Love ❤️ DevSecOps?
Get tips, guides, tutorials, & more in your inbox.
What Is Technical Debt?
Technical debt is any software code which achieves a short-term goal at the cost of some future drawback. It commonly takes the form of code that expedites shipment of new software, which will eventually require refactoring. Technical debt may incur monetary costs or slow the release of new features later on.
Companies today feel pressured to develop and ship code rapidly to stay competitive and satisfy customers. Agile software teams may determine that a bit of technical debt is worth it to be the first to market with an innovative new feature. The reality is that much, perhaps even all, software in use has some technical debt.
Technical debt usually refers specifically to code debt, but that is not in fact the only kind. Numerous other types exist, including:
- Architecture debt
- Build debt
- Design debt
- Infrastructure debt
- People debt
- Process debt
- Requirement debt
- Test debt
- Security debt
Potential problems technical debt can bring include:
- Eventual refactoring and associated time, cost and labor
- Bugs
- Missing documentation
- Messy, hard-to-maintain code
- Unprotected security gaps
Security gaps are of particular concern for software development teams rushing to ship code. The careful planning and testing required to secure applications conflicts with the dash to release code as quickly as possible. This means that organizations frequently release code with serious security vulnerabilities, which they may not catch until after an exploit or attack. This could make them liable for neglecting to protect the data of their stakeholders.
Some practices that can mitigate security-related risks from technical debt include:
- Training programmers in secure coding practices, like “shift left”
- Leveraging automated security testing in the CI/CD process
- Referring to a security requirements document while building code (not after)
- Involving the CISO early in the development process matters to ensure projects follow security guidelines
Technical Debt Key Takeaways:
- Technical debt is any code (or other tech element, like infrastructure or design) that achieves a short-term gain at the cost of a future drawback.
- Today’s agile development teams may determine that technical debt is worth it to ship software rapidly.
- Potential problems from tech debt include refactoring and associated costs, as well as bugs and security gaps.
- “Shift left” secure coding and automated security testing can help prevent security issues from technical debt.
About the Author
Schuyler Brown, Chairman of the Board, began working with startups as one of the first employees at Cross Commerce Media. Since then, he has worked at the venture capital firms DFJ Gotham and High Peaks Venture Partners. He is also the host of Founders@Fail and author of Inc.com's "Failing Forward" column, where he interviews veteran entrepreneurs about the bumps, bruises, and reality of life in the startup trenches. His leadership philosophy: be humble enough to realize you don’t know everything and curious enough to want to learn more. He holds a B.A. and M.B.A. from Columbia University. To contact Schuyler, visit him on LinkedIn.
More Glossary Terms
Access control lists (ACL) control or restrict the flow of traffic through a digital environment. ACL rules grant or deny access in two general...
Active Directory (AD) is the proprietary directory service for Windows domain networks. It consists of a database and numerous services that connect users...
What is Active Directory (AD) Bridging? Active Directory Bridging is a technology in the field of networking that aims to enhance the communication...
Active Directory (AD) is a critical component for Windows based networks. It is a centralized authentication and authorization service that helps...
Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft’s proprietary directory service for Windows domain networks. Active Directory authentication is AD’s system for...
Advanced threat protection is a type of cybersecurity dedicated to preventing pre-planned cyberattacks, such as malware or phishing. ATP combines cloud,...
Agentless monitoring is a form of IT monitoring that does not require the installation of a software agent. Agentless monitoring protocols or APIs collect...
In January and February 2024, American Express notified customers of several third-party data breaches impacting client account numbers. The data breaches...
What Is Anomaly Detection? Anomaly detection is the process of analyzing company data to find data points that don’t align with a company's standard data...
What is an Application Gateway (App Gateway)?An application gateway is a security measure that protects web applications. They replace traditional web...
Your organization's attack surface is a collection of all the external points where someone could infiltrate your corporate network. Think of your attack...
As more and more data and critical systems go online, the risks associated with cyber threats magnify. One of the most important aspects of cybersecurity...
A runtime decision-making strategy for what features and/or data a user can access based on policies and user attributes.
Authentication is the process of verifying a user or device before allowing access to a system or resources.
An authentication bypass vulnerability is a weak point in the user authentication process. A cybercriminal exploiting such a weakness circumvents...
