New ​​OWASP Privacy Top 10 report and developer-centric recommendations and countermeasures based on the OWASP Privacy Top 10 Project

Just-in-Time-Training (JITT) Updates

Just-in-Time Training micromodules have been updated in SD Elements 2023.2 for Defending Node.js and Defending Java. For a complete list of the 800+ JITT micromodules now available within SD Elements, please see Security Compass’ Training Curriculum.  (If you are a current SD Elements customer but do not currently have a JITT subscription and would like to learn more, please contact Customer Success or Book a Demo.)

Application Security Training Courses

The following Security Compass Application Security Training courses are now available:

• Defending Node.js
• Defending Java

To learn more about these courses, as well as the more than 40+ other Application Security Training courses covering application security, operational security, compliance, and general awareness, please visit the Application Security Training page.

Learn More

Security Compass, the Security by Design company, helps organizations who develop software save time and money and reduce cyber risks through education and by taking an automated, developer-centric approach to software threat modeling, secure development, and compliance. This approach enables software developers and security teams to:

• Understand best practices for embedding product security
• Continuously model threats at scale
• Proactively write code that significantly reduces risks and remediation costs
• Demonstrate compliance with secure software development standards more easily
• Accelerate software time to market

If you are a current SD Elements customer, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager to learn more.

If you are new to SD Elements, request a demo to learn more.

The post SD Elements 2023.2 Release Update appeared first on Security Compass.

A better approach, of course, would be to take steps to prevent design and coding errors from entering the code base to begin with. That’s where threat modeling comes in. Software threat modeling is an exercise that examines an application’s architecture and technical stack. It identifies potential weaknesses an attacker could exploit, then prescribes threat countermeasures and security controls software developers, security, and operations teams can implement. In short, threat modeling anticipates threats prior to starting development. This allows organizations to prevent vulnerabilities from entering the application and build secure software more rapidly.

Why Doesn’t Everyone Use Threat Models?

Traditional threat modeling is a manual exercise requiring leadership from senior security and software architecture professionals. Threat modeling teams can spend weeks mapping an application’s data flow, creating “trust boundary” diagrams, and identifying mitigations for implementation by development teams. We have written at length about some of the challenges with manual threat modeling. Briefly, these include:

• Scalability: Allocating senior personnel for days or weeks to threat model every project is not practical in most organizations.
• Shelf life: As teams add new features, microservices, and interfaces to an application, threats it faces change. In a DevSecOps environment with frequent changes and rapid releases, spending several days to update a threat model is impractical.
• Consistency- Manual threat models are subject to the judgements, preferences, and expertise of those people building the models.
• Completeness and Auditability- Tracking hundreds or thousands of threats and countermeasures in a spreadsheet or shared document is cumbersome and prone to mistakes.

Nonetheless, threat modeling is beneficial to organizations of all sizes. Like any initiative, adopting a threat modeling program is a journey.

Understanding Capabilities Maturity Models

A capability maturity model provides a blueprint for assessing and advancing an organization’s practices. Here at Security Compass, when we talk to organizations who want to improve their secure software development process, we tell them one of the best places to start is by conducting a quick, informal assessment of their current software threat modeling maturity process. Furthermore, we also typically encourage them to create their model based on the software-process maturity framework developed by the Department of Defense as “a means to characterize the capabilities of software-development organizations and the Capabilities Maturity Model developed by Watts Humphries and others at the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.

Software Threat Modeling Maturity Model

A Capability Maturity Model recognizes that processes evolve over time, and that as organizations gain experience and knowledge, they can improve their processes to become more efficient, effective, and predictable. The maturity model can be applied to any type of organizational process, including software development, project management, quality assurance, or customer support.

By focusing on process maturity, organizations can identify areas for improvement, develop best practices, and achieve greater consistency and efficiency in their operations. Like the Capability Maturity Model, the Software Threat Modeling Maturity Model (STMMM) we use with many organizations consists of five discrete levels.

