Securing the supply chain for your software might be something that you are putting off, but it is one of the most important things that you can do. A software bill of materials is going to do a lot for you and possibly prevent a lot of headaches for you in the future. You can’t expect to continue putting off a software bill of materials before it’s too late.
There are quite a few reasons why not a software bill of materials having could burn you, and that is what we will be looking at in this post. One of these examples could seriously happen to you, and it would be a tragedy.
If a Maintainer Can’t Work Anymore
Everyone has people that maintain open-source coding and does all of the proper functions to keep everything up and running. But what if that person can no longer work? What if they tragically pass away or abruptly stop working?
Well, you would be really screwed out of luck because if you do not have a software bill of materials then you would not know what to do. A software bill of materials would keep you organized and able to plug in a new person to the role, instead of panicking. There is a major problem in your company if there are people that are irreplaceable because their job is not secured. That is a problem waiting to happen in my opinion.
Employee Transition
Relating to the last point, there should be a proper software supply chain set up to be able to plug in new employees and transition from old employees. You are very vulnerable and at risk, if you can’t easily transition employees. A great software bill of materials would go a long way in helping you out.
It is examples like transitioning employees that should make every person involved rush to get a proper supply chain and software bill of materials set up.
Security Issues
The last point that I have for you is that you are very vulnerable if you do have a correct supply chain and bill of materials set up. Nothing is worse than being paranoid because you do not have the correct safety measures set up to maintain software and keep it up to date. If you do not have the proper systems set up, then how would you know if you are vulnerable? Any time there is software that is out of date or not maintained correctly, then it could lead to security risks.
If you are reading this post, then I am sure that you know the repercussions of not have great cybersecurity in place for your open-source software. By setting up the software OpenBOM has created, you could be on your way to securing that supply chain and software bill of materials.
Thank you for reading as always, and please share this post if it was beneficial for you and you learned something!
