How to Build a Cybersecurity Software like Splunk?

Businesses must invest in cybersecurity software. Cyber threats are evolving with the continued advancement in technology. No matter the size of the business, investing in cybersecurity analytics and advanced threat defense tools is a given.

The cybersecurity industry is booming. It is expected to reach a market value of 300 billion US dollars by 2027. Are you interested in investing in such a lucrative industry? 

In this article, we will be discussing the current landscape of cybersecurity. We will also discuss in detail how you can build cybersecurity software like Splunk.

Why Investing in Cybersecurity Software is Necessary Today?

According to a data breach investigation report, there were more than 5,290 confirmed breach attacks around the world in 2021. These include denial of service, privilege misuse, ransomware, and phishing attacks.

Research by the National Cyber Security Alliance found that almost 50% of small businesses have experienced a cyber-attack of some sort.

Moreover, almost 60% of small to medium-sized businesses that fall victim to a cyber attack go out of business within 6 months.

Given these research stats, it has become imperative that business owners invest in the latest cybersecurity software solutions today.

Before going into more details about cyber security tech stacks and building cybersecurity software, let’s do a brief overview of what cybersecurity is and what sorts of cyber threats your business or cybersecurity application face today.

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity protects computer and networking systems against theft, damage, and intrusions. Businesses implement a line of defense through various cybersecurity frameworks. 

These frameworks include practices like auditing, developing security policies, monitoring through security platforms and cyber security tools, etc.

Cyber threats and malware have become sophisticated over time. They can cause damage by deleting or corrupting files, installing malicious software on victim machines, encrypting files demanding ransom in exchange for decryption keys, and so on.

Read more on why businesses should invest in cybersecurity solutions on our blog here.

Next, we will look at some of the common security risks and threats that businesses are facing today. These will give you a better idea of what your app needs to do before building your market-competitive vulnerability management and cybersecurity software.

Security Threats and Risks

A security threat can be spyware or malware like trojans, misconfigured servers, etc. A security risk is a potential damage caused by security threats. The most common modern security threats and risks are:

Security Threats:

• Phishing Attacks: A type of internet security attack that targets important credential information such as your bank accounts and other asset details to extract value.
  • These are often social engineering schemes that can even involve identity theft where hackers act as some credible authority or service provider and ask for your confidential information.
• Cloud-based Threats: These are on the rise due to the extensive adoption of cloud services by businesses. Hackers can compromise user endpoints and SaaS systems to obtain data.
• Ransomware: Hackers encrypt files on victims’ computers and demand a ransom in return for the decryption keys. Demanding bitcoins as untraceable payment is a common practice.
• Mobile Attacks: As mobile devices became common, so did mobile cyber attacks. Hackers can make use of infected apps to enter a mobile software system. Phishing attacks through emails, texts, etc., are also possible.
• IoT-based Attacks: IoT connects a number of smart devices to each other. This also means multiple vulnerable access points for hackers. IoT-based attacks can hack one smart device, and corrupt the whole network of devices connected to it.

Security Risks:

• Data Loss: Loss of intellectual property, internal emails, documents, and client-sensitive data can result from internet security attacks on your organization’s computing systems.
• Compromised Computing Resources: Cyberattacks like DDOS can turn your computing devices into malicious bots, data mining bots, etc. Through such attacks, hackers can take your resources under their control.
• Financial Loss: Access to financial accounts and details can cause huge monetary losses to hacked businesses.

There are many Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools in the marketplace today to help businesses stay clear from these online threats and risks. Splunk is one of them.

How does Splunk offer Cybersecurity to Businesses?

Let’s discuss the working and security features of Splunk software.

What is Splunk?

Splunk is an analytics-driven tool that provides businesses with real-time alerts for security attacks on any software application or hardware infrastructure.

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Splunk uses artificial intelligence to detect complex threats. Quick data analytics help in finding malicious threats before major losses occur.

Splunk is considered the best cyber security software with a 60-day free trial for users

What are the main cybersecurity features offered by Splunk?