When it comes to protecting sensitive data and ensuring systems security, two key concepts come into play - authentication and authorization. Although...
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has emerged as one of the leading providers of cloud computing services, providing a wide range of management tools for...
The difference between an IAM role and a user is that a role can be temporarily or permanently applied to a user to give the user bulk permissions for a...
Understanding NoSQL Databases Before we take a closer look at the various NoSQL databases provided by AWS, let's first understand what NoSQL databases...
A bastion host is a server used to manage access to an internal or private network from an external network - sometimes called a jump box or jump server.
Behavior-Based Access Control (BBAC) is a security model that grants or denies access to resources based on the observed behavior of users or entities. It...
A brute force attack is a cyber attack where a hacker guesses information, such as usernames and passwords, to access a private system. The hacker uses...
Software or hardware that is either hosted in the cloud or on-premises. It adds a layer of security between users and cloud service providers and often...
CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous deployment) is a collection of practices for engineering, testing, and delivering software. A CI/CD pipeline is...
What is Cloud Application Security? Cloud application security is a crucial aspect of modern business operations, especially as more organizations turn...
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM, pronounced “kim”) is a category of specialized software-as-a-service solutions that automate the...
What is Cloud Workload Security?Cloud workload security is the practice of securing applications and their composite workloads running in the cloud....
Input/Output (IO) is a fundamental aspect of modern computing systems. In order to effectively send and receive data between a computer and its...
Container orchestration platforms are becoming increasingly popular with developers and businesses alike. They provide a way to manage and automate the...
In today's ever-evolving threat landscape, businesses must remain vigilant in defending their networks against potential attacks. As a result, Managed...
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) are two terms that frequently come up in discussions of modern networking....
In the ever-changing technology landscape, software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) are two buzzwords that have...
Businesses operate in a data-driven world, handling data for different purposes. As more data is generated, companies seek ways to organize and manage...
In the realm of software development, there are two popular approaches to managing complex systems: Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and DevOps. While...
As we continue to combat the increase in cybersecurity threats, it’s essential that businesses have a comprehensive plan in place to protect their assets....
Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment (CARTA) is an IT security framework that goes beyond traditional role-based access control (RBAC). By adding...
Credential stuffing is a type of cyber attack that occurs when a person or bot steals account credentials, such as usernames and passwords, and tries to...
Online security risks are a constantly evolving concern. As we increasingly rely on digital platforms for everything from communication to banking and...
Cyber insurance, also called cybersecurity insurance or cyber liability insurance, is an insurance policy that covers the losses a business might suffer...
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a series of tools and practices that help companies recognize and prevent data exposure by controlling the flow of...
Data observability is the ability to understand, diagnose, and manage data health across multiple IT tools throughout the data lifecycle. A data...
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) refers to the proactive and continuous assessment, monitoring, and enhancement of an organization's data security...
What is Defense-in-depth?Defense-in-depth began as a military term for a layered approach to protection. The NSA has taken that military strategy and...
In today's fast-paced business world, technology and software development have become crucial for organizations to stay ahead of the competition. With...
Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) is a cybersecurity practice for identifying, investigating, and remediating cyberattacks. Computer security...
What Are Directory Services? A directory service is a database containing information about users, devices, and resources. This information, such as...
What is Dynamic Access Control (DAC)? Dynamic Access Control (DAC) is a Windows Server feature that debuted in Windows Server 2012. It leverages...
In today's world, cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, and even the most robust security measures cannot guarantee total protection. As a...
What is Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM)? Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) is a critical process that ensures that users and applications have...
An enterprise Kubernetes (K8s) platform packages Kubernetes—an open source container orchestrator—into a simple-to-use product for companies. Container...
What is Enterprise Password Management? Enterprise Password Management is a system or software designed to securely store, manage, and control access to...
An ephemeral environment is a short-lived clone of the UAT (user acceptance testing) or production environment. Software teams create ephemeral...
Eye4Fraud provides fraud protection services for online sellers. It examines their transactions to ensure every order is legitimate. Unfortunately, even a...
Single sign-on (SSO) and federated identity management (FIM) are two popular methods of identity management that are commonly used to simplify...
FIDO2 is the newest set of specifications from the FIDO Alliance. It enables the use of common devices to authenticate to online services on both mobile...
Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) means adhering to the rules and regulations that impact what, how, and...
HITRUST is a non-profit company that delivers data protection standards and certification programs to help organizations safeguard sensitive information,...
A honeypot is a phony digital asset designed to look like a poorly-guarded, valuable asset. The goal is to trick cyber attackers into targeting the...
Identity and access management (IAM or IdAM) is a framework containing the tools and policies a company uses to verify a user’s identity, authorize...
Identity as a Service (IDaaS) is an identity and access management (IAM) solution delivered in a cloud-based service that is hosted by a trusted third...
Identity governance and administration (IGA), also called identity security, is a set of policies that allow firms to mitigate cyber risk and comply with...
What is Identity Lifecycle Management?Identity lifecycle management is the process of managing user identities and access privileges for all members of an...
Identity security refers to the tools and processes intended to secure identities within an organization. Based upon the Zero Trust model, identity...
What is Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)? Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) refers to a range of tools and processes designed to...
While there's an overlap between IGA and IAM, key differences distinguish the two. IAM focuses on authenticating and authorizing user access, primarily...
An indicator of attack (IOA) is digital or physical evidence of a cyberattacker’s intent to attack. IOA detection focuses specifically on an adversary’s...
An insider threat is a threat to an organization that occurs when a person with authorized access—such as an employee, contractor, or business...
ISO/IEC 27001, or ISO 27001, is the international standard that defines best practices for implementing and managing information security controls within...
ISO 27002, or ISO/IEC 27002:2022, provides guidance on the selection, implementation, and management of security controls based on an organization's...
ISO 27003, also called ISO/IEC 27003:2017, provides guidance for implementing an ISMS based on ISO 27001.
Just-in-time (JIT) access is a feature of privileged access management (PAM) solutions to grant users access to accounts and resources for a limited time...
Kerberoasting is a post-compromise attack technique for cracking passwords associated with service accounts in Microsoft Active Directory. The attacker...
Kubernetes governance refers to the policies and procedures for managing Kubernetes in an organization. Governance applies to technical units (such as...
Lateral movement is when an attacker gains initial access to one part of a network and then attempts to move deeper into the rest of the network —...
Lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) is an open-standard and vendor-agnostic application protocol for both verifying users' identities and giving...
Log analysis is the practice of examining event logs in order to investigate bugs, security risks, or other issues. Analyzing automatically generated log...
Log data—from system, application, and security log files, for example—help IT staff identify technical issues, troubleshoot, improve performance, and...
A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is a cyber attack in which a threat actor puts themselves in the middle of two parties, typically a user and an...
Microsegmentation is a network security practice that creates secure zones within data center environments by segmenting application workloads into...
Monitoring is the collection and analysis of data pulled from IT systems. DevOps monitoring uses dashboards— often developed by your internal team—to...
On Oct. 31, 2023, Mr. Cooper Group, a leading non-bank mortgage loan servicer, experienced a large-scale data breach. An unauthorized third party gained...
Network segmentation (also known as network partitioning or network isolation) is the practice of dividing a computer network into multiple subnetworks in...
NIST compliance broadly means adhering to the NIST security standards and best practices set forth by the government agency for the protection of data...
Observability is defined as a measure of how well the internal states of a system can be inferred from knowledge of its external outputs.
OAuth (OAuth 2.0 since 2013) is an authentication standard that allows a resource owner logged-in to one system to delegate limited access to protected...
OpenID Connect (OIDC) is an authentication layer built on top of the OAuth 2.0 authorization framework. OIDC allows third-party applications to obtain...
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) is a non-profit consortium that develops and promotes open standards for...
What is Pass-the-Hash (PtH) Attack? Pass-the-hash (PtH) attacks are a type of network attack that involves stealing hashed credentials from one computer...
What is Password Rotation? Password rotation is a security practice that involves changing passwords regularly to prevent unauthorized access to personal...
What is Password Vaulting? Password vaulting is a technique used to store passwords in a central location and protect them with encryption. The primary...
Passwordless authentication is a verification method in which a user gains access to a network, application, or other system without a knowledge-based...
Hackers accessed thousands of PayPal user accounts between Dec. 6 and Dec. 8, 2022. The attack exposed customers' personal information, opening them up to...
