But this ad space

Top Software Security Trends to Watch in 2021

Photo of author
Written By Janessa Thorne

For those in the software security business, having an adversarial view is easy. After all, there would have been no worries about software security if there are no unscrupulous persons constantly looking for vulnerabilities to exploit.

Today, custom software development doesn’t only mean developing an effective solution, but also an extremely secure one as well. 

Looking back on this year, disruption is the main theme. While business leaders are used to some level of constant changes, Covid-19 affected the whole world in ways that no one could have ever predicted. Thus, business organizations have to strategize and pivot, change, and adapt. 

Organizations have to be resilient enough to withstand all kinds of disruptions and changes, whether natural disasters or technology-related.

With a focus on the cybersecurity field, new trends and tech evolution would shape the software development environment in the year to come. Embracing the software security trends well ahead of time could help companies distinguish themselves from their competition and gain a competitive edge. 

Top Software Security and Cybersecurity Trends to Watch Out For

1. Computation that Enhances Privacy

As concerns regarding privacy rise because of digital technology privacy, and the data generation and processing growth, using privacy-enhancing computation enables companies to share data in untrusted environments seamlessly.

There are three technologies in privacy-enhancing computation features, which protect data while being used. 

  • decentralized data processing and analytics via machine learning that is privacy-conscious.
  • confidential computing provides a trusted space in which sensitive data could be processed. 
  • allows organizations to share data and securely coordinate across regions while maintaining security and privacy. 
  • Homomorphic encryption, a cryptographic method that allows third parties to process encrypted data and return an encrypted result to the owner of the data without providing an idea on the data or the results. 

2. CSPM or Cloud Security Posture Management

Top Software Security and Cybersecurity Trends in 2021As there is more usage of cloud platform services, the number of unmanaged risks has exploded in the industry that is mission-critical. The CSPM automates the management of cloud security across different cloud infrastructures.

Companies and app development service providers such as a custom software development company continue moving to the cloud, using public, private, or hybrid models, which exposes them to new cyber threats. 

The Cloud Security Posture Management tools empower organizations to identify and remediate risks via assessment of software security and automated compliance monitoring.

As the cloud continues to grow over a lot of areas, companies could use CSPM for consolidating any misconfigurations and comply with regulations, including HIPAA, CCPA, and GDPR. This reinforces the confidence of clients and trust in the business. 

3. Managing Endpoint

Dispersed devices and remote workers who request access to organizational assets demand the ability to centrally discover, deploying, provisioning, updating, and troubleshooting endpoint devices within an organization. The management of endpoints is critical since the endpoints could be the cybercriminals’ entry point to company networks. 

There is much benefit to employing an endpoint management solution, including protection of the remote workforce, automating compliance and provisioning, the management of endpoint environments, and supporting easy troubleshooting. 

4. Zero Trust Cybersecurity

With the adoption of numerous agile processes and cloud environments, a lot of corporate assets today exist outside the parameter of traditional security. Using ‘castle and moat’ security practices no longer are enough to protect assets. Trust has become a vulnerability with the blurring of business boundaries. 

The software security circumference should be defined around a person’s identity or the device that is requesting access. Effective and robust authentication and authorization allow a responsive and granular security approach by distributing policy enforcement and centralizing policy orchestration.

Zero trust software security isn’t a set of technologies, but instead, it is a culture that software security should evolve to meet the present needs. 

5. Responsible Artificial Intelligence

Top Software Security and Cybersecurity Trends in 2021AI is quickly maturing as an amazingly powerful technology with a somewhat limitless application.

Combining human ingenuity and creativity with machine learning scalability is advancing the understanding and knowledge base at a pace that’s remarkable. Nevertheless, great responsibility comes with great power. 

Artificial Intelligence raises concern on a lot of fronts because of its possibly disruptive impact. These include privacy loss, displacement of the workforce, possible decision-making biases, and lack of control over robots and automated systems.

A responsible AI focuses on making sure that transparent, ethical, and accountable usage of technologies are consistent with company values, user expectations, and societal norms and laws. 

Responsible Artificial Intelligence also could guard against biased algorithms or data use, make certain that automated decisions are explainable and justified, and help in maintaining individual privacy and user trust. 

6. Distributed cloud

A distributed cloud is considered as the future of cloud by Gartner. Companies hesitant of total migration to the public cloud utilize a combination of public and private cloud computing. Hybrid cloud breaks the public cloud value propositions. 

The company retains the responsibility of their private cloud environment, but they couldn’t leverage the entire capabilities spectrum offered by a provider of private cloud, like the innovation pace.

The distributed cloud provides options to various physical locations. The public cloud company essentially operates, maintains, and evolves the services, but executes at the point of need physically. 

