Security Champions

It can be hard to introduce security across the development team using the security team alone. Information Security people do not scale across teams of developers. A good way to scale security and distribute security across the development teams is by using Security Champions.

Security Champions act as a single point of contact in regards to security for their team. The Security Champion is in contact with a member of the security team to ask for guidance. The Security Champion can monitor security best practices, and help the security team run and promote security uplift activities such as a CTF (Capture the Flag) event.

Security Champions help to improve the communication between the development teams and the security team. A Security Champion will know the pain points of their teammates' code bases and culture, they are then in a good position to present security in a way that directly connects with them. Security Champions are a key element of improving application security maturity as referenced in maturity frameworks such as OWASP SAMM.

It is important to have management buyin for the implementation of the Security Champions program. A Security Champion will need to have a percentage of time set aside from their regular position to spend on fulfilling this new role. A Security Champion will dedicate time to security initiatives, such that they have less time to spend on development. This time spent on security is worthwhile when weighed against the cost of not spending time on security, resulting in costly security issues to fix. When planning on implementing a Security Champions program, it may be beneficial to start with a proof of concept consisting of one or two Security Champions. When the program has been proven successful it can be rolled out across all development teams.

A large organisation that has a mature Security Champions program may next look towards establishing a Community of Practice for security.

The following section will describe the steps to build a Security Champions program as defined in the OWASP Security Champions Playbook. See also the OWASP Security Champions Guidebook that describes key principles for a successful Security Champions program.

1. Identify teams

Identify the teams involved that you want to add Security Champions to and how they work.

Identify team structure: In the initial step, the organisational structure is mapped to understand the teams that will be involved and their structure. For example, a team may consist of 5 engineers, 1 product owner, 1 QA and 1 team lead.

Identify technologies used: Identify what technologies are used in each team, such as programming language and framework.

Identify current security state: understand the existing security posture, so as to establish a baseline to use to measure improvement. This could describe any code reviews that are performed or automated security testing implemented.

Identify processes: Identify any existing communication channels, and what process is used to report a security issue and assign it to a team member.

2. Define the role

Define the developer participation requirements as a Security Champion, and clearly define the role. The responsibilities for a Security Champion depend on what the organisation's application security goals are and what the security team would like to embed into the Security Champion program. Refer to the identified current security state and detail what you would like to improve.

The Security Champion role may include:

Evangelise security: promoting security best practice in their team, imparting security knowledge and helping to uplift security awareness in their team

Contribute to security standards: provide input into organisational security standards and procedures

Help run activities: promote and run activities such as Capture the Flag (CTF) events, see Activities chapter

Conduct threat modelling: threat modelling consists of a security review on a product in the design phase, see Threat modelling chapter

Perform secure code reviews: raise issues of risk in the code base

Use security testing tools: conduct or verify automated security scanning and provide support to their team for the use of security testing tools, see Security testing chapter

See examples of what roles can contain at Security Champions session, OWASP summit 2017.

3. Nominate Champions

A Security Champion may be a developer, operations or QA role. Security Champions should be nominated, rather than assigned.

Management buyin: get agreement from management on the defined role responsibilities and time commitment of a Security Champion, such as 20% of their role.

Scale: 1 security staff member may support 5 Security Champions, who each support their team.

Assign to relevant team: It is useful to add Security Champions by technology platform, so that their specific technical skills can be used. For example, frontend; backend; mobile.

Converse with team manager and nominated team member: discuss with the team manager about possible Security Champion candidates. Nominations may come from the team manager as well as having a call for interested candidates. Then discuss with the candidates about the role and its benefits to see if they are a good fit. Discuss the benefits of learning application security and how it can help their career and stand out.

Present the Security Champions to the organisation: once the champions have been nominated, communicate the Security Champion program and its members to the organisation.

4. Set up communication channels

Establish a communication channel for all Security Champion members and their security team contact and organise periodic meetings.

Establish communication channel: create a communication channel that the Security Champions and their security contact can use. This can be whatever is appropriate for the organisation, such as a messaging chat application channel or email group.

Organise periodic meetings: periodic meetings are useful to discuss with the Security Champions on any issues they are having, and adjust goals as needed.

5. Build solid knowledge base

Establishing a knowledge base can help to have a single place to refer to for application security guidance.

A knowledge base may contain:

Organisation's security policy and procedures: links to relevant application security procedures such as the password policy, which cryptographic algorithms to use, and secure development procedures like how to conduct a code review or a particular library to use to escape output.

Reference material: useful external reference material can include OWASP Code Review Guide and OWASP Cheat Sheets. Security checklists can also be useful, such as OWASP Top Ten and OWASP Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS).

Creating a training program for Security Champions is also useful for building knowledge and skills in application security. The training format can range from references in the knowledge base to hands on labs. A training program can consist of different levels, each building on the previous one. Initial levels can contain broad security topics and expand out to specific platforms, such as mobile security.

6. Maintain interest

Keep the Security Champions motivated and engaged to ensure they can continue to enthusiastically promote security in their assigned team. Use activities such as Capture the Flag events to promote security. Recognise the work done by Security Champions and communicate their achievements to the wider organisation.

Activities: Security Champions can attend conferences together and a conference calendar can be created that contains relevant upcoming conferences. Security Champions can organise events such as Capture the Flag (CTF) and hackathons. Gamification can be used to help drive engagement - such as the use of a scoreboard during a CTF event, and the awarding of prizes like branded clothing or stickers. See Activities chapter.

Recognise and reward: It is important to recognise the achievements by the Security Champions, such as providing updates on progress in regular newsletters. Gamification can be used to indicate progress for the Security Champion, through the use of levels. This can help the Security Champion to have something to work towards and mark their success in their security journey. An organisation may formalise a Security Champion position with their HR department to help motivate individuals to join.

Measure progress: Security Champions can have goals to achieve, such as security Objectives and Key Results (OKR). For example, to close a percentage of critical and high vulnerabilities; conduct a certain number of threat modelling activities; complete security training modules. Defined maturity levels can be used to mark progress of individual Security Champions and the overall program. For example OWASP Top 10 Maturity Categories for Security Champions.