Episode 216: Signed, Sealed and Delivered: The Future of Supply Chain Security

In this episode of the podcast (#216), sponsored by DigiCert, we talk with Brian Trzupek, DigiCert’s Vice President of Product, about the growing urgency of securing software supply chains, and how digital code signing can help prevent compromises like the recent hack of the firm SolarWinds. We spend a lot of time talking about software supply chain security these days? But what does that mean. At the 10,000 foot level it means “don’t be the next Solar Winds” – don’t let a nation state actor infiltrate your build process and insert a backdoor that gets distributed to thousands of customers – including technology firms three letter government agencies.  Brian Trzupek is the Senior Vice President of Products at DigiCert.  OK. Sure. But speaking practically, what are we talking about when we talk about securing the software supply chain? Well, for one thing: we’re talking about securing the software code itself. We’re talking about taking steps to insure that what is written by our  developers is actually what goes into a build and then gets distributed to users. Digital code signing – using digital certificates to sign submitted code – is one way to do that. And use of code signing is on the rise. But is that alone enough?  In this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by Brian Trzupek the SVP of Product at DigiCert to talk about the growing role of digital code signing in preventing supply chain compromises and providing an audit trail for developed code. Brian is the author of this recent Executive Insight on Security Ledger where he notes that code signing certificates are a highly effective way to ensure that software is not compromised -but only as effective as the strategy and best practices that support it. When poorly implemented, Brian notes, code signing loses its effectiveness in mitigating risk for software publishers and users. In this conversation we talk about the changes to tooling, process and staff that DEVOPS organizations need to embrace to shore up the security of their software supply chain.  “It boils down to do you have something in place to ensure code quality, fix vulnerabilities and make sure that code isn’t incurring tech debt,” Brian says. Ensuring those things involves both process, new products and tools as well as the right mix of staff and talent to assess new code for security issues.  One idea that is gaining currency within DEVOPS organizations is “quorum based deployment” in which multiple staff members review and sign off on important code changes before they are deployed. Check out our full conversation using the player (above) or download the MP3 using the button below. Download Episode 216 (*) Disclosure: This post was sponsored by DigiCert. For more information on how Security Ledger works with its sponsors and sponsored content on Security Ledg...