Level 1 – Initial

Level 1 maturity is typified by unpredictability and poor controls. Activities are ad hoc and reactive, and results are unpredictable. This does not mean that efforts will fail, however, as extraordinary individual efforts can result in success. However, because processes are poorly defined and documented success is unlikely to be repeatable.

Level 1 maturity for threat modeling is characterized by one or two individuals defining data flow diagrams (DFD), entry points, and likely attack patterns. Threat countermeasures are ad hoc and inconsistent. Engineering must interpret high level descriptions (e.g., “apply least privilege principles”) and translate those into controls for implementation and testing. Reporting is through shared documents or spreadsheets.

Requirements to advance to Level 2

In Level 1, teams have not sufficiently defined and documented processes to enable them to be replicated. Advancing to Level 2 requires additional discipline to define policies and processes to achieve consistency between projects.

Level 2 – Repeatable

At Level 2, teams have defined and documented processes that allow for repeatable results. This does not guarantee that teams will rigorously follow the processes each time, however. For threat modeling, teams operating at Level 2 have documented policies for identifying which applications require threat models. Teams lack the resources to focus on more than one or two high-priority applications.

Level 2 threat modeling is manual and diagrammatic. Documentation remains paper based and therefore diligence is required to ensure repeatability. Teams may begin to document specific threats and countermeasures associated with common frameworks or deployment environments. This allows better consistency between threat models and uniform application of approved controls.

Requirements to advance to Level 3

Level 2 organizations lack information, documentation, and consistency. Teams need to capture and analyze data to identify blockers and missed opportunities. For example, if security testing identifies multiple SQL injection vulnerabilities, threat modelers should respond by considering input validation threats more closely. Training on secure coding can also benefit the team.

Level 3 – Defined

At Level 3, threat modeling becomes proactive. Teams have standardized and documented threat modeling activities integrated into organizational processes. Documenting uniform threats and countermeasures based on the technology stack reduces the organization’s reliance on scarce senior security and engineering personnel and allows multiple teams to produce consistent threat models and countermeasures. In turn, this allows threat modeling of a higher percent of the organization’s application inventory.

Teams having “defined” threat modeling practices are incorporating regulatory requirements in addition to general secure coding standards. This is where automation can accelerate advancing to Level 3. Developer-centric threat modeling solutions like SD Elements provide teams with comprehensive interpretations of standards like NIST 800-53, CCPA, PCI-DSS, CSA Cloud Control Matrix, and others. Automation also allows teams to adopt standardized countermeasures or adjust those to meet internal requirements. Each countermeasure is defined as an actional task and delivered through existing tools (e.g., Jira) for implementation by development, security, or operations.

Requirements to advance to Level 4

Threat modeling teams need to leverage additional data analysis to advance to Level 4 maturity. This includes identifying choke points in the system and analysis of residual findings from security testing to guide process change. Tailored training for development on individual issues can help refine countermeasures.

Level 4 – Managed

Level 4 threat modeling maturity is characterized by processes that are measured and controlled. Teams have customized their threat models to each technical stack and deployment environment, and threat countermeasures are consistent across teams. Proactive security controls with approved standards result in fewer vulnerability findings during security testing. Continuous developer education delivered to desktops instills a security culture.

In a managed environment, automation enables teams to achieve consistency and scale threat modeling across all team members, minimizing variability and the requirement for senior personnel. By leveraging a centralized platform like SD Elements, teams can measure process metrics across a range of personnel and application architectures with near real time visibility to the security profile of each application.

Requirements to advance to Level 5

Level 5 maturity requires a regimented review of data to identify efficiencies. This includes continuous monitoring of the threat space and regulatory environment to maintain awareness of new threats, standards, and countermeasures. It is also advisable to monitor performance between personnel conducting threat models to ensure consistency and identify areas for improvement. The addition of developer-centric eLearning is helpful to close knowledge gaps and create the foundation for a security culture

Level 5 – Optimizing

Teams that perform at level 5 maturity focus on incremental improvement through test, analyze, adjust cycles. Processes are constantly improved through monitoring feedback and introducing innovative methods and functionality. In an automated platform, this may include new survey questions to reduce threat modeling time, more frequent updates to the threat model as software requirements change, or the testing the effectiveness of new countermeasures. Security and engineering scrutinize vulnerabilities to determine if the root cause was a missing item from the threat model, a poorly designed countermeasure, or an ineffective test plan.

