Build Security Into Every Layer

What is Security Engineering?

Security engineering is the practice of designing, building, and maintaining systems that resist attacks, protect data, and maintain availability even under adversarial conditions. It goes beyond traditional security approaches that bolt on protection at the end—instead embedding security into every layer of your technology stack from the ground up.

Modern security engineering encompasses application security, infrastructure security, network security, identity and access management, security monitoring, and incident response. It requires a systematic approach that addresses people, processes, and technology together.

At Salt, we help organizations build security engineering capabilities that protect their business while enabling innovation. Our approach shifts security left—catching vulnerabilities early when they're cheap to fix—while maintaining defense in depth through multiple layers of controls.

Why Security Engineering Matters

The cost of security failures continues to rise. Data breaches now average over $4 million in damages, not counting reputational harm and customer trust erosion. Regulatory requirements like GDPR, CCPA, and industry-specific regulations (HIPAA, PCI-DSS) carry significant penalties for non-compliance.

Meanwhile, attack surfaces are expanding. Cloud adoption, microservices, APIs, and remote work create more entry points for attackers. Traditional perimeter security can't protect modern distributed architectures. Security engineering provides the comprehensive approach needed for today's threat landscape.

DevSecOps: Security in the Development Pipeline

DevSecOps integrates security practices into DevOps workflows. Instead of security being a gate at the end of development, it becomes a continuous activity throughout the software development lifecycle. This shift-left approach catches vulnerabilities early when they're cheaper to fix and doesn't slow down delivery.

Key DevSecOps Practices

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST): Analyze source code for vulnerabilities during development. Tools like SonarQube, Checkmarx, and Semgrep scan code for security issues before it's deployed.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): Test running applications for vulnerabilities. Tools like OWASP ZAP and Burp Suite simulate attacks against deployed applications.
• Software Composition Analysis (SCA): Identify vulnerabilities in open source dependencies. Tools like Snyk, Dependabot, and Renovate track CVEs in your dependency tree.
• Container Security: Scan container images for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. Tools like Trivy, Aqua, and Snyk Container secure your container supply chain.
• Infrastructure as Code Scanning: Check Terraform, CloudFormation, and other IaC for security misconfigurations. Tools like Checkov, tfsec, and KICS catch issues before deployment.

Building Security Gates

Security gates in CI/CD pipelines automatically block deployments that don't meet security requirements. These gates can be configured with different severity thresholds—blocking critical issues while allowing warnings to proceed with remediation tickets. The key is finding the right balance between security and velocity for your organization.

Application Security

Application security focuses on protecting your software from attacks throughout its lifecycle. This includes secure design, secure coding practices, security testing, and runtime protection.

Threat Modeling

Threat modeling identifies potential security issues early in design. Using frameworks like STRIDE or PASTA, we analyze your application architecture to identify threats, vulnerabilities, and appropriate countermeasures. This proactive approach is far more effective than finding issues in production.

Secure Code Review

Beyond automated scanning, manual secure code review identifies logic flaws and complex vulnerabilities that tools miss. We review authentication, authorization, input validation, cryptography, and other security-critical code paths.

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing simulates real-world attacks against your applications. Our security engineers attempt to bypass controls, escalate privileges, and access sensitive data—then provide detailed remediation guidance for any vulnerabilities discovered.

API Security

APIs are a primary attack vector in modern applications. We assess API authentication, authorization, rate limiting, input validation, and data exposure. API security testing covers both REST and GraphQL APIs.

Cloud Security

Cloud security requires a different approach than traditional data center security. The shared responsibility model means cloud providers secure infrastructure, but you're responsible for securing your workloads, data, and access.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

CSPM tools continuously monitor cloud configurations against security best practices and compliance requirements. We implement tools like AWS Security Hub, Azure Defender, Prowler, and ScoutSuite to identify misconfigurations before attackers exploit them.

Identity and Access Management

IAM is the foundation of cloud security. We design and implement least-privilege access policies, role-based access control, service accounts, and temporary credentials. Proper IAM prevents the lateral movement that enables major breaches.

Network Security

Cloud network security includes VPC design, security groups, network ACLs, private endpoints, and WAF configuration. We implement network segmentation that limits blast radius and protects sensitive workloads.

Data Protection

Data protection includes encryption at rest, encryption in transit, key management, and data classification. We implement encryption using cloud-native KMS services and ensure proper key rotation and access controls.

