Armed with a new product and strategy, the company is urging
organizations to change the way they look at secure application
development.Fortify Software is advocating a new strategy to help keep businesses secure during the software development process.
Dubbed Business Software Assurance, the strategy begins with the
release of Fortify 360, a suite of integrated products Fortify
officials said will help organizations identify and fill security holes
in their software.
Barmak Meftah, senior vice president of products and services at
Fortify, said for many enterprises, most of the money spent on IT
security goes towards protecting the network perimeter. The problem, he
said, is that the applications that are being hacked are always exposed.
"If you want to bank online, if you want to stock trade online, as
[the] end user you have to [have] exposure to that application," Meftah
told eWEEK. "A hacker takes advantage of that application for
unintended consequences, so the business of putting walls around that
application fundamentally is broken."
The knee-jerk response to being hacked is typically to buy a tool,
he said. However, application testing products such as penetration
testing may only address the indicators of insecure software, not
insecure code, Meftah said.
To read about Fortify's acquisition of Secure Software, click here.
Businesses must start thinking of an inside-out approach to
security, he said. This is where Forify's Business Software Assurance
comes in.
What software assurance is about is a business process change and,
understanding software security end-to-end, tools and services become
enablers to make that happen," Meftah said. "So, as opposed to
approaching the problem from the other angle, which is, ‘Let me buy a
tool and build business process around it,' we encourage that you build
a business process and [that] tools become enablers of that."
Founded in 2003, Fortify's forte has been static code analysis,
where it competes with the likes of Klocwork and Coverity. With Fortify
360, the company is applying two other integrated levels of analysis:
dynamic analysis of running applications during quality assurance
testing and the real-time monitoring of applications once they have
been deployed. The product also features an audit workbench that
correlates and prioritizes vulnerabilities to help security teams
manage the most serious threats first.
Another feature of Fortify 360 is the collaboration module, which
provides a shared working environment where security and development
teams can work together to resolve vulnerabilities. Users also receive
regular threat intelligence updates produced by the Fortify Security
Research Group.
"It's not just about the technology, but also about bridging the gap
between those in the enterprise responsible for development and
security," Roger Thornton, Fortify's chief technology officer, said in
a statement. "Security is a low priority in software development
compared to functionality, quality and performance, and most business
managers are often unaware of the inherent business and security risks
of deploying dangerously exposed software. Fortify 360 connects all of
these teams, integrating software assurance as a business process
throughout the organization."
