Ready for secure software: Secure software engineering for space missions
Daniel Fischer, Mariella Spada · SpaceOps 2014 Conference · 2014
ESA, like other space Organisations, is responsible for assets of very high tangible and intangible value.To ensure the continuous protection of these assets, security has emerged as a strategic objective for the Agency.As part of a defense-in-depth concept, ESA is addressing application layer security for its operational software components by implementing secure software engineering procedures.The ESA Standardization Board (ESB) has launched an ESA-wide initiative aimed at standardizing Secure Software Engineering (SSE) at Agency level.This is intended to be achieved by complementing the current ESA and European space software engineering portfolio of standards by explicitly introducing secure software engineering principles and processes.Particular consideration will be given to enabling efficient implementation of SSE practices with any means possible.In this paper, we describe the approach of this standardization activity and address the various aspects of secure software engineering in terms of engineering, quality, and management that are being standardized.ESA is preparing for these new security processes by implementing a prototype Generic Application Security Framework (GASF) as a breadboard for experimenting the SSE processes, but also as an aid to their efficient and effective implementation.Ther paper will provide an overview of GASF as well..