1. Briefly summarize your client, Artemis Financial, and their software requirements. Who was the client? What issue did they want you to address?
My client for this class was Artemis Financial, a financial consulting company that develops individualized financial plans for its clients' savings, retirement, investments, and insurance. Artemis Financial sought to add a file verification step to its web application to ensure secure communications.
2. What did you do very well when you found your client’s software security vulnerabilities? Why is it important to code securely? What value does software security add to a company’s overall wellbeing?
I feel I was able to identify false positives when checking for vulnerabilities in the client's project. It's important to code securely to reduce the chance of exposing the code to vulnerabilities.
I felt the most challenging was working with the various libraries to gain insight into the vulnerabilities. Besides the libraries, reading the report was also tricky.
4. How did you increase layers of security? In the future, what would you use to assess vulnerabilities and decide which mitigation techniques to use?
I focused on outdated application libraries as the first means of securing the code base. I then moved on to vulnerabilities that still existed in the current libraries to determine if I needed the library or not. I would want to automate this process in the future with CI/CD.
5. How did you make certain the code and software application were functional and secure? After refactoring the code, how did you check to see whether you introduced new vulnerabilities?
I ensured the code and application were functional and secure by performing rigorous static and dynamic testing on the code.
6. What resources, tools, or coding practices did you use that might be helpful in future assignments or tasks?
I found the Maven Dependency checker tool to be the most helpful.
7. Employers sometimes ask for examples of work that you have successfully completed to show your skills, knowledge, and experience. What might you show future employers from this assignment?
I will show them before and after reports to showcase how I could secure the code.