Creating a secure software development life cycle can lower risk, but security must be embedded into every step to ensure more secure applications. On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg airship burst into flames while docking, causing 35 deaths and bringing the airship era to a sudden close. In hindsight, it seems tragically obvious. Fill a giant bag with highly flammable hydrogen gas and trouble is bound to follow.

We have a saying at Splunk. It goes something like “if you’re ever having a bad day, go and talk to a customer”. What organizations around the world are doing with their data and Splunk brings a huge smile and an eyebrow raising, positive “can’t quite believe you’ve done that” very-impressed nod of the head. That’s never more true than with our security customers.

The goal of system hardening (or security hardening) is to reduce the attack surface. It includes reducing security risks and removing potential attack vectors. By removing superfluous programs, accounts functions, applications, ports permissions access etc., the reduced attack surface means the underlying system will be less vulnerable, making it harder for attackers or malware to gain a foothold within your IT ecosystem.

The following is an excerpt from Netskope’s recent book Designing a SASE Architecture for Dummies. This is the sixth in a series of seven posts detailing a set of incremental steps for implementing a well-functioning SASE architecture. Throughout this series, we repeat that the data center is just one more place people and data have to go—it’s no longer the center of attention.