Insights for CISOs: Challenges and Opportunities in the Software Supply Chain Security Space

Rethinking Software Supply Chain Security Beyond Traditional Application Security Testing

Software supply chain security (SSCS) refers to the security solutions, including tools, services, and practices that protect the software development life cycle (SDLC) against cybersecurity attacks covering phases from software development (initial coding and testing) to runtime. Typical vectors that SSCS secures include open-source or third-party components (libraries or frameworks), proprietary code, repositories, development tools, and developer accounts/code-sharing platforms.

SSCS has become vital to organizations' cybersecurity strategy, given the ever-expanding attack surface and rising cyber threats on the software supply chain. Reports of software supply chain incidents, ranging from exploitations of vulnerabilities in third-party code and misconfigured cloud services, have become undeniably common. These attacks include proprietary and commercial codes, and pose security, regulatory, and operational impacts on software producers and consumers.

As the SSCS landscape continuously evolves with technological advancements and cyber threats, SSCS vendors are offering a wide range of capabilities, approaches, and strategies in securing different stages of the SDLC. Some vendors focus on offering shift left solutions, some employ shift right, while others emphasize the post-build and pre-deployment stage of the SDLC.

It is essential that businesses today adopt comprehensive SSCS to secure their software supply chain and ensure sustainable success in this modern digital landscape. However, many CISOs are still confused about SSCS due to its complexity, evolving threat vectors, and the rapid adoption of third-party and open-source components. Organizations either adopted a "wait-and-see" approach and prefer to rely on the basic technologies to ensure SSCS, or are among the early adopters who approached SSCS in a fragmented way and did not reap the promised security.

This insight examines the evolution of SSCS, identifies the gaps in SSCS, and evaluates the frameworks or approaches that enable CISOs to make a more informed decision for broader SSCS protection.