5 Security as a process
In this chapter
- Why you should have two people implement changes to critical systems
- How restricting permissions to members of your organization can keep you safe
- How you can use automation and code reuse to prevent human error
- Why automated testing and deployment are key to secure releases
- Why audit trails are important in detecting security events
- How important it is to learn from your security mistakes
The Forth Bridge is a 8,094 feet long cantilevered railway bridge over the river Forth, to the west of Edinburgh in Scotland. When built, it was considered to be an engineering marvel—the first major structure in Britain to be built from steel. The choice of materials also posed a maintenance problem: to protect the steel from the harsh Scottish winters, all 9 miles of the bridge needed to be covered in paint.
Painting began as soon as construction was complete. Given the length of the bridge, a permanent painting crew worked on upkeep continuously. For the Scots, “Painting the Forth Bridge” became a colloquial expression for a never-ending task; they came to believe that the paint crew would reach one end and then have to begin working on a full repaint at the other.