In today’s cybersecurity landscape, it's clear that technology alone cannot solve all our security challenges. Security culture plays a pivotal role, and this is where security champion programs come into the picture.
At Bankdata, a leading Danish financial IT provider, the security champion program has been a key driver in fostering a security-first mindset. In a recent talk at OWASP Global AppSec - Lisbon, Bankdata’s security champion lead, Mads Anderson, shared valuable insights into how they have transformed their approach to application security by focusing on people, processes, and organizational alignment.
Key Learnings from Bankdata’s Security Champion Program:
1. People First: Building Security from the Ground Up
Bankdata’s approach begins by acknowledging that security starts with people, not tools. They emphasize a layered approach to security, starting with people and organizational alignment, before moving on to processes and finally, technology. This strategy ensures that security is deeply rooted in the organization's culture and operations.
Key Insight: Start with building strong organizational buy-in and involvement from people before implementing processes and tools.
2. The Role of Security Champions
At the heart of Bankdata’s security culture are the security champions. These individuals serve as bridges between the application security team and development teams, ensuring that security concerns are addressed at every stage of the development lifecycle. Champions aren’t just conduits for security; they represent the needs and concerns of developers within the security team, making the role a two-way street.
Key Insight: Security champions are not just about enforcing rules—they actively participate in shaping security processes, ensuring that they are practical and effective for developers.
3. An Experimental Mindset
Bankdata’s approach to its security champion program is iterative and experimental. By continuously evaluating the effectiveness of initiatives, they are able to adapt and refine their processes. This experimental mindset enables them to take small risks, learn from failures, and avoid creating unnecessary friction in the development process.
Key Insight: Establish an experimental approach that allows for continuous learning and adaptation, minimizing resistance to security practices.
4. Improving Developer UX
One of the biggest challenges Bankdata faced was ensuring that security processes didn’t interfere with development workflows. The introduction of security champions helped alleviate this by acting as first-line assistants for all application security matters. This helped streamline communication, reduce redundant efforts, and make security more accessible for developers.
Key Insight: Security processes must be designed with developer experience in mind to ensure smooth adoption and integration into daily workflows.
5. A Bottom-Up, Collaborative Approach
Bankdata emphasizes a collaborative, bottom-up approach to security. Security champions are given a platform to voice their concerns and suggestions, which helps in refining security practices. The feedback loop created through regular meetings with security champions ensures that security practices are constantly evolving based on real-world input.
Key Insight: Foster a bottom-up culture where security champions feel empowered to contribute to the overall security strategy and processes.
Conclusion:
Bankdata’s security champion program demonstrates that building a strong security culture requires more than just implementing tools and technologies. It requires buy-in from all levels of the organization, a people-centered approach, and continuous feedback loops to ensure that security becomes an integrated part of the development process. By focusing on the human aspect of security, Bankdata has made significant strides in creating a resilient, security-conscious organization.
Are you considering starting a security champion program in your organization? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments, or reach out to discuss how to build a people-first security culture!
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