PCI compliance—or payment card industry compliance—is the process businesses follow to meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
A Policy Decision Point (PDP) is a component in a system that makes decisions based on policies that have been defined within that system. It is a crucial...
Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC) is another access management strategy that focuses on authorization. Whereas RBAC restricts user access based on static...
In network security, least privilege is the practice of restricting account creation and permission levels to only the resources a user requires to...
Privileged access management (PAM) encompasses the policies, strategies, and technologies used to control, monitor, and secure elevated access to critical...
Cloud privileged access management is cloud-based PAM consumed as a service, or PAMaaS. Companies can replace their on-premises PAM technology with a...
A privileged account is a user account with greater privileges than those of ordinary user accounts. Privileged accounts may access important data or...
What is Privileged Session Management? Privileged session management (PSM) is an IT security process that monitors and records the sessions of privileged...
Cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses and organizations operate, allowing them to store, access, and manage data and applications in...
A Rainbow Table Attack is a cryptographic attack method that uses precomputed tables of hash values to quickly reverse-engineer plaintext passwords from...
“Red team vs. blue team” is a cybersecurity drill during which one group, dubbed the “red team,” simulates the activities of cyberattackers. A separate...
ReBAC is a model that extends the traditional Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) models by considering the...
What is Remote Access Security? Remote access is the ability to access resources, data, and applications on a network from a location other than the...
Remote code execution (RCE) is a cyberattack in which an attacker remotely executes commands to place malicious code on a computing device. Input or...
With the increase in online traffic and the need for secure and fast network connections, reverse proxies and load balancers have become integral...
What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Security? Robotic process automation (RPA) is software that mimics human actions to automate digital tasks....
Role-based access control (RBAC) is a security approach that authorizes and restricts system access to users based on their role(s) within an organization.
SAML is a popular online security protocol that verifies a user’s identity and privileges. It enables single sign-on (SSO), allowing users to access...
SAML enables SSO by defining how organizations can offer both authentication and authorization services as part of their infrastructure access strategy....
Many businesses have traditionally relied on Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks to connect their remote sites and branch offices. However,...
Secrets management is a cybersecurity best practice for securing digital authentication credentials. It relies on various tools and methods to store,...
Secure Access Service Edge (more commonly known by the SASE acronym) is a cloud architecture model that combines network and security-as-a-service...
A Security Incident Response Policy (SIRP) establishes that your organization has the necessary controls to detect security vulnerabilities and incidents,...
Security Operations (SecOps) is a methodology that fuses IT operations and information security. Its goal is to reduce security risks and vulnerabilities...
Separation of duties (SoD) is the division of tasks among organization members to prevent abuse, fraud, or security breaches. SoD encompasses a set of...
What is Shadow IT? Shadow IT is software or hardware in use in an organization without the knowledge of the IT department. Business units or individuals...
Shoulder surfing is a form of social engineering where an attacker obtains sensitive information by observing the victim's screen or keyboard inputs,...
Single-factor authentication (SFA) or one-factor authentication involves matching one credential to gain access to a system (i.e., a username and a...
When it comes to modern software development, two terms that are often used interchangeably are Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Microservices....
SOC 2 stands for “Systems and Organizations Controls 2” and is sometimes referred to as SOC II. It is a framework designed to help software vendors and...
With a software-defined network, networking devices directly connect to applications through application programming interfaces (APIs), making SDN...
In April 2011, Sony experienced one of the most notorious data breaches in history when hackers infiltrated the PlayStation Network (PSN). This...
SOX compliance is an annual obligation derived from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) that requires publicly traded companies doing business in the U.S. to...
In today's digital age, many individuals and organizations rely on technology for communication, transactions, and data storage. However, with this...
In today's digital age, there are many cybercrimes that individuals and organizations need to be aware of. Two of the most common cybercrimes are spoofing...
Understanding SQL and NoSQL Databases When it comes to managing data, there are two main types of databases: SQL and NoSQL. While both types of databases...
Technical debt is any software code which achieves a short-term goal at the cost of some future drawback. It commonly takes the form of code that...
Derived from the Greek roots tele ("remote") and metron ("measure”), telemetry is the process by which data is gathered from across disparate systems to...
