NSFOCUS Security Labs is keeping an eye out for the trends in supply chain security and is pleased to share observations and thoughts with our blog readers. You will see the links for more posts we published about software supply chain security at the end of the article. In this post, we are going to talk about the technical framework for building a secure software supply chain.
Technical Framework of Software Supply Chain Security
Management of the software supply chain relies on the existing laws and regulations to provide guidance and management requirements for supply chain security governance. By integrating supply security standards, supply chain security rules and regulations with a supply chain security management system, the governance covers the whole life cycle of software supply chain from development, delivery to use, and the upstream R&D of the asset chain to the downstream user side.
Software supply chain security must first establish the right security awareness. The goal is to build the system into a trustworthy, assessable and transparent trusted entity. To achieve the goal, it includes the following aspects:
- Combine security detection with a trusted whitelist mechanism, risk alerts, and intelligence collection mechanism to ensure the security of the internal environment;
- Ensure the security and credibility of software supply chain data by establishing security risk management mechanisms such as software component lists (such as SBOM), source code management, and vulnerability library management;
- Support the building of the capability of being assessable using technologies such as code audit, software component analysis, and dynamic security testing;
- Accelerate the establishment of guidelines for the generation and use of software component lists, establish a toolkit for management and best practices, standardize software components and the visualization process of software components, and ensure the implementation of component transparency.
The integration of security concepts and key technologies helps to ensure the security of the software supply chain from the technical level, and can abstract specific practices into reproducible and executable security solutions.
Companies should implement supply chain security supervision and control according to specific scenarios, manage key areas of supply chain security successfully as suggested by regulatory authorities, and build systematic protection for the software supply chain.
 Feel free to explore more posts in this Software Supply Chain Security series:
- Software Supply Chain Security: Overview
- Threats against Software Supply Chain Security
- The Increasing Trend of Software Supply Chain Attacks
- The Increasingly Complex and Varied Vectors to Attack Software Supply Chain
- Security Concept for Software Supply Chain (Part 1) — Transparency of Software Supply Chain Compositions
- Security Concept for Software Supply Chain (Part 2) — Assessable Capabilities of Software Supply Chain Compositions
- Security Concept for Software Supply Chain (Part 3) – Building Trusted Software Supply Chain
- Relationship Between Security Concept and Security Assessment for Software Supply Chain
- Technical Framework of Software Supply Chain Security
- Key Technologies for Software Supply Chain Security—Techniques for Generating and Using the List of Software Compositions (Part 1)
- Key Technologies for Software Supply Chain Security—Techniques for Generating and Using the List of Software Compositions (Part 2)
- Key Technologies for Software Supply Chain Security – Detection Techniques (Part 1) – Software Composition Analysis
- Key Technologies for Software Supply Chain Security – Detection Techniques (Part 2) – Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
- Key Technologies for Software Supply Chain Security – Detection Technique (Part 3) – Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
- Key Technologies for Software Supply Chain Security—Detection Technique (Part 4)—Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) and Fuzzing
- Key Technologies for Software Supply Chain Security – Data Security Technology
- Software Supply Chain Security Solution – Supply Chain Security Supervision (Part 1)
- Software Supply Chain Security Solution – Supply Chain Security Supervision (Part 2)
- Software Supply Chain Security Solution – Supply Chain Security Control