• Risk-based alerting: To trigger alerts and map risks to cyber security frameworks when risks exceed the threshold.
• Threat intelligence: Through collecting data from heterogeneous sources and historical events.
• AI-powered analytics for advanced threat detection: Streaming data to detect advanced cyber threats through machine learning algorithms.
• Flexible investigative cybersecurity tools: To conduct investigations into cyber security threats.
• Secure Multi-Cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments: To monitor cloud services such as Azure, etc., and to provide insights on ongoing security operations.

What is the tech stack for Splunk SIEM?

Splunk enterprise consists of two main services, Splunk Daemon and Splunk Web Services.

Splunk Daemon is written in C++. It provides a robust architecture for efficient data processing operations like collection, storage, indexing, etc.

Splunk Web Services is written mainly in Python, Ajax, and XML. It provides an intuitive and interactive graphical user interface.

Splunk’s proprietary data store provides data storage and search capabilities similar to Google File System.

Splunk allows users to interact with their data through its Splunk Processing Language (SPL).

Users can modify and manipulate indexed data and perform conditional searches using commands and functions written in SPL. SPL is based on Unix and SQL.

Splunk also supports SDKs and frameworks for efficient log management including, reporting, investigation, and alert activities.

How to Build a Cybersecurity Software like Splunk?

Next, let’s discuss how you can develop cybersecurity software like Splunk. The process requires you to go through the following:

Understand Cybersecurity Requirements

Understanding the cybersecurity environment at your organization or any business that will be using your cybersecurity software will include:

• Taking into account all of the organization’s assets. This will include all computing resources and associated data.
• Prioritizing the importance and sensitivity of computing resources and data storage.
• Designing cybersecurity strategies based on the risk associated with each asset. This includes the cyber security software tools for monitoring and protecting them.
• Adopting approaches for secure software development by development teams.

Setup a Cloud Computing Infrastructure

Cloud computing has become increasingly popular among businesses due to benefits like reduced costs, fast execution speed, efficient scalability, increased security, etc. 

Cloud infrastructure provides efficient and secure backend servers, data storage and processing, networking bandwidth, etc.

Your software developers do not have to manage hardware and fulfill operating system requirements, they just focus on application development.

Some cloud computing service providers include Amazon Web Services, IBM Cloud, and Salesforce.

AWS offers several cloud service APIs for efficient software development like a virtual private cloud (Amazon EC2), data transfer service (Amazon DataSync), data storage service (Amazon S3), notification service (Amazon SNS), relational database service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.

Amazon provides security-compliant cloud services in 40-plus countries around the globe.

These managed services for businesses include data encryption, monitoring, and logging, DDOS prevention, access control, penetration testing, etc.

IBM Cloud also provides a number of cloud security services to businesses investing in cloud computing resources. These include cloud storage, cloud blockchain, VMware, private cloud, etc.

Salesforce is a SaaS company known for its customer relationship management (CRM) product.

Your software developers should be experts in using Salesforce services like sales cloud, marketing cloud, analytic cloud, IoT cloud, etc., to reach the user market effectively.

Select the Security Tech Stack you will Implement in your Cybersecurity Software

Security tech stack assists in implementing the cybersecurity plan any business plans to adopt. It includes all the required software platforms and tools needed to timely detect, mitigate, and counter cyber threats.

It ranges from simple antivirus and anti-malware software to complex DNS filters. Below we will discuss different security tech stacks and all their components in detail.

• Perimeter security

Perimeter security protects an organization’s internal network from the external public network. Perimeter security is ensured through techniques like unified threat management and application firewalls.

Unified threat management is a robust approach to preemptively protect your system from threats and vulnerabilities trying to reach your system. It includes intrusion detection, content filtering, spam detection, etc.

A web application firewall is more focused on the data communication taking place between cloud applications and user applications for web attack prevention. 

As cloud computing is very popular today among businesses, cybersecurity developers adopt a web application firewall to ensure web security.

Your cybersecurity software development team should be familiar with perimeter security solutions like Cisco Meraki (UTM), Cloudflare (WAF)

• Information security

Information security is required to prevent business data breaches and unintentional leakage. To ensure information security, your developers should be familiar with data loss prevention (DLP) and email security.