SD Elements provides quarterly updates from Security Compass’ security professionals on the threat environment and regulatory requirements. Advanced Reporting makes complex threat, countermeasure, security control, and compliance data accessible and easy to digest. Teams can create rich data visualizations and dashboards that identify the most prevalent threats and weaknesses across the organization’s software portfolio. Teams also have the data, reporting, and analytics capabilities they need to perform in-depth analyses of their software security and compliance posture for individual software projects, as well as across their entire software (or application) portfolio.

Closing

Building a mature threat modeling capability is a process. By focusing initially on key projects, teams can build internal support and capture data on threat mitigation and cost savings. Automation is a key requirement, as manual processes are inconsistent, unauditable, and simply do not scale.

SD Elements helps organizations accelerate their threat modeling initiatives and simplifies maturing programs. It provides an expansive content library of threats, countermeasures, and security and compliance best practices designed specifically to address the needs of developers. This expertise, provided by expert researchers on the SD Elements content team with decades of experience, is coupled with embedded, highly interactive, just in time training modules to enable software developers to quickly understand and comply with changing software security standards and threat landscapes.

The post Understanding and Applying the Software Threat Modeling Maturity Model appeared first on Security Compass.

With the widespread adoption of rapid development methodologies like DevOps, traditional threat modeling was difficult. Taking weeks of time senior development and security professionals was incompatible with a strategy of quickly responding to customer needs.

Recognizing the importance of threat modeling – particularly in a rapid development environment – in 2020 a group of 15 experienced threat modelers joined together to redefine threat modeling as core values and principles. The resulting Threat Modeling Manifesto acknowledges there is no single “best” threat modeling process. Instead, it distills the process to answering four key questions:

1.     What are we working on? Define the project, its components, and its environment.

2.     What can go wrong? Identify the threats to the project, including its deployment environment.

3.     What are we going to do about it? Define the threat countermeasures and security controls.

4.     Did we do a good enough job? Validate that the countermeasures are implemented properly, and work as designed.

Why you should care about Threat Modeling

Threat modeling allows teams to anticipate weaknesses in an application that an adversary could exploit and identify countermeasures and controls to mitigate those weaknesses. These countermeasures and controls become non-functional security requirements development and operations can implement alongside the functional product requirements. This proactive approach reduces the number of vulnerabilities that would otherwise be identified by security testing later in the development process (or completely overlooked!).

How to use the Threat Modeling Manifesto

The Manifesto is not prescriptive regarding how one should answer the four key questions. Rather, it relies on guiding values, principles, and beneficial patterns for performing threat modeling.

Meeting the values can require organizations to change the way they think about threat modeling. Successful programs are not rigid and fixed. Rather than meeting minimum compliance requirements, the first value recommends building “a culture of finding and fixing design issues.” Others recognize that successful threat modeling is a “journey of understanding,” and a need for “continuous refinement” of the process.

Principles are “fundamental truths of threat modeling.” These can help an organization determine “how” they will approach the task. Principles include using threat modeling early and frequently. Threat modeling must be an iterative process as a threat model for an application can quickly become out of date. The principles also recognize that threat modeling exercises will differ depending on the development practices of the organization or team and must be “scoped to manageable portions of the system.”

The Manifesto helpfully provides “patterns” that benefit or inhibit successful threat modeling. Beneficial patterns include taking a systematic approach. To be thorough and repeatable, threat modeling should be a structured process. While the process may change (continuous refinement) it is important to apply organizational knowledge consistently. A second beneficial pattern is to use “tools that allow you to increase your productivity, enhance your workflows, enable repeatability and provide measurability.”

