Protect your code while fostering user experience

A developer spoke with Principal Field Security Specialist Mathew Payne. Githubdiscusses platform security strategies and how to balance robustness with a seamless user experience.

At the heart of GitHub’s security philosophy is our commitment to protecting user code. Payne emphasized that the main focus is on protecting code written by both users and developers.

“Our first focus at GitHub is user security,” says Payne. “I have always been focused on protecting user and customer-written code.”

GitHub recognizes that balancing security features and user experience is also a challenge. Payne emphasized the importance of reducing false positives that can deter developers from using security tools.

“If I produce too much, [false] Depending on the results of my tools, my developers will start to rebel in earnest,” explains Payne. “And we want to partner with those developers, not against them.”

GitHub streamlines the experience by integrating security processes into the day-to-day activities of developers. This includes automatically detecting vulnerabilities during pull requests and quickly notifying you of potential issues before they reach production.

In response to emerging security threats, GitHub recognizes growing concerns about the software supply chain. Payne gave the example of the Moq library, which received criticism earlier this month for including “SponsorLink” for data collection in its latest release.

GitHub remains vigilant against unauthorized access to repositories and inadvertent disclosure of sensitive data.By the end of this year, GitHub will I need All developers are required to enable one or more forms of 2FA after a package takeover occurs due to account compromise.

“You need to make sure secrets aren’t hard-coded into your repository because let’s say it’s a repository. do You need to make sure they don’t have the keys to your Azure or AWS instances if they can be compromised,” advises Payne.

For incident response and recovery, GitHub relies on a variety of tools (including internal tools, of course) Code QL and dependent bot. Last year, GitHub announced When it detects a vulnerability, it will start sending Dependabot alerts automatically. GitHub Actions.

“For CodeQL, say there’s a new attack, maybe XSS, SQL injection, etc. We want to use that tool to detect it,” says Payne. “Be careful not to run regressions lest you introduce that vulnerability again.”

“This is a big problem for some of my customers. We want to make sure we don’t accidentally re-introduce it next week because it’s volatile.”

Upcoming GitHub Participation Cybersecurity and Cloud Expo Europe We will focus on the theme of simplifying security for developers. GitHub aims to share insights on security tool adoption and processes, and to address challenges faced by users.

You can read the full interview with Matthew Payne below.

GitHub is this year’s major sponsor Cyber ​​Security & Cloud Expo Europewill take place in Amsterdam from 26-27 September 2023. Check out Matthew Payne’s premiere date keynote Stop by the GitHub booth at stand #96 to hear directly from platform experts.

tag: code ql, coding, cyber security, Cyber ​​Security & Cloud Expo, cyber security expo, cyber security, cyber security expo, dependent bot, github, hacking, Information security, Matthew Payne, safety, Software Development, supply chain