The Software world is developing at an unprecedented rate today. As a result, a cloud development environment that is comfortable and safe for clients and users has emerged. This helps the brilliant minds in software development collaborate and come up with more innovative ideas and solutions. This collaboration not only happens within teams in the same office environment but also all over the globe. One team sitting in a specific geographical location can develop applications sent for reviews to another team sitting in another country altogether. This is the power of creating a safe cloud development environment where people can easily communicate and create!
However, with great power comes great responsibility. Despite the software world getting more collaborative, cloud development is prone to infiltration, which further makes data distribution much harder. This has made cybersecurity teams in companies look at designers and hacking programmers as threats to the system. Due to this, even regular honest programmers come under a cloud of doubt, which causes a sense of hatred amongst the teams.
An organization must create a cloud development environment that is safe and secure for its respective users. It is very crucial to come up with measures to take precautions to protect the data.
Five key points to secure the cloud development environment:
- Distinguish Production and Development clearly: Certain companies, such as those of finance, prefer to keep their production, testing, and development units separate. This is mainly due to convenience reasons, so when an audit takes place, there is a clear boundary distinguishing the three. This also ensures that the untested data remains untouched, as an accidental corruption of the production data or even the deletion of the entire code could happen. During the initial coding stages, it is always better to set up a separate domain to test bugs, any broken builds, etc., that can be fixed. At this stage, every developer should be given a different set of login credentials so that sensitive data stays safe.
- Keeping the endpoints secure: Developers usually connect using endpoints to the environment to maintain the high-security aspect. To also safeguard the data/ codes created, which are still a work in progress, they use storage methods such as USB devices, storage media, etc., to transport the data from one environment to another. There is also a need to have anti-virus software installed on the laptop/ desktop or even on mobile phones. Developers also encrypt their endpoints when they are working on highly sensitive applications. Another thing to keep in mind is to avoid connecting the laptop to any external storage media that is foreign or cannot be trusted.
- Code in one secure environment: Despite taking all the necessary steps listed above, it is always best to stick to one safe and secure environment to code. It is advised to interact with code repositories available in public. Always ensure that the developers working on codes for a proprietary project are not allowed to use any open-source support; this is acceptable to some extent only if the project is open-source itself. Developers sometimes forget that they need to store their codes on private servers only and not on public web servers. This will further create risks of either infiltration, corrupting the code, or even code being duplicated by cybercriminals.
- Timely Audits: Audits are critical in any organization, mainly to ensure no malicious activities occur. Vulnerabilities should be identified immediately at the time of audit. The tests conducted should cover 100% of the source codes, especially when the codes are written in a scripted language. If that is not the case, then there is a huge possibility for a generation of malicious codes from sources outside the organization to crop up. Apart from periodic audits, there is also a need to have timely security checks on all the employees, like the developer themselves, designers, and every other member involved in the web app development in the pipeline.
- Innovation blended with security: One should understand that controls cannot be implemented without risk assessment. The degree to which any system controls are implemented should always be directly proportional to the project’s sensitivity. If the company doesn’t have heavy regulations, or for that matter, if the company is not protecting highly sensitive information/IP, then there is no requirement for every developer working on a project to have their laptops end-to-end encrypted. Balance is the key; there should be a good amount of system controls in place, and at the same time, free flow collaborations should also happen.
