By Adebowale Samuel Lipede
With the growing reliance of businesses on digital platforms to provide services, conduct business transactions and handle sensitive data, cybersecurity has become a core requirement in the development of technology. However, most organisations continue to think of security as a post-building control that they implement only after a product is created, and only after vulnerabilities are found or security breaches have taken place.
Risks like these are avoidable. If security is overlooked during the architectural and design stages of software development, weaknesses end up embedded in the system. Putting them right afterwards can call for significant changes to application structures, databases, access permissions and the workflows already in place. In my view, the technology industry has to stop treating cybersecurity as the last requirement on the development list. It should be recognised as a fundamental part of software architecture.
This is the concept of security by design: designing systems with security, resilience and data protection in mind.
A development team should know the kind of information a platform will gather, the flow of information between various parts of the system, who can access this information and what might occur should an unauthorised individual take control of any section of the system before writing a single line of code. The original architecture should be affected by these considerations especially when dealing with platforms that deal with sensitive customer data, financial transactions, and important business processes.
I have learned in my practice in the area of digital forensics, enterprise security, and full-stack engineering that the functionality of a system is not the sole measure of quality. It is also important that it is capable of protecting the users, controlling access and resisting possible threats. As Founder and Technical Architect of ART Services Ltd, I am developing a multi-sided digital roadside assistance platform connecting motorists, recovery operators and administrators. Its design includes individual user portals, location-awareness, service coordination, backend infrastructure and payment integration. Such an environment must be carefully designed with regard to how various users will interact with the system and the information they are authorised to access. A motorist requesting assistance, for example, must not necessarily be given the same permissions as a recovery operator or platform administrator.
Security has to shape product design from the beginning, and decisions like these are the reason. It cannot be introduced as an afterthought. During development, teams need to consider appropriate authentication, role based access controls, secure API integrations, data validation and responsible information management. Equally important is keeping up the ongoing work of vulnerability assessment, security testing and timely remediation, since software does not stop changing once it is live.
This method is reinforced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in its Secure Software Development Framework which recommends that security practices should be incorporated into the current software development processes. This implies that security cannot be the mandate of a single department; the developers, architects, product teams and security professionals should collaborate in order to detect and address risks within the lifecycle of a product.
Companies should also move away from a reactive approach to cybersecurity. My background in enterprise security, vulnerability assessment, penetration testing and third-party risk management has taught me the necessity to not only test whether systems operate as intended, but also test how they operate in unforeseen circumstances. A platform can conduct its business effectively and yet have vulnerabilities in its infrastructure, access control or information management procedures. Security reviews, a proper vulnerability management process and secure development practices are thus necessary on a regular basis.
The impact of a bad security architecture will be more pronounced as the digital services become more interconnected. Technology firms should be more responsible on how their products are secured instead of putting the whole responsibility on customers and end users.
Finally, effective software engineering is not merely the ability to develop systems that do what they are supposed to do. It is concerned with the establishment of trustworthy platforms that individuals and organisations can rely on. Cybersecurity is not something to be placed as the last layer on a digital product but rather one of the initial layers on which the product is constructed.
