HITSSSE

Higher IT security through secure software development

Computer Science IT-Security Joint Venture

Project description

More and more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are developing software for their own infrastructures or products. Here, there is usually a high time pressure and often only limited personnel resources are available. Agile software development methods are now also often used, which are intended to deliver solutions that can be deployed quickly. As a result, the security of this software often plays a subordinate role, which ultimately also affects the IT security of these companies and their customers. In the HITSSSE funding project, IT security is to be improved through secure software development for SMEs. To this end, the research project will develop recommendations for action as well as technical tools that will first be tested in practice by the project's associated partners in order to then create generic solution approaches for small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany. Cooperation with the transfer office "IT Security in Business" is intended to strengthen the broad impact of the offers developed.

The HITSSSE funding project aims to investigate how the IT security of SMEs can be increased through secure software development. If existing security tools are easy to use and deliver usable results, the security of the products developed with them increases. By providing clear guidelines and recommendations for action, efficient, agile development processes can be established that take the security-by-design principle into account from the outset. In this way, a sustainable effect can be achieved in favour of increased security of products from German SMEs.

The efficient implementation of the HITSSSE project is made possible by the cooperation of the Institute for Innovative Security (HSA_innos) and the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences Innovation Laboratory (HSA_ias). Over the course of three years, the partners will analyse and optimise the development of secure software from three perspectives.

The research project focuses on three areas of software development:

Software development for application and server software, as it is operated in many company for own purposes
Software development for embedded systems, e.g. for software on industrial devices, but also various devices of the Internet of Things
Usability and the human factor as enablers for secure software development

In order to be able to create concrete recommendations for secure processes or the tools used, SMEs are brought in as associated partners, analysed and the solutions developed are piloted there. Their direct involvement is essential and also contributes to the acceptance of the developed approaches.