Ask HN: Do developers care about security?

[caloique]

With Shift Left, the importance of moving security earlier in the development cycle is clear. But do developers really care about building secure software? Or is this just something boring?

Also, curious to learn how do developers face security in their day-to-day? Any specific checklist, methodology, or good practice? What developer-first security tools are being used out there?

[raxxorraxor]

I don't think it boring. Most of the time developers need to justify security so that would be a good change. Security needs to be part of planning and architecture considerations. Depending on the project this can be extensive or not.

This is also an all around topic for the company offering software services (not only software companies). Especially if the cloud becomes part of your infrastructure, you also might want to have subnets, server certificates and sharpened firewall rules in your internal network if you have fairly open routes to infrastructure not hosted on premise. Formerly these things are neglected for internal networks, although this would also be helpful to defend against some attacks like ransomware. It is of course a cost factor and becomes almost impossible task if you exclusively rely on external IT.

The latter part can be annoying for developers, because they often have to work their way around MITM-firewalls, download rules and other security mechanisms for development. This often creates conflict between developers and security. But not really when they have to implement security mechanisms themselves.

[caloique]

Thanks for the insights, have you seen any good practice (tips) on how 'security mechanisms for development' could actually help security teams and developers work smoothly? Instead of being the reason for conflict.

[bananarchist]

Most developers care. Most product managers don’t.

[caloique]

Interesting point, and why do you think is that?