The Manifesto’s “anti-patterns” call out behaviors to avoid. These include the “Hero Threat Modeler” where organizations assume that threat modeling must be confined a small group of people with unique skills. Threat modeling requires a diverse team that understands the strengths and weaknesses of programming languages, deployment environments, and internal capabilities. It also requires an understanding of applicable regulatory requirements. In short, “everyone can and should do it.”

How SD Elements helps

Adhering to the principles and beneficial patterns can be challenging when conducting manual threat modeling. Traditional threat modeling can be inconsistent. Output from manual threat models reflect the knowledge and biases of those participating in the exercise.  As team members change identified threats and controls will also change. Teams often maintain the threats and countermeasures identified in a manual threat model in a spreadsheet or shared document.  This provides poor evidence of compliance with corporate policies and regulatory standards.

Organizations require automation and a developer-centric approach to achieve scalable, consistent, and auditable threat modeling. Security resources are scarce across all organizations. The BSIMM 13 report published by Synopsys in 2022 surveyed the application security resources and processes at 130 enterprises. On average, it found 1 software security resource for every 122 developers and 43 applications.

SD Elements is a developer-centric threat modeling solution that helps organizations extend scarce security resources. It enables self-service threat modeling that identifies weaknesses and compliance requirements at the beginning of a project, then delivers consistent and approved developer-friendly secure coding best practices and countermeasures directly to developers, significantly reducing cyber risks. Developers can quickly update threat models as features and requirements change, without waiting for security resources.

The economic benefits of this approach are significant, increasing developer productivity and reducing security rework later in the development lifecycle. A study by Forrester Consulting found that using SD Elements produced benefits of increased productivity, reduced costs, and avoided vulnerability remediation totaling over $2.8 million and a 332 percent return on investment.

How to start threat modeling in your organization.

You can learn more about the different methodologies to threat modeling in our white paper: Threat Modeling: Finding the Best Approach for Your Organization.

The post Using the Threat Modeling Manifesto appeared first on Security Compass.

The need for more agility – faster time to market, better developer productivity, and integration with operations – drove teams to look for a different approach that broke a monolithic application into discrete components. In this blog, we will forego the history of component development with 3-tier and n-tier applications.  Rather, we will fast forward to current software development practices with microservices.

Microservices

A microservices architecture focuses on building small, well-defined, and targeted services that can be reused across multiple applications. Each microservice has a well-defined interface (API) and limited scope. This allows them to be built, deployed, and maintained independently of other services or software features. Microservices can be written in different programming languages and use different data stores, making rapid updates and deployment easier.

An application built using this architecture can include multiple services (sometimes hundreds) of services, each with multiple instances. To deal with the complexity of service-to-service communication, applications often use a service mesh. A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer in the application. It operates as a proxy for each microservice and abstracts the logic governing service-to-service communication from individual service layers. A service mesh can also provide authentication, authorization, and secure communication services between each microservice.

The benefits of microservices

• Scalability – Microservices are independently deployable services that communicate with each other. As parts of an application experience high demand, individual components can be scaled separately rather than scaling the entire application.

• Maps to DevOps software development practices –  Microservice delivers a single complete software capability. This means each microservice can be developed without dependencies on other teams, leading to more rapid release cycles.

• Independence in technology – Since each microservice is separate, development teams are free to choose the best technology stack for the service being constructed.

• Loose coupling – There are limited dependencies between any two microservices. Instead, each microservice contains all the logic required for the purpose of the microservice and all interactions with others are solely through well-defined APIs.

• Reusability – Because microservice are self-contained they can be used across multiple applications and  business processes

• Fault tolerance – A single service breakdown does not cripple the entire system.

Security challenges when threat modeling microservices

While adopting a microservices architecture can accelerate development and simplify maintenance and deployment, each microservice can present new security concerns.

Heterogenous technical stack – An application using a microservices architecture may consist of hundreds of individual microservices written in several languages. Each programming language and framework presents different inherent weaknesses and risks. The resulting complexity can make it difficult to ensure that threat modeling teams conduct a thorough exercise.

Increased attack surface – A monolithic application often has few entry points. In a microservices architecture, each microservice and API represents a new attack surface. As the number of services increases, so does the application’s attack surface.