DLP focuses on preventing the unauthorized transfer of data out of the organization. It ensures this by performing extensive data labeling. It includes data storage, access, and sharing protocols.

Email security is focused on email communication. It prevents cyber security attacks like phishing, spam, virus-ridden emails, etc.

Your developers should be experts in information security solutions like Microsoft Azure DLP and Proofpoint, as anti-phishing tools.

• Authentication Protocols

Authentication protocols help prevent unauthorized users from entering your computer system. These protocols, when effectively implemented, can prevent many security vulnerabilities. 

Your software development team should be experts in implementing authentication techniques like multifactor authentication and password management for application security.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) ensures data security by using a secondary device for user authentication. It is widely used today for mobile app security and is modern security standard compliant for both ioS and Android.

MFA has proven helpful in preventing data losses and access breaches. According to Microsoft, MFA can prevent up to 90% of cyber attacks on user accounts.

Password management ensures that users are regularly updating their account login information with stronger passwords. The complete update history is tracked and encrypted for security purposes.

The authentication protocol solution providers your development team should be familiar with are DUO for multifactor authentication and Passportal as a password manager.

• Backup and Disaster Recovery

This approach ensures that all business data, whether stored on internal systems or on cloud servers, is backed up and can be restored immediately in case of any unfortunate information loss incident. 

Your developers should be experts in implementing an effective backup and disaster recovery strategy to recover data. Your development team can work on a software-as-a-backup or website backup solution for this purpose. 

A few example data backup solution providers include Backupify – a SaaS solution and CodeGuard – a web disaster recovery solution.

• Endpoint Security

With the increased use of IoT-powered devices, businesses have had to implement security systems for a number of interconnected smart devices. 

Just as Web Application Firewalls have become a necessity for cloud security, endpoint protection software is becoming crucial with the rising use of IoT infrastructure today.

By 2025, it is expected there will be 30.9 billion interconnected IoT device base units worldwide, according to Statista. These endpoints will increase in the form of smartphones, smart TVs, smart home security, and so on. 

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An effective way to secure a large number of interconnected smart endpoints is by maintaining a DNS (domain name system).

By implementing a DNS, your cybersecurity developers can stop access to malicious and fraudulent websites and suspicious data entering your network through any connected device.

Another technique your developers can implement for endpoint security is managed detection and response (MDR). It is used to manage, detect, and respond to all cyber threats across all connected devices. 

MDR monitors all devices and alerts users when there is abnormal behavior shown by any of them.

Lastly, your developers should be skilled in persistence detection. This refers to a cyber attack situation, where hackers enter a system and wait for the right opportunity to attack the vulnerable network. 

Persistence detection looks for intruders by collecting information and activities associated with persistent network processes.

To ensure effective endpoint security, your developers should be familiar with solutions like Cisco Umbrella for DNS, SentinelOne for MDR, and Huntress for persistence detection.

• Network Monitoring

Monitoring is a necessary component of any cybersecurity tech stack as it enables oversight of an organization’s network in the search for vulnerabilities. 

You developers can look out for vulnerable computing resources with security tools like security information and event management (SIEM) and network detection and response (NDR).

A SIEM is an effective cybersecurity tool to monitor your network that allows integration with major technology platforms like Microsoft.

This monitoring tool will alert you of any unauthorized access, multiple failed login attempts, or any kind of anomalous data in your network traffic. 

The security information and event management tool places all the security threats and alerts in a centralized database for cybersecurity developers to investigate and deal with any risks efficiently.

Network Detection and Response is another effective network security and monitoring strategy. It is more focused on closely monitoring the network data packets.

Its network traffic analysis (NTA) approach helps in the timely detection and removal of anomalous data on your network.

Your developers should be familiar with software solutions like Perch and Qualys for SIEM, NDR, and vulnerability assessment and scanning.

Develop Cybersecurity Software Application

Your developers should have top-notch software development skills to build robust cybersecurity software. We are discussing some of these below:

• Cybersecurity Frameworks

Your development team should have a deep understanding of the cybersecurity frameworks that are widely adopted by businesses for their cybersecurity requirements. Some of these include:

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework: It was initially designed to improve the US security infrastructure.

