Description

This curriculum spans the equivalent depth and structure of a multi-workshop internal capability program, mapping ISO 27001 controls directly to software development workflows across CI/CD pipelines, secure coding practices, and third-party management.

Module 1: Aligning Development Activities with ISO 27001 Context and Scope

Define the scope of the ISMS to explicitly include in-house software development teams, third-party vendors, and CI/CD pipelines.
Document development environments (dev, test, staging, prod) as distinct assets within the ISMS asset register.
Map development teams, tools, and repositories to organizational roles and responsibilities in Annex A controls.
Conduct a boundary analysis to determine where development processes intersect with other domains like operations and data management.
Establish criteria for including or excluding custom-built applications from the ISMS scope based on data sensitivity and business impact.
Integrate development lifecycle phases into the organization’s risk assessment methodology as threat scenarios.
Ensure cloud-based development platforms (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps) are evaluated for compliance within the scope.
Coordinate with legal and procurement to ensure outsourced development contracts reference ISO 27001 compliance obligations.

Module 2: Risk Assessment and Treatment for Development Projects

Perform threat modeling during design phases using STRIDE or PASTA to inform risk treatment plans.
Assign risk owners for each custom application and require documented risk acceptance for high-impact vulnerabilities.
Incorporate software supply chain risks (e.g., open-source components, third-party APIs) into the organization’s risk register.
Define risk treatment options (mitigate, accept, transfer, avoid) for common development risks such as hardcoded credentials or insecure APIs.
Require risk assessment updates at key development milestones (e.g., pre-deployment, major feature release).
Integrate findings from SAST and DAST tools into the risk assessment process as technical evidence.
Ensure risk treatment plans include timelines, responsible parties, and verification mechanisms for closure.
Validate that risk treatment decisions are reviewed and approved by the Information Security Manager before implementation.

Module 3: Secure Development Policy and Standards Implementation

Develop and enforce a secure coding standard aligned with OWASP ASVS and organization-specific threat models.
Mandate the use of approved libraries and frameworks, with a deny list for known vulnerable components.
Define mandatory security checkpoints in the development lifecycle (e.g., security design review, code review, pen test).
Integrate security requirements into user stories and acceptance criteria within Agile backlogs.
Establish naming conventions and tagging standards for security-critical code and configurations.
Require developers to complete secure coding training annually, with verification through knowledge checks.
Define and enforce branch protection rules in version control to prevent unauthorized merges to mainline.
Implement pre-commit hooks to block commits containing secrets, debug code, or known vulnerability patterns.

Module 4: Access Control and Identity Management in Development Environments

Enforce least privilege access to source code repositories, build servers, and deployment tools based on role and project.
Implement time-bound access tokens for third-party contractors working on development tasks.
Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all privileged access to development infrastructure.
Automate provisioning and deprovisioning of developer access via integration with HR systems.
Segregate duties between developers, testers, and release managers to prevent unauthorized production changes.
Log and monitor access to sensitive repositories and configuration files using SIEM integration.
Define and enforce access review cycles (e.g., quarterly) for all development-related accounts and service identities.
Restrict administrative access to CI/CD pipelines to a designated operations team with audit logging enabled.

Module 5: Secure Configuration and Environment Hardening

Define baseline security configurations for development, testing, and staging environments using tools like Ansible or Terraform.
Prohibit the use of default credentials and configurations in any development tool or service.
Enforce network segmentation between development environments and production systems.
Disable unnecessary services and ports in development containers and virtual machines.
Implement automated scanning of infrastructure-as-code templates for misconfigurations (e.g., public S3 buckets).
Require encryption at rest and in transit for all development databases containing production-like data.
Apply consistent logging and monitoring configurations across all environments to enable correlation.
Restrict outbound internet access from build agents to approved package registries only.

Module 6: Secure Coding and Code Review Practices

Integrate static application security testing (SAST) into the CI pipeline with defined pass/fail thresholds.
Require peer code reviews with at least one reviewer trained in secure coding principles.
Define and enforce rules for input validation, error handling, and logging to prevent common vulnerabilities.
Prohibit the use of unsafe functions (e.g., strcpy, eval) through automated linting rules.
Conduct manual security code reviews for high-risk modules (e.g., authentication, payment processing).
Track and report code quality metrics (e.g., cyclomatic complexity, code coverage) as part of release gates.
Use software composition analysis (SCA) to detect and remediate known vulnerabilities in open-source dependencies.
Enforce secure handling of secrets using dedicated secret management tools instead of environment variables or config files.

Module 7: Change and Release Management Integration

Require a formal change request for any production deployment, including emergency fixes.
Implement a peer-review and approval workflow for deployment scripts and infrastructure changes.
Enforce a freeze period before major audits or assessments during which no non-critical changes are allowed.
Conduct post-deployment verification to confirm security controls remain effective after release.
Maintain a rollback plan for every production deployment, tested in staging where feasible.
Log all deployment activities with immutable audit trails linked to individual identities.
Integrate security gates (e.g., SAST pass, vulnerability scan clean) into the release pipeline.
Coordinate release schedules with the security team to allow for pre-deployment security validation.

Module 8: Incident Management and Vulnerability Response in Development

Define escalation paths for developers who discover vulnerabilities in production code.
Integrate bug bounty findings into the development team’s backlog with SLAs for remediation.
Require root cause analysis (RCA) for security incidents involving custom applications.
Implement a process for applying security patches to legacy or in-house frameworks.
Conduct tabletop exercises simulating supply chain compromises (e.g., malicious npm package).
Track and report mean time to remediate (MTTR) for critical and high-severity vulnerabilities.
Establish a security patching schedule for development tools and runtime environments.
Ensure incident response runbooks include steps for isolating compromised build systems or repositories.

Module 9: Audit, Monitoring, and Continuous Improvement

Generate automated compliance reports for development activities (e.g., code review coverage, SAST scan frequency).
Conduct internal audits of development processes annually, focusing on control effectiveness and evidence retention.
Implement centralized logging for all development tools with retention aligned with legal and audit requirements.
Use dashboards to monitor key security metrics across development teams (e.g., open vulnerabilities, policy violations).
Review and update secure development policies biannually based on threat intelligence and audit findings.
Require evidence of control implementation (e.g., screenshots, logs, reports) for each development-related Annex A control.
Perform gap analyses between current practices and ISO 27001:2022 updates during transition periods.
Integrate feedback from external auditors into development process improvement initiatives.

Module 10: Third-Party and Outsourced Development Oversight

Require third-party vendors to provide evidence of ISO 27001 certification or equivalent controls.
Conduct on-site or remote assessments of vendor development practices before contract renewal.
Define security requirements in service level agreements (SLAs), including access controls and incident reporting.
Perform code audits or require access to source code repositories for critical outsourced applications.
Restrict data sharing with vendors to anonymized or synthetic datasets unless justified and approved.
Enforce the use of secure communication and collaboration tools for joint development efforts.
Monitor vendor compliance through regular security questionnaires and evidence submission.
Establish a process for terminating access and recovering intellectual property upon contract completion.