LDRA Takes Leadership Role in Security Compliance

Military Embedded Systems recognizes LDRA’s CWE offering with Editor’s Choice Award

Wirral, UK, July 19, 2011. LDRA, the leader in standards compliance, automated software verification, source code analysis and test tools, won the attention of Military Embedded Systems (MES) editors with its announcement that the LDRA tool suite is now capable of testing software for Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Compatibility. By awarding the Editor’s Choice award to this announcement, MES recognizes both the criticality of security in today’s increasingly connected systems and LDRA’s leadership in preventing the catastrophic impact a security breach can cause to a company’s revenue, brand and customer trust.

The CWE project involves an international, community-developed formal list of common software weaknesses. Sponsored by the National Cyber Security Division of the U.S. Department of HomelandSecurity, the CWE project aims to better understand flaws in software and to create automated tools thatcan be used to identify, fix and prevent those flaws. For the LDRA tool suite, CWE Compatibility ensurescompanies can eliminate most security vulnerabilities early in the development lifecycle, lower downstream testing costs, and mitigate the risk of a devastating security breach.

“In an increasingly connected world, systems fundamental to our infrastructure such as our power grid, communications and finances are vulnerable to external attack,” noted Sharon Hess, OpenSystems Media, Assistant Managing Editor, Military and Aerospace Group. “Unfortunately, much of ourvulnerability stems from exploitation of coding errors. Such errors could easily be avoided by implementing security standards that tools such as the LDRA tool suite can enforce through staticanalysis, dynamic analysis and unit testing.”

LDRA’s commitment to software security is a natural extension to a 35-year commitment to programming standards and industry certification. From its inception, LDRA has advocated for software quality bydesign, a mantra VDC Research applied to security in its blog “The New (Read: Old) Demon ofEmbedded Device Development.” VDC asserted, “To focus on the ‘secure by design’ methods, which webelieve to be a critical first step to secure device deployment, we view there to be three distinct approaches: development tools targeted at precluding the introduction of security vulnerabilities, testing tools, and the implementation of specific run-time software (e.g. RTOS, hypervisor, etc.).”

“Research at the National Institute of Security Technology indicates that 64% of software vulnerabilities stem from programming errors,” notes Ian Hennell, LDRA Operations Director. “Because of this, our goalis to encourage development teams to program security in by starting at the requirements level andapplying security standards throughout the entire development lifecycle. Such a proactive stance mitigates risk, dramatically cuts costs and enables teams to identify errors early instead of at the systemslevel where it’s much more expensive to correct those errors.”

LDRA addresses security in all aspects of the LDRA tool suite. CWE compatibility is enforced via static and dynamic analysis as well as during unit testing. This same level of enforcement extends to the CERTC Secure Coding standard which aims to eliminate insecure coding practises and undefined behavioursthat lead to exploitable vulnerabilities.

Both CWE and CERT C are managed by LDRA’s TBsecure which interfaces with the LDRA tool suite toeasily show how source code performs against security vulnerabilities, fault-detection and adherence tothe required security standards. Findings from TBsecure’s application of CERT C and CWE coding rules graphically illustrate code quality, fault detection and avoidance measures through call graphs, flowgraphs and code review reports. Managers and team developers can collectively monitor theimplementation of security metrics in their applications in an easy-to-read, intuitive format.

“Enforcing security standards represents the same commitment to software quality that LDRA hasadvocated for more than 35 years,” added Hennell. “LDRA champions software quality not only in the tools it produces, but by committing executive and field application engineer involvement in the technical committees of nine standards committees.”

Media Contacts:

Janice Hughes, Hughes Communications, Inc., Media Relations
Tel: +1 (705) 549-8952, Mobile: (705) 774-8686, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Mark James, LDRA, Marketing Manager
Tel: +44 (0)151 649 9300, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This press release and associated images (in high-resolution compressed jpeg format) can be downloaded from www.hughescom.net.

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About LDRA

For more than 35 years, LDRA has developed and driven the market for software that automates codeanalysis and software testing for safety-, mission-, security- and business-critical markets. Working withclients to achieve early error identification and full compliance with industry standards, LDRA tracesrequirements through static and dynamic analysis to unit testing and verification for a wide variety ofhardware and software platforms. Boasting a worldwide presence, LDRA is headquartered in the UK withsubsidiaries in the United States and an extensive distributor network. For more information on the LDRAtool suite, please visit: www.ldra.com.

About OpenSystems Media

OpenSystems Media has been a leading publisher of electronics magazines, e-mail newsletters,websites, and product resource guides for more than 20 years. OpenSystems Media offers E-casts andTechcasts for engineers and provides interactive tools where engineers can communicate directly withpresenters and top industry editors. Current publications include: CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, & MicroTCA Systems; DSP-FPGA.com; Embedded Computing Design; Industrial Embedded Systems;Military Embedded Systems; PC/104 and Small Form Factors; and VME and Critical Systems. For moreinformation, visit www.opensystemsmedia.com.

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