Full Report
House lawmakers and witnesses weighed in on secure-by-design incentives, subpar developers and the initiative’s future under new CISA leadership. The post Industry leaders on CISA’s secure-by-design pledge: A great program with some issues appeared first on CyberScoop.
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Private Sector Offers Feedback on CISA’s Secure-by-Design Initiative
## Summary
Private-sector technology leaders testifying before the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity informed lawmakers that CISA’s voluntary Secure-by-Design pledge is a positive step, but its long-term success hinges on implementing better incentives and addressing critical workforce training gaps, particularly regarding application security. While significant progress has been made, witnesses highlighted that achieving goals like eliminating entire classes of vulnerabilities (e.g., memory safety issues) remains challenging without addressing poorly trained developers and expanding the scope beyond traditional IT to operational technology (OT).
## Key Details
- Date: Testimonies occurred recently (implied Thursday, based on article context).
- Companies Involved: RunSafe Security, Fortinet, Google, Ivanti (indirectly), New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, El Paso Electric Company.
- Category: Policy Feedback/Industry Assessment
## The Story
Four private-sector witnesses presented their views on the two-year-old CISA Secure-by-Design initiative to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee. All agreed the voluntary pledge, which has over 250 signees, is beneficial. However, they identified key areas for improvement:
1. **Incentivization:** Shane Fry (RunSafe Security) argued that incentives, possibly legislative, are needed to drive adoption, especially for manufacturers of Operational Technology (OT), whose exclusion from the initial focus is considered short-sighted.
2. **Workforce Training:** Srinivas Mukkamala emphasized that a fundamental problem is that "most of our developers today are not trained in software security," exacerbated by significant portions of code being developed offshore without security expertise.
3. **Stretch Goals:** Jim Richberg (Fortinet) and Heather Adkins (Google) noted that eliminating entire classes of vulnerabilities (like memory safety issues, which account for ~70% of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities) is a massive, long-term undertaking, even for resource-rich companies. Google is leveraging AI to help mitigate risks in their own development process.
4. **Support for Under-resourced Entities:** Witnesses called for federal/state funding to help smaller municipalities adopt secure solutions, accelerating the benefit cycle from vendor adoption.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- **RunSafe Security/Fortinet/Google:** Their feedback shapes future policy, potentially leading to clearer standards or funding mechanisms that benefit secure development practices they already prioritize. Google’s investment in AI for code safety could position them as leaders in this new defensive approach.
- **OT Vendors:** Inclusion in future incentives or mandates could force security improvements, potentially increasing compliance costs but also reducing long-term liability.
### For Competitors
- Companies that have already invested heavily in memory-safe languages and secure development lifecycles (SDLC) gain credibility and competitive positioning against laggards who may now face scrutiny or mandates.
### For Customers
- Customers, especially those in critical infrastructure and municipalities, benefit from the push for vendors to ship inherently safer products, reducing vulnerability exposure. However, the difficulty in achieving stretch goals suggests that legacy risk mitigation will remain a key customer expense for some time.
### For the Market
- The market is being steered toward prioritizing memory safety and security integrated into the development phase rather than bolted on later. The debate over incentives signals a potential legislative path toward mandatory standards if voluntary adoption proves insufficient.
## Technical Implications
The focus on memory safety vulnerabilities highlights the significance of language choice (e.g., Rust, Go) over traditional C/C++. Implementing secure development means significant refactoring efforts and heavy investment in developer training or adopting advanced tooling like AI-assisted development to manage the complexity of verifying code correctness across vast open-source dependency chains. Expanding secure-by-design principles to OT introduces unique challenges related to long-lifecycle devices and real-time operating constraints.
## Strategic Analysis
- Market Positioning: CISA's framework solidifies "secure-by-design" as a foundational market differentiator, moving beyond simple compliance checkboxes.
- Competitive Advantage: Companies that can quickly demonstrate progress on the "elimination of entire classes of vulnerabilities" pillar gain a significant leadership edge, especially if government contracts begin requiring specific benchmarks.
- Challenges: The reliance on voluntary adherence and the difficulty in upskilling a global workforce performing outsourced coding poses the largest strategic hurdle. Furthermore, uncertainty around CISA's future under a potential new administration introduces policy risk.
## Industry Reactions
- **Analyst Opinions:** Analysts generally view the call for greater incentives positively, suggesting that "good behavior" must eventually be rewarded or enforced, especially when public safety is at risk.
- **Expert Commentary:** Experts agree that the developer skill gap is the root cause of persistent vulnerabilities.
- **Market Response:** The market sees increasing alignment between major vendors (like Google) and governmental priorities, suggesting that secure tooling adoption will accelerate.
## Future Outlook
- **Predictions and Expectations:** Expect increased lobbying from the security vendor community for federal programs that incentivize OT security upgrades and developer training grants. If the next administration supports CISA, expect legislative efforts to introduce carrots or sticks tied to secure design adoption.
- **What to watch for:** Future Congressional hearings will likely focus on concrete metrics for measuring the reduction of memory-safety bugs across critical software supply chains, and whether incentives are proposed to bridge the gap between large tech firms and smaller municipal customers.
## For Security Professionals
Security practitioners should anticipate being heavily involved in developer enablement and training, shifting from reactive incident response to proactive pipeline security integration. Furthermore, those managing OT environments must prepare for increased scrutiny and potential mandates for modernization, aligning security roadmaps with memory-safety objectives where system rewrite is feasible.