Software Engineering: The First Line of Defense for Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity has become an area of critical concern due to an ever-growing number of security breaches. Some of these breaches compromise personal information, exposing individuals and firms to potential identity theft, fraud and other maladies. Other attacks seek to gain control of systems for use in attacking as part of bot nets and other indirect attack techniques. Yet other attacks target cyber-physical systems whose compromise could potentially lead to the injury or death of individuals relying on or nearby the equipment. This paper considers the role of software engineering in preventing cyberattacks and discusses the types of software engineering failures that translate into vulnerabilities that can be attacked. Prospective solutions and areas of needed future research are discussed.