Managing microservice credentials – With hundreds of individual microservices, ensuring proper authentication and authorization between them can be difficult.

Residual risk – Vulnerabilities may still exist after threat modeling is performed. For example, development teams may borrow insecure code from sources like Stack Overflow which may not be caught by threat modeling. In line with defense-in-depth principles, developers must remain diligent to create secure code.

Security expertise – When there is pressure to release rapidly, developers may feel additional pressure to make security decisions for which they are not qualified.

Best practices

• Defense in depth – Since each service has its own API and attack surface, security controls must be considered for each.
• Adopt a security culture – Each microservice team must take responsibility for the security of its software. Making security champions part of each team can help extend scarce security resources.
• Use dependency tracking – Open source components make up a majority of the average application. Thousands of new vulnerabilities are disclosed in these components each year. Keep track of the dependencies and map them to reliable vulnerability sources.
• Default to encryption – Encrypting data at rest is obvious. Teams should also encrypt data in transit between users and systems to prevent attackers from intercepting or monitoring plaintext data transmissions.
• Issue and expire credentials quickly – Avoid long-running trusted connections and apply it to every interaction with a system.
• Abstract away complexity – Breaking the function of each service as small as possible and communicating through APIs make the task of each development team simpler.
• Service independence – A microservices architecture is designed for independence. Allow each team to update their service independently of other teams.
• Decouple security policies – Decouple code from security policies by placing security policies at the front-end service proxy.

Making microservices threat modeling scale

Traditional threat modeling is a manual process. Senior security, development, and compliance resources map out the application and threats over the course of days, then decide what mitigation controls are needed in the design and execution of the application. The time and expense of traditional threat modeling limits its use to an organization’s most critical applications. Updating a threat model in a rapidly changing DevSecOps environment is impractical.

Automated threat modeling is a scalable, consistent, and auditable alternative. This starts by generating a list of threats based on the technical stack of each microservice, including its programming language, frameworks, and compliance requirements. Once the threats are identified they are translated into consistent, company-approved mitigation controls, including code samples and test plans, then assigned directly to development, security, and operations personnel through their existing tools (e.g., Jira, Archer).

Validation of all controls is automated through integrations with Automated Security Testing tools, including static analysis, dynamic analysis, and source composition analysis. This allows teams to have near real-time traceability of which have been implemented and which remain open.

All information on threats, risks, weaknesses, and controls is maintained in an updatable knowledge base. As regulatory standards, security policies, and mitigation strategies evolve, updates can be made once and propagated to each project.

Final thoughts

Microservices provide much-needed agility to support a business’ goal, allowing improved agility, faster time to market, and a truly distributed development environment. To be successful, security must be part of every project from the beginning.

A threat modeling platform that integrates with development, security, and operations eases the security burden on those teams. Instead of depending on the skills, opinions, and experience of individual threat modeling teams, automated threat modeling provides a centralized, consistent, scalable, and auditable method to identify and mitigate risk. This requires a knowledge base that covers multiple languages, deployment environments, best practices, and regulatory standards.

You do not need a dedicated security team to start a threat modeling program. SD Elements identifies threats in software based on a short survey describing the application’s technical stack and deployment environment. It translates these into actionable controls, complete with sample code and test plans, and assigns them to development, security, and operations personnel through the tools they already use. SD Elements integrates with application security testing tools to provide near real-time reporting on the application’s security profile.

Want to learn more? You can book a demo with our team here.

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Threat modeling is a proactive process that identifies potential attacks to an important asset so mitigations can be developed prior to any negative impact.

You may find articles titled, “The Three Advantages of Threat Modeling” or “Six Reasons You Need to Threat Model.” The truth is that there are innumerable benefits to threat modeling.

To start, threat modeling helps improve the security posture of your product which will, in turn, reduce the security risk of your company.

It was Sir Francis Bacon who said, “Knowledge itself is power,” and the amount of security knowledge you (and your cross-functional teams) will gain from threat modeling your product is priceless.

It provides an opportunity to share different security perspectives, and that knowledge impacts every aspect of your product lifecycle from initial design to post-deployment support.