Today, it is being used by many businesses as a standard for implementing cybersecurity programs.

ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002: These standards are adopted internationally. It emphasizes continuous monitoring of systems for cyber threats and placing appropriate controls for timely threat mitigation.

CIS Critical Security Controls: This provides 20 preventive techniques for protecting organizations from known cyber threats.

IASME Governance: It is an alternative to ISO 27000 for small and medium-sized businesses.

Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies: COBIT secures networks by integrating cybersecurity into every business process. 

• Programming Languages and Frameworks

For cybersecurity software development, your developers should be proficient in programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, C, and Python.

HTML is the basic markup language used by the majority of current websites. HTML can be easily used by cyber hackers for multi-site scripting and content spoofing. 

Hackers can manipulate code on web pages and display false information or spoof user details like login credentials.

A solid understanding of HTML will enable developers to build an application with maximum user data protection against all such cyber attacks.

JavaScript is commonly used today to build interactive websites through event handlers and cookie management.

JavaScript allows developers to run dynamic code when a user visits a site. This functionality also makes JS websites vulnerable to cyber attacks.

A skilled JavaScript developer should be able to develop a website secure against any kind of cross-site scripting on web pages.

C is frequently used for reverse engineering. Cybersecurity professionals can use it to figure out the vulnerabilities in a software system.

Similarly, hackers can use it to penetrate applications with malicious code.

Your developers should be proficient in C to discover programming bugs, technical errors, and also to conduct security analysis for cyber threats.

Python programming language is extensively used for writing scripts to automate security checks on software applications.

Your cybersecurity application developers should be able to use Python for malware research automation by going through app data, run-time logs, etc.

Moreover, your development team should be experts in robust software development frameworks like Angular and Node.js for JavaScript, ASP.Net for C and C#, Django for Python, etc.

These frameworks have rich component libraries and help developers quickly code and test complex applications.

Node.js assists developers to build powerful applications easily as the same code is running on the client side and server side. It is built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript Engine which enables faster code execution.

ASP.Net developers can build applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The extensive class library in the .Net framework reduces development time for complex applications like cybersecurity apps.

To use ASP.Net your developers should be familiar with MVC application architecture.

Django is popular for python application coding. It provides faster content management and scientific computations. It builds applications on MVT (Model View Template) design architecture.

Apart from separate frontend and backend stacks, your developers should also be knowledgeable about other tech stacks to adopt the best development approach for your project requirements. 

A tech stack or a solution stack enables developers to work on both the client and server sides of the project software application.

A tech stack consists of the software tools and programming languages used to build a complete mobile or web application. Some common tech stacks your developers should be familiar with are MEAN, MERN, LAMP, etc.

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A MEAN stack uses MongoDB as a NoSQL database, ExpressJS as a web application framework to build a server application in Node.js, and AngularJS as a frontend technology. MERN stack uses React as a frontend technology.

LAMP stack works on Linux operating systems. It uses Apache HTTP server, MySQL as a database, and PHP programming language. 

These frameworks will enable your developers to efficiently streamline business workflow, develop unique product features, assist in future application scaling, etc.

• Mobile Application Development:

You may also want to deliver a mobile application to extend the user market for your cybersecurity solution.

Your developers should be experts in native and hybrid mobile app development if you plan such a project. 

Native apps are built to give an optimized performance on specific device hardware and operating system, i.e. Android or iOS apps. 

To develop an android native app, your software developers should be skilled in programming languages like Kotlin.

They should be experts in using Android IDE and SDK like Android Studio and Android Jetpack. 

Moreover, they should be able to design interactive apps according to Android Material Design Guidelines.

For iOS app development, your software development team should know programming languages like Swift that support efficient app development through extensive library support and easy language syntax.

Your iOS app developers should also be skilled in using an iOS app development IDE like XCode. They should also be able to design interactive apps according to Apple Human Interface Guidelines.

Hybrid apps are gaining popularity as they target a larger consumer market. They enable developers to build a single code base and run it on multiple operating systems. 

