Intelligent CISO Issue 23 | Page 41

E R T N P X E INIO OP Veracode expert discusses technological evolution in the cyber industry Paul Farrington, EMEA CTO at Veracode, discusses his expectations for technology development this year and how he predicts various technologies will be utilised within the business environment for innovation. W We should expect elections to be compromised We’re in a time where we need to assume election hacking is happening across the globe until we can prove it isn’t. There are plenty of reasons why foreign nation states and big business would want to influence election results, and the incentives – both monetary and power-based – are only going to grow. From leveraging social media to creating echo chambers that propagate certain agendas, to planting surveillance software on applications to monitor voter behaviour, bad actors are finding more and more ways to sway elections and it’s going to take a lot of voter education and awareness to outmanoeuvre them. Our recent 2019 State of Software Security report found the government www.intelligentciso.com | Issue 23 Paul Farrington, EMEA CTO at Veracode and education sector has the highest rate of security debt (unresolved software flaws) among the industries studied. Knowing this, all parties should assume there is a significantly increased risk of being targeted by attackers – and take appropriate steps to limit a breach, including addressing application flaws to minimise the risk of an attack. 12 or fewer times per year, but this decreases by 72% to 19 days when applications scanned are scanned 260 or more times a year. Reducing mounting security debt will be paramount Leading development teams will incentivise secure coding One of the major reasons behind successful cyberattacks is the ability to exploit vulnerabilities in an application’s code. When organisations don’t address vulnerabilities, they leave themselves wide open to attacks. Most organisations today acknowledge that they could not do what they do, or remain competitive without software. The absence of security isn’t always conspicuous until you are confronted with the effects of being attacked. This year, we’ll see companies looking at ways to incentivise best-practice security at every point in the software delivery process. Our 2019 State of Software Security report found the median time to fix flaws is 68 days for applications scanned This year, reducing cybersecurity debt by introducing more frequent scanning of code at regular intervals should be a focus for any organisation. 41