We use it to assess or do security inspections of our software that we produce or assemble. We have a very large portfolio of software across our enterprise. The Veracode system is a platform that scales with the dynamics of our organization. We have people that are in many locations, in the US and abroad. The fact that the Veracode platform is essentially a cloud-based platform, that makes it scalable.
We are able to create business policies, and the Veracode system allows us to enforce those policies. That's at the very high level.
We're looking at improving the overall security quality of our software. We use it as a platform to help enable that process. Veracode, in and of itself, is doing nothing but inspecting software. But, there are many other practices that are essential to onboard and embed into our development lifecycle. Veracode is simply the platform that lets us see how well the software is being engineered. Based on some of the findings, we make improvements in areas that need education.
It can't be boiled down to the one or two most important things. It's not Veracode by itself that's doing all of the stuff, there are a lot of tertiary activities that go into building better software. The Veracode system is used to help us validate the security quality of what we're producing. It helps us zero in on some of the things that we can do better. But that means we have to provide education to our developers and architects.
In some cases we use their APIs; they're not as rich as I would like. We have added Greenlight to the IDEs, where the Greenlight tool is compatible.
In terms of cost savings relating to code fixes since implementing Veracode, it would be difficult for me to give you some specifics. I'm not exposed to the cost of the iterations. Development teams have a budget for the year. There are features planned, there are releases planned. There are many other functions responsible for planning the releases. My job is to provide application security tools, so that they can incorporate the security practices that our company expects us all to adhere to. We know, anecdotally, that the time to write software, or scripts... You should write them securely, as opposed to having some additional testing development activities, and several other iterations downstream, because that would mean we're paying three, four, or five times for our resources to accomplish what they could perform correctly the first time, out of the gate.
In that sense, the Veracode system, since we've been using it, has helped us identify and code correct over 34,000 security weaknesses. That means there are 34,000 weaknesses and vulnerabilities that never made it into production. It's hard to quantify, if any of those had been exploited, what would have been the real cost to catch them. The only thing I could do is speculate on cost right now. But we do know that it's far better to embed security upstream in the development lifecycle, and produce software correctly the first time, rather than retroactively adding security remediations to the iterations that produce software for service packs and patch releases. Those are unplanned events and there are certainly costs associated with those unplanned events. But I don't have a number I could throw out there and tell you what it is.
I don't really look at Veracode as providing any best practices. It may have some educational aid embedded in the platform. I think the Veracode database of remediation guidance is somewhat vanilla. It's not contextual. I frankly don't rely on it to provide the kind of guidance developers need contextually. So, we augment education aids and remediation guidance with humans, security analysts. We also have other third-party solutions that really provide more contextual remediation guidance unique to the situations, as developers are trying to address them. We don't anticipate what their system is going to identify. But, based on what the system identifies, I would say it's 50/50, whether or not the scripted, plain vanilla, embedded guidance is really the right approach. It may or may not be, and I would say it's probably 50% accurate, but it's very vanilla.
In terms of benefits to our clients from using Veracode, that's like asking me: Am I really happy that my car stops when I press the brakes. I think most people would expect cars to have brakes, and the brakes to work. No more, no less. Software, to me, it's probably in the same wheelhouse, that people use software without thinking, "Is it really secure?" It's assumed, frankly. So I'm not so sure our customers consciously think about security as a benefit, unless they are breached or compromised. It's one of those things that's difficult to track, in terms of how customers are benefiting. We just know that through our efforts we're delivering high-quality software.
Maybe customers that are being independently assessed by third-party assessors - when those assessors have to do security inspections of the technologies that may be consumed by those institutions - if our software is deployed on-prem, we tend to believe that our software will have fewer weaknesses and vulnerabilities identified than, say, other technologies that are consumed on-prem. Only then, might it become apparent to the customer that they're working with a supplier of software that provides higher quality, relative to other suppliers.
The Static and Dynamic Analysis capabilities are very valuable to us.
They've improved the speed of the inspection process.
I'd never want the inspection process to become something that's suspect. False positives would diminish confidence in the results; if we don't continue to focus on reducing false positives... that is number one.
The on-platform reporting needs to be opened up much more. We'd like to be able to look at the inspection data from a trending perspective in a much more open manner. I need to be able to sort and filter much more flexibly than I can today. I don't have the on-platform flexibility to sort and filter inspection data, and that's not good.
Another thing I need is continued support for the new languages today that are popular. Most of them are scripting languages more so than real, fourth-generation, commercial grade stuff; we're evolving. Most applications are using so much open-source that, quite frankly, it would be great to see Veracode, or anybody else, extend their platform to where they are able to help secure open-source platforms or repositories. Currently, I have to have another supplier in my tool chain and that means I have to extract data from different tool repositories to see one holistic picture of security quality, risks, and vulnerabilities. It would be great if I could see it all in one place, but I have to harvest the information from Veracode, harvest information from Rapid7, harvest information from Sonatype, just so that I can get a good, round perspective of where my first-party and third-party code, and the components in the dependent libraries, are in terms of weaknesses, risks, and vulnerabilities. That's a burdensome activity.
If Veracode spent more time providing more plug-ins to other competitors' environments, or provided very open APIs so we could harvest data, bring it into one lens so that we can look at the security inspection data through one set of dashboards, it would provide a lot more value from a governance perspective.
More than five years.
I hold Veracode in high regard. It's a good organization to work with, and it's a very conscientious organization. I'm always a recommender of the solution set.
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with Veracode. We appreciate your time and hope all is still going well. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help.