Threat modeling helps to reduce your attack surface. When you create a threat model – right from initial analysis (which may include a diagram) to suggested mitigations – your application is less vulnerable to attack.

Here Are 6 Advantages of Threat Modeling

1. Identification of Threats and Countermeasures: Threat modeling aids in identifying potential threats to an application and prescribes corresponding countermeasures and security controls. This can span across software developers, security and operations teams, ensuring a comprehensive safeguarding approach.
2. Anticipation of Threats: By prioritizing anticipation overreaction, threat modeling provides a proactive security approach. Instead of solely relying on security testing methods such as static analysis, dynamic analysis, software composition analysis and penetration testing, threat modeling anticipates potential threats even before the development phase begins.
3. Prevention of Vulnerabilities: Through early anticipation of threats, organizations can prevent vulnerabilities even before they integrate into the application, leading to more secure software rapidly.
4. Enablement of Secure Data Transmission: A common application threat includes the interception of sensitive data during transmission. Threat modeling offers countermeasures for such threats. For instance, implementing strong encryption ensures all sensitive in-transition data remains secure.
5. Countering Brute Force Attack: Another potential application threat involves brute force attacks on user credentials. In response, threat modeling could prescribe countermeasures such as timing out a user’s login after three unsuccessful attempts.
6. Regulatory Compliance: Threat modeling also considers legal and regulatory requirements. For example, if an application is subject to regulation like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), threat modeling would ensure that the development process incorporates these security standards.

What are the Popular Threat Modeling Techniques?

The threat modeling method you opt for directly aligns with your application’s unique needs. These methods vary greatly, each boasting its specific strengths and drawbacks to consider.

Historical threat modeling techniques such as the ‘Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial of service, and Elevation of Privilege’ (STRIDE) and ‘Process for Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis’ (PASTA) are still renowned for their meticulous manual methods.

Notably, STRIDE has been a reliable framework since its inception in 1999 by Microsoft.

In contrast, the ‘Common Vulnerability Scoring System’ (CVSS), developed by the ‘National Institute of Standards and Technology’ (NIST), often complements these traditional techniques, lending a more holistic approach to threat assessment.

Likewise, the application of attack trees further fortifies this comprehensive methodology, often used in combination with other threat modeling frameworks.

Other noteworthy methodologies making a significant difference in the cybersecurity landscape encompass:

• The Security Cards
• ‘Linkability, Identifiability, Non-repudiation, Detectability, Disclosure of information, Unawareness, and Non-compliance’ (LINDDUN)
• ‘Operationally Critical Threat, Asset, and Vulnerability Evaluation’ (OCTAVE)
• ‘Hybrid Threat Modeling’ (hTTM)
• ‘Quantitative Threat Testing Methodologies’ (Quantitative TTM),
• ‘Visual, Agile, and Simple Threat modeling’ (VAST)

It’s worth mentioning that every threat modeling methodology, old or new, plays a vital role in ensuring the best possible security measures are in place to tackle potential cyber threats.

Threat modeling automation software

As threats increase in complexity and severity, and the availability of skilled security resources decreases, threat modeling becomes even more crucial — and more difficult. So, we turn to automation and threat modeling software.

Threat Modeling Automation Software is essentially a digital tool designed to streamline and automate the process of identifying potential threats and strategizing countermeasures in a software development environment.

Instead of the traditional manual process where experts meticulously identify and manage threats, this software does it faster, more accurately, and on a larger scale.

As cyber threats grow in complexity, using automated tools helps safeguard software systems efficiently and effectively.

The best threat modeling tool facilitates cross-functional collaboration and includes the expert knowledge base required to recommend mitigations that address security weaknesses in your assets.

SD Elements is a threat modeling solution from Security Compass that has a proven 80 percent reduction in threat modeling time and a 92 percent reduction in vulnerabilities. SD Elements helps you automate the creation of common security mitigations that are typically derived from threat modeling analysis.

As a result, your cybersecurity risk is reduced early, quickly, and at scale.

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