Unlocking The Secure Software Development Lifecycle: Navigating People, Platforms and Politics.

TLDR: In this invitation-only, 3-part roundtable series - hosted online in a relaxed, conversational format - Tech Leaders will gain pragmatic strategies for tackling the three core challenges of people, process and politics on the path to a secure software development lifecycle, as CTO Labs shares findings and tales from the trenches in a wide range of tech settings. Sessions will be held on 19 Jul, 9 Aug and 30 Aug in the CTO Labs virtual event space. Registrations are now open for the first session. Interest can be expressed for future sessions too.

Part 1: People & Empowerment Access recording below.

Part 2: Platform Minefield: Access recording below.

Part 3: Charting (small p)Politics & Competing Demands - Wed 30 Aug - session held.

Read On - Background: Why Now?

A fast moving and productive software development life cycle is as important to secure enterprise as a well-functioning circulatory system is to the human body.

In the same vein (pun intended) the overall health and well-being of the enterprise is only as good as the ability to keep delivering oxygen in the form of innovation, strength and resilience.

The challenge today is that:

• Cybersecurity threats are increasing exponentially, changing much more quickly, and there is more at stake.

• Software is now the main point of entry yet organisations are challenged in what to do about it.

• The average cost of a data breach in Australia is now USD 2.92m (+10% year on year).

• $50m in fines or more for companies will be imposed under incoming legislation

• 277 days is the average time taken to identify and ontain a data breach

• 45% of breaches were cloud based

• 43% of organisations low or no progress on applying security practices to safeguard cloud environments.

In this series of 3 invitation-only roundtables - hosted online in the CTO Labs virtual event space in a friendly, conversational format - attendees will gain pragmatic strategies for tackling the three core challenges of people, process and politics on the path to a secure software development lifecycle. This will include CTO Labs sharing findings and insights from the trenches in a wide range of tech settings drawn from our work across both tech delivery and tech M&A analysis.

Previously ...

Part 1. "People & Empowerment: Addressing the Cyber Skills Gap in Secure Software Development”

• Session held - access recording below

A key challenge for secure engineering is the Cyber Skills Gap, acute in developer roles, which draws tech leaders deeply into issues of how to retain the team and also attract new developers to fill an expanding need.

In this relaxed, roundtable session presented by Mike Mengell, CTO & Co-Founder of CTO Labs, we will discuss strategies available to tech leadership for attracting and retaining diverse talent through a whole of lifecycle approach to secure software deveopment.

This will include discussion of looking outward to candidates such as Dark Matter Developers, looking inward to how AI and a secure software development lifecycle can both bridge the skills gap and create catalysts for enhancing the developer experience.

Watch session recording using the link below. (Read more below about future sessions below).

Part 2. "Platform Minefield: Navigating choices."

• Session held - access recording below

There are so many different tools and platforms available to developers. Making technical choices is difficult not only because of the volume of tools and languages out there, but also because other considerations are tied to any choice.

Decision paralysis is common, and can be triggered by many factors, including preferences of engineers and resistance to change, budget constraints and the cost of implemenation and licensing, the fallacy of sunk costs, and autonomy versus system consistency in team collaboration.

In this relaxed, roundtable session presented by Mike Mengell, CTO & Co-Founder of CTO Labs, with Kelly Benson, Lead Consultant, and Matt Crozier Lead DevSecOps Consultant, we will share tales from the front line to inform your own path, as well as tools and techniques for decison making. Attendees will come away with pragmatic strategies and insights for tackling tools in the context of a more secure software development life cycle.

We will discuss strategies and share perspectives on choice-making to help tech leaders steer their own path.

Watch this session using the link below.

Part 3. "Charting (small p)Politics & Competing Demands"

• Wednesday 30 Aug

• 11:00am - 12:00 midday.

• session held

Tech leaders know well that vital risk remediation initiatives can falter at the pass because of tradeoffs against competing demands.

New products! Cut costs! Invest in AI! Downsize the Team! It's a relentless and competitive list.

The result of tradeoffs can be risk in code that later surfaces in an audit or cyber breach.

CTO Labs sees first hand the challenges faced - and strategies adopted - by tech leaders in fast growing enterprise, and the methods used for navigating and influencing in the face of changing expectation.

In this conversational session, we will dive into the stewardship of security, and share case studies and insights from small and large organisations in the face of change.

Participants will explore techniques and methods for proactive surfacing of security needs, prioritising for impact, identifying those things that enable you to move towards a security goal, as well as the those things holding you back. We also will explore compromise, quantifying your own guardrails, and and how to put a price on the things that don't happen.

Don't miss this chance to explore strategies used by business leaders to move their organisations towards deeper development security - Register Now!

Miss the earlier sessions? Tune into the playback - links below.

About Us

CTO Labs are specialist Mergers & Acquisition technology advisors, with over $9bn in investment value supported. This includes advice to leading banks and institutional investors on the latest in tech being transacted and the cyber due diligence risk within those assets. CTO Labs also provides services in Engineering Excellence and delivery, building quality software using modern practices and tools and helping businesses gear up their in house capability.

When it comes to a secure software development lifecycle, we know what good looks like, and how to get you there. We have a knack of making complex tech clear.

Read more about CTO Labs.

Would you like us to facilitate a conversation with your team?

Contact one of the team directly, or book a callback below and let's talk.