Hybrid app development frameworks are built with common web technologies like JavaScript at the backend. Therefore, these are easier to develop and are also cost-effective.

To build secure hybrid apps efficiently your app developers should know frameworks like React Native and Ionic.

Cybersecurity Software Testing

Software application testing is crucial for critical cybersecurity software. Your developers should be skilled in performing testing during each development phase by writing unit and integration test cases.

Penetration testing is another important technique your development team should be skilled in to monitor the security posture of software applications.

In Penetration Testing, hackers authorized by an organization (white hat hackers) penetrate the application and uncover hidden vulnerabilities.

Your developers should also be experts in SAST and DAST.

Static Analysis Security Testing performs code review before its compilation, and Dynamic Analysis Security Testing reviews software for vulnerabilities during runtime.

After performing vigilant quality assurance you can now release your cybersecurity software into the user market.

Post-Launch Cybersecurity Software Maintenance

You will have to implement a post-launch maintenance plan in order to provide your customers with a continuously improving software product.

Your maintenance plan will ensure that the software product is keeping up with all evolving cybersecurity challenges as well as advancements in computing device hardware and operating systems.

For this purpose, you will require software developers experienced in post-deployment software monitoring and improvement.

Partner with an Expert Software Development Company

As implementing a cybersecurity software solution requires a deep understanding of the domain and demands exceptional software development skills, it is necessary that you have access to the best cybersecurity professionals. 

In today’s age of software outsourcing, building an in-house team of software developers is not necessary. The global market of outsourced services reached 92.5 billion US dollars this year.

With outsourcing, you have majorly two options – freelance developers and software development companies.

Although the freelancer marketplace is huge today, it is not a suitable approach for a complex project like cybersecurity software development.

The working model of freelance platforms comes with the following disadvantages:

• A freelance marketplace has a huge number of freelancers on its platforms. It is not possible for them to thoroughly vet each one of these freelancers.
  • You may find extensive talent on such platforms, but the responsibility of screening them for their skills is entirely on you.

• For a complex project like cybersecurity software, you will need multiple software developers. Managing them effectively will be a huge task.
  • Freelance platforms just connect you with the required talent and then leave you to your fate. 
  • You will have to manage your software development team yourself, and if they are in completely different time zones, this can be a problem.

• It is very difficult to demand complete dedication from freelance developers. Freelancers are usually working on multiple projects.
  • There is a big chance they are not giving their hundred percent to your software development project as their time and effort must be divided.
• There is also a lack of certainty and reliability that comes with working with freelance software developers. They may leave your project at any time due to any reason.
  • In such cases, you can’t do much other than find a new freelancer and start again.

Read our guide on how to build a remote software development team for more information.

Although hiring freelancers can save you money, the drawbacks are severe enough to opt for another approach. 

The other option is outsourcing software developers from an expert software development company.

• Software development companies have an extensive pool of software developers, each skilled in a specific software development domain like web applications, machine learning, blockchain technology, etc. 
• You, as a CTO, get the flexibility of maintaining your small in-house development team but being able to expand it at a moment’s notice by outsourcing developers when your project requires it.
• These remote software developers are managed by experienced technical managers who are senior developers themselves.

Read more on our tips on managing remote software developers.

Final Thoughts on Developing Cybersecurity Software

Cybersecurity is always going to be an in-need industry, a need that is only going to grow given the current technology landscape.

Apart from employees’ security awareness training, businesses must invest in robust and efficient cybersecurity software to protect their networks and systems from vulnerabilities.

Although investing your resources in building cybersecurity software is a great idea, it is a big project that requires special individuals.

Cybersecurity software development requires exceptional software development expertise and project management skills. 

If you are unsure where to find the software development team expert in cutting-edge technologies and the latest software development practices, DevTeam.Space can help you via its field-expert software developers community.

DevTeam.Space provides an AI-based project management tool to clients that enables them to monitor their software developers individually and as a team. Moreover, there is a daily and weekly reporting system that details project progress in real-time. 

Let us know your project requirements via this form.

One of our technical managers will get in touch to answer any questions you have and to show how our expert cybersecurity developers can assist you in taking your cybersecurity development project forward efficiently.

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