Securing a Windows Development Environment

For many development organizations, Microsoft Windows remains the dominant operating platform. Therefore, ensuring the security of these systems needs to be a high priority for security leaders and teams and a Windows security guide can help.

This is particularly true with the growing use of DevSecOps, a model in which security is accounted for at every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). With DevSecOps, security and development team members work together to ensure the security of the products they are building.

The key question is, what’s the best way to ensure the security of Windows software in a DevSecOps environment? Windows Server has been around since 1993 and is long established as a reliable enterprise operating environment. But it does present security risks, and protecting Windows from a number of attacks can be a challenge for many organizations.

One of the key things to remember is that Windows Server is not simply a single operating system, but a mix of multiple systems that are different from each other and support various hardware devices.

The has been an exponential increase in the amount of code being pushed out, which means a greater burden on security teams to address and mitigate risk. As a dominant operating environment with broad exposure in countless enterprises, Windows is a popular target for hackers. That means organizations need to be up on all the latest vulnerabilities that can impact not only Windows itself, but all the many applications that run in the environment.

An additional challenge is dealing with potential delays in the disclosure of software vulnerabilities. Microsoft adheres to the idea of coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD), in which a vulnerability is disclosed to the public only after the responsible parties have been allowed sufficient time to patch the vulnerability or issue.

This compares with full disclosure, which is the practice of publishing analysis of software vulnerabilities as early as possible, making the data accessible to everyone without restriction. Any organizations that uses Windows is therefore beholden to the company and the researchers it’s working with to remediate the vulnerabilities in a timely manner.

Yet another challenge for many organizations is a lack of skills related to Windows security. There’s been a cybersecurity skills gap for years, as organizations struggle to find and retain professionals, and this applies to specific operating environments such as Windows.

A lot of the struggle with securing Windows comes from a lack of visibility into the environment. Without the right tools to detect and remediate vulnerabilities, organizations struggle to fix them. Security teams simply don’t have a true sense of the attack surface.

It’s clear that securing a Windows environment can be daunting for many. But organizations can take steps to enhance Windows security. But they need to make this a top priority, given how important software security is in today’s digital world.

To learn more about the challenges of securing a Windows environment read our latest Windows security guide. Get best practices for addressing the hurdles in The Ultimate Guide to Securing a Windows Environment today.