What Is a Threat Actor? A threat actor is any individual or group that has the intent and capability to exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems,...
Threat hunting is the cyber defense practice of proactively searching for threats within a network. Threat hunters look for threats that may have evaded...
The ultimate findings from cyberthreat analyses are referred to as threat intelligence. Producing threat intelligence involves a cycle of collecting data...
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a second layer of protection to your access points. Instead of just one authentication factor, 2FA requires two...
In the world of web development, CRUD and REST are two terms that are frequently used, but often misunderstood. While both are important and have their...
On February 21, 2024, United Healthcare was hacked in a ransomware data breach that impacted its Change Healthcare (CHC) unit. The data breach affected...
Vulnerability management (VM) is the proactive, cyclical practice of identifying and fixing security gaps. It typically leverages scanning software to...
What is a Vulnerability Management Lifecycle? The vulnerability management lifecycle involves continuous monitoring and assessment of systems, regular...
WebAuthn is the API standard that allows servers, applications, websites, and other systems to manage and verify registered users with passwordless...
A human firewall refers to employees trained to recognize and prevent cyber threats, such as phishing attacks and malware. By fostering cybersecurity...
A Policy Administration Point (PAP) is a crucial component in access control systems, responsible for defining and managing policies that regulate user...
A Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) is a component in a security framework that enforces access control policies. It regulates and monitors access to...
A policy engine is a software component that allows an organization to manage, enforce, and audit rules across their system. It is designed to provide a...
A Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) is a component in a security framework that enforces access control policies. It regulates and monitors access to...
Access Discovery is the process of identifying and verifying available pathways to digital resources or information within a system or network. It...
Active Directory (AD) bridging lets users log into non-Windows systems with their Microsoft Active Directory account credentials. This extends AD benefits...
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open-source, general-purpose policy engine that enables policy-as-code across diverse software stacks. It provides a unified...
Continuous Authorization is a security concept ensuring ongoing validation of users' access rights within a system. Employing real-time session monitoring...
What is Continuous Monitoring? Continuous monitoring is a systematic and ongoing process that uses automated tools and technologies to monitor the...
Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM) is a specialized branch of identity and access management designed to facilitate secure and seamless customer...
Threat hunting is the cyber defense practice of proactively searching for threats within a network. Threat hunters look for threats that may have evaded...
Deprovisioning removes the access rights and deletes the accounts associated with a user on a network. When an organization offboards an individual, it’s...
Disaster Recovery Policy is a strategic framework outlining procedures and resources to swiftly restore essential business functions after a disruptive...
eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) is a standard for specifying and exchanging access control policies in computer systems. It provides a...
Fine-grain access controls are a type of access control that enables granular access to systems, applications, and data. Access is based on specific...
Group-Based Access Control (GBAC) is a security model that regulates access to resources by assigning permissions based on user group membership. It...
Identity Fabric refers to an integrated set of identity and access management services that provide seamless and secure user access across a diverse range...
What is NoSQL Injection? NoSQL Injection is a type of injection attack that exploits vulnerabilities in NoSQL databases by injecting malicious code into...
A One-Time Password (OTP) is a security feature that generates a unique, temporary password for a single transaction or login session. Unlike static...
Policy-as-Code refers to the practice of managing and implementing policy decisions through code, making them enforceable and verifiable within IT...
Privileged identity management is the process companies use to manage which privileged users—including human users and machine users—have access to which...
What is Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)? Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft that allows users to remotely...
Segregation of Duties (SoD) is a risk management principle that ensures critical tasks are divided among different individuals to prevent conflicts of...
Vendor Privileged Access Management (VPAM) is a cybersecurity strategy that focuses on controlling and securing third-party access to an organization's...
Zero Trust Data Protection is a security framework that assumes no inherent trust, requiring verification from anyone trying to access data, regardless of...
X11 Forwarding is a feature of the X Window System that allows a user to run graphical applications on a remote server while displaying them locally. This...
Zero Trust is a modern security model founded on the design principle “Never trust, always verify.” It requires all devices and users, regardless of...
As cyber attacks become more advanced and frequent, organizations are realizing the importance of enhancing their cybersecurity strategies. Two approaches...
Zombie accounts: forgotten accounts that open the door to bad actors looking to insert malware, steal data, and damage your internal systems.