Zero Trust Architecture

Zero trust is a security model that assumes no implicit trust—every request must be verified regardless of source. This contrasts with traditional perimeter security that trusts internal network traffic. Zero trust principles are essential for protecting modern distributed architectures.

Zero Trust Principles

• Verify explicitly: Always authenticate and authorize based on all available data points including user identity, device health, location, and behavior.
• Use least privilege access: Limit access with just-in-time and just-enough-access policies. Time-bound access prevents persistent privileges.
• Assume breach: Design systems assuming attackers are already inside. Minimize blast radius through segmentation and continuous monitoring.

Implementing Zero Trust

Zero trust implementation includes identity-aware proxies, micro-segmentation, continuous verification, and comprehensive logging. We help organizations adopt zero trust incrementally, starting with critical applications and expanding coverage over time.

Compliance Automation

Compliance with regulations like SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and ISO 27001 requires demonstrating security controls are in place and operating effectively. Manual compliance is expensive and error-prone. Compliance automation ensures consistent controls and simplifies audit preparation.

Policies as Code

Codifying security policies enables consistent enforcement and audit trails. Tools like Open Policy Agent (OPA), Kyverno, and cloud-native policy engines automatically enforce policies across infrastructure and applications.

Continuous Compliance Monitoring

Rather than point-in-time audits, continuous compliance monitoring validates controls in real-time. Compliance dashboards show current status, and alerts notify when drift occurs. This approach maintains compliance rather than scrambling before audits.

Automated Evidence Collection

Audits require evidence that controls are operating. Automated evidence collection gathers logs, configurations, and screenshots without manual effort. This reduces audit preparation from weeks to hours.

Security Monitoring & Incident Response

Even with strong preventive controls, incidents occur. Security monitoring provides visibility to detect threats quickly, and incident response procedures ensure effective containment and remediation.

SIEM Implementation

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems aggregate logs from across your environment, correlate events, and alert on suspicious activity. We implement SIEM solutions like Splunk, Datadog Security, Elastic SIEM, and cloud-native security services.

Detection Engineering

Effective detection requires well-tuned rules and models. We develop detection rules based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework, tuned to your environment to minimize false positives while catching real threats.

Incident Response

When incidents occur, rapid response limits damage. We develop incident response procedures, playbooks, and runbooks that enable your team to respond effectively. Regular tabletop exercises ensure preparedness.

Security Engineering Best Practices

Based on implementing security programs for organizations of all sizes, these best practices improve security outcomes:

Shift Left

Catch security issues as early as possible in the development lifecycle. A vulnerability found in design costs 10x less to fix than one found in production. Integrate security into requirements, design, coding, and testing phases.

Automate Everything

Manual security processes don't scale and are error-prone. Automate security scanning, policy enforcement, compliance monitoring, and evidence collection. Automation enables consistent security without slowing delivery.

Defense in Depth

Don't rely on a single security control. Layer multiple controls so that if one fails, others catch the threat. Combine preventive, detective, and responsive controls for comprehensive protection.

Assume Breach

Design systems assuming attackers will get in. Implement segmentation to limit lateral movement, detect anomalous behavior, and have incident response procedures ready. This mindset leads to more resilient architectures.

Security Culture

Security is everyone's responsibility, not just the security team's. Build security awareness through training, make security tools developer-friendly, and celebrate security wins. Culture change is as important as technical controls.

Why Salt for Security Engineering Services?

Salt brings a differentiated approach to security engineering. Here's what sets us apart:

Security + Engineering Expertise: Our team combines deep security knowledge with strong software engineering skills. We don't just identify vulnerabilities—we help you fix them with production-quality code and infrastructure changes.

Developer-First Approach: We design security solutions that developers actually use. Security tools that slow down development get bypassed. Our implementations balance security with developer experience.

Full-Stack Coverage: From application code to cloud infrastructure, we secure every layer. Our managed pods include security engineers who work alongside your development team.

SPARK™ Delivery Framework: Our SPARK™ framework brings structure to security implementations. Clear phases, quality gates, and success metrics ensure predictable delivery. You always know where you are and what's next.

Continuous Security: Security isn't a one-time project. We help establish continuous security practices—automated scanning, regular assessments, and ongoing monitoring—that maintain security over time.

Knowledge Transfer: We don't just secure—we teach. Every engagement includes documentation and training so your team can maintain and evolve security practices independently.

Ready to strengthen your security posture? Schedule a free security assessment with our team to discuss your security goals and how Salt can help you build secure systems.