I'm not the Chris you posed the question to but I'll answer anyway. :) Usually the type of response you described is a knee-jerk reaction. It's a different model than people are used to, and sometimes people are averse to change, whether that's warranted or not. It's important to get past the initial reaction and actually have a substantive conversation.
Naturally, we try to understand each customer's specific hang-ups, but generally speaking there are a couple of things we always cover. First, the customer needs to understand that they are NOT, in fact, uploading their code. If they are used to using on-premise tools that require source code, they'll often make this mistake. They are uploading binaries -- compiled code, or bytecode -- not their source. Second, we have many layers of safeguards in place ranging covering process (Systrust), infrastructure (SAS-70 Type II), and of course application security itself (automated scanning plus manual penetration tests, multi-factor authentication, extremely granular roles and access controls, per-application backend encryption of results, flexible retention policies, etc.). Viewing this with a wider lens, there are a lot of factors involved in selecting a tool/service vendor. One factor that comes into play for us is simply that our solution scales, and many others do not. We can address the application supply chain problem in ways that others can't. -chris Chris Eng Senior Director, Research Veracode, Inc. Office: 781.418.3828 Mobile: 617.501.3280 c...@veracode.com -----Original Message----- From: sc-l-boun...@securecoding.org [mailto:sc-l-boun...@securecoding.org] On Behalf Of Jim Manico Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 7:02 PM To: Chris Wysopal Cc: Secure Code Mailing List Subject: Re: [SC-L] InformIT: comparing static analysis tools Chris, I've tried to leverage Veracode in recent engagements. Here is how the conversation went: Jim: "Boss, can I upload all of your code to this cool SaaS service for analysis?" Client: "Uh no, and next time you ask, I'm having you committed". I'm sure you have faced these objections before. How do you work around them? -Jim Manico http://manico.net On Feb 3, 2011, at 1:54 PM, Chris Wysopal <cwyso...@veracode.com> wrote: > > Nice article. In the 5 years Veracode has been selling static analysis > services we have seen the market mature. In the beginning, organizations > were down in the weeds. "What false positive rate or false negative rate does > the tool/service have over a test suite such as SAMATE." Then we saw a move > up to looking at the trees. "Did the tool/service support the Java > frameworks I am using?" Now we are seeing organizations look at the forest. > "Can I scale static analysis effectively over all my development sites, my > outsourcers, and vendors?" This is a good sign of a maturing market. > > It is my firm belief that software security has a consumption problem. We > know what the defects are. We know how to fix them. We even have automation > for detecting a lot of them. The problem is getting the information and > technology to the right person at the right time effectively and managing an > organization-wide program. This is the next challenge for static analysis. > <bias-alert>I think SaaS based software is more easily consumed and this > isn't any different for software security</bias-alert> > > -Chris > > -----Original Message----- > From: sc-l-boun...@securecoding.org [mailto:sc-l-boun...@securecoding.org] On > Behalf Of Gary McGraw > Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 9:49 AM > To: Secure Code Mailing List > Subject: [SC-L] InformIT: comparing static analysis tools > > hi sc-l, > > John Steven and I recently collaborated on an article for informIT. The > article is called "Software [In]security: Comparing Apples, Oranges, and > Aardvarks (or, All Static Analysis Tools Are Not Created Equal)" and is > available here: > http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1680863 > > Now that static analysis tools like Fortify and Ounce are hitting the > mainstream there are many potential customers who want to compare them and > pick the best one. We explain why that's more difficult than it sounds at > first and what to watch out for as you begin to compare tools. We did this > in order to get out in front of "test suites" that purport to work for tool > comparison. If you wonder why such suites may not work as advertised, read > the article. > > Your feedback is welcome. > > gem > > company www.cigital.com > podcast www.cigital.com/silverbullet > blog www.cigital.com/justiceleague > book www.swsec.com > > _______________________________________________ > Secure Coding mailing list (SC-L) SC-L@securecoding.org List information, > subscriptions, etc - http://krvw.com/mailman/listinfo/sc-l > List charter available at - http://www.securecoding.org/list/charter.php > SC-L is hosted and moderated by KRvW Associates, LLC (http://www.KRvW.com) as > a free, non-commercial service to the software security community. > Follow KRvW Associates on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/KRvW_Associates > _______________________________________________ > > _______________________________________________ > Secure Coding mailing list (SC-L) SC-L@securecoding.org > List information, subscriptions, etc - http://krvw.com/mailman/listinfo/sc-l > List charter available at - http://www.securecoding.org/list/charter.php > SC-L is hosted and moderated by KRvW Associates, LLC (http://www.KRvW.com) > as a free, non-commercial service to the software security community. > Follow KRvW Associates on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/KRvW_Associates > _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Secure Coding mailing list (SC-L) SC-L@securecoding.org List information, subscriptions, etc - http://krvw.com/mailman/listinfo/sc-l List charter available at - http://www.securecoding.org/list/charter.php SC-L is hosted and moderated by KRvW Associates, LLC (http://www.KRvW.com) as a free, non-commercial service to the software security community. Follow KRvW Associates on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/KRvW_Associates _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Secure Coding mailing list (SC-L) SC-L@securecoding.org List information, subscriptions, etc - http://krvw.com/mailman/listinfo/sc-l List charter available at - http://www.securecoding.org/list/charter.php SC-L is hosted and moderated by KRvW Associates, LLC (http://www.KRvW.com) as a free, non-commercial service to the software security community. Follow KRvW Associates on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/KRvW_Associates _______________________________________________
