Software Security Assurance

Cost Effective Prevention of Risk in Software

The facts are clear. If you develop or use software applications, you are at the front line in a war against cybercrime. Cybercriminals are as incessant in their desire to steal data and intellectual property as developers are in producing innovative products. As a result, organizations need to arm themselves against pervasive threats or face the real possibility of catastrophe. First and foremost, this means removing the countless vulnerabilities that have accumulated in software, while simultaneously ensuring that no new vulnerabilities are introduced.

SSA addresses the
immediate challenge of
securing deployed
applications

SSA addresses the
systemic challenge of
producing and procuring
secure software

SSA helps organizations
meet government and
industry application
security mandates

The question then becomes how? Organizations today are built on hundreds or even thousands of applications. These applications can be produced in-house or by outsourcing partners or procured from software vendors or from open source projects. All of this is supported by armies of developers that continue to crank out new releases of software. How does one begin the task of cleansing all of this software and ensuring that new software is secure? And do it as cheaply and efficiently as possible?

Software Security Assurance or SSA, is a risk-managed approach to improving the security of software. Like Software Quality Assurance, which ensures that software will function and perform as expected, SSA ensures that the software cannot be used in a way that might damage an organization.

Software Security Assurance addresses the immediate risk posed by security vulnerabilities in deployed applications as well as the systemic risk in development processes that don’t take security into consideration. Because the threat extends to all sources of software, SSA addresses all sources of software: internal, outsourced, procured through vendors, or open source. With SSA, organizations can map their application security activities with the organization's risk objectives and demonstrate clear value to stakeholders.