Software Security

A former US Navy intelligence officer, David Locke Hall was a federal prosecutor when a bizarre-sounding website, CRACK99, came to his attention. It looked like Craigslist on acid, but what it sold was anything but amateurish: thousands of high-tech software products used largely by the military, and for mere pennies on the dollar. Want to purchase satellite tracking software? No problem. Aerospace and aviation simulations? No problem. Communications systems designs? No problem.

Remote access software and tools comprise a broad array of capabilities used to maintain and improve IT, operational technology (OT), and industrial control systems (ICS) services; they allow a proactive and flexible approach for organizations to remotely oversee networks, computers, and other devices.

The dramatic increase in cyber compromises over the past five years, specifically of software supply chains, prompted intense scrutiny of measures to strengthen the resilience of supply chains for software used throughout government and critical infrastructure. Several policies and working groups at multiple levels within the U.S. Government focus on this need to ensure the authenticity, integrity, and trustworthiness of software products.

Unmitigated vulnerabilities in the software supply chain continue to pose a significant risk to organizations and our nation. This paper builds on the previously released Recommended Practices Guide for a software supply chain’s development, production and distribution, and management processes, to further increase the resiliency of these processes against compromise.

Have you watched the news lately? They can't stop talking about hacking. It is portrayed in movies, shouted about in media headlines, and typically gets a lot of attention. In fact, in the run up to the 2016 US Presidential election, there were allegations made nearly every day that the Russians were influencing the election by hacking into American databases and systems. And who can forget Julian Assange and his infamous WikiLeaks that successfully hacked into hundreds of thousands of emails, and whose actions may have kept Hillary Clinton out of the White House.