7. Operations that are location-agnostic

Although it is deemed that remote working habits would be around for some time, to support operations anytime, anywhere, organizations are looking for models. Location-agnostic operations must be designed to support customers anywhere, letting employees wherever they are, and managing business services deployment across distributed infrastructure. 

The operating model enables companies to be accessed, enabled, and delivered anywhere that employers, customers, and business partners operate in environments that are physically remote.

Organizations have to invest in technology infrastructure, resilient governance and security policies, and new management practices to offer unique added values, scalable, and easy digital experiences. 

8. IoT in Security Gap

Top Software Security and Cybersecurity Trends in 2021The internet of things devices is boosting, expanding, and innovating productivity across various organizations and industries.

Industrial IoT has changed important infrastructures, including automotive, maritime, healthcare, and shipping. Consumer IoT on the other hand is extensively used in homes to make lives easier and smarter. 

Regardless of the benefits, however, IoT presents a lot of risks coupled mostly with the lack of secure architectures and visibility, which result in increased threat. A single node that is compromised could be leveraged to break into company networks with grave consequences. 

9. Cloud Public Key Infrastructure of KPI

PKI is a fundamental security tool used by the majority of organizations these days. Nevertheless, with the IoT introduction and proliferation, DevOps, and cloud, the PKI role is changing. It is complex and requires trained personnel, secure facilities, as well as the right software and hardware to effectively run and keep it under control. 

With limited security and IT resources, more and more companies are moving their PKI to the cloud to achieve this goal. Cloud infrastructure security and agility enabled cloud-based PKI deployments that are highly secure and hosted and managed by a trusted partner.

There are numerous ways that Cloud PKI benefits businesses since it ensures secure and seamless operations, accelerates value time, lowers cost, and saves considerable resources and time by delegating to the cloud PKI management functions that are labor-intensive. 

10. Hyper automation

A process wherein business organizations automate as many IT and business processes as possible with tools including machine learning, robotic process automation, AI, and other kinds of task automation and decision process tools. In an organization, anything that could be automated should be automated. 

A lot of organizations are supported by a ‘patchwork’ of not optimized, lean, and connected technologies. The legacy company processes not simplified create greatly extensive and costly issues for organizations. Hyper automation, therefore, is the key to operational resilience and efficiency. 

DevOps and Security

Cybersecurity in the digital age complements the DevOps approach to the development, management, and maintenance of continuous quality and delivery.

This nonetheless does not seem to seamlessly translate into the real world. The DevOps approach takes the main agile programming principles and applies them to the whole development and operations pipeline. 

Rather than a manual, gradual, and linear progression from initial requirements to the release of a finished product, the process of development is a highly automated and continuous modification loop, release, and verification based on the continuous integration and delivery principles. 

There is such a thing as DevSecOps in DevOps and software security. Short for development, security, and operations, it is a mantra to make all accountable for security with the goal of security decisions and actions implementation at the same speed and scale as DevOps decisions and actions.

Every company that has a DevOps framework must be looking to shift into a DevSecOps mindset. 

How DevSecOps Work?

There are simple benefits to DevOps, and they include improved automation all throughout the software delivery pipeline, reduces downtime and attacks, and eradicates errors.

For development teams looking to integrate security into their DevOps framework, the process could be seamlessly completed with the use of the right processes and tools. 

Top Software Security and Cybersecurity Trends in 2021Typical DevOps and DevSecOps Workflow

  • changes are committed to a version control management system
  • a developer builds code within a version control management system
  • from the version control management system another developer will retrieve the code and carries out static code analysis to determine if there are security bugs and defects in code quality
  • an environment is then made with the use of an infrastructure-as-code tool
  • The app is deployed and security configurations are applied
  • the execution of a test automation suite against the app that is newly deployed, including UI, integration, back-end, API, and security tests 
  • the app is deployed to a production environment when it passes the tests
  • constant monitoring of the new production environment to identify any active threats in security to the system

Conclusion: Software security and cybersecurity trends

It is stated by Gartner that the 2021 cybersecurity trends would focus on three themes:

  • People-centered: Still, people are at the core of business operations. They should be empowered by digital tools to function and interact in the changing environment nowadays. 
  • Resilience: Withstand worldwide risks and challenges in a volatile and constantly evolving world. 
  • Location independence: A shift in technology to support remote working and operations. 

Behind the trends, the common theme is identity. Without enforcing the protection of identities, it is not possible to safeguard the assets, reputation, and value of your business

Disclaimer. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of IdeasPlusBusiness.com. Any content provided by our bloggers or authors is of their opinion and is not intended to malign any organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything.

For questions, inquiries and advert placements on the blog, please send an email to the Editor at ideasplusbusiness[at]gmail[dot]com. You can also follow IdeasPlusBusiness.com on Twitter here and like our page on Facebook here. This website contains affiliate links to some products and services. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.