Secure Development Policy

Purpose

To ensure that information security is designed and implemented within the development life cycle for applications and information systems.

Scope

All AlignAI Labs, Inc. applications and information systems that are business critical and/or process, store, or transmit Confidential data. This policy applies to all internal and external engineers and developers of AlignAI Labs, Inc. software and infrastructure.

Policy

This policy describes the rules for the acquisition and development of software and systems that shall be applied to developments within the AlignAI Labs, Inc. organization.

System Change Control Procedures

Changes to systems within the development life cycle shall be controlled by the use of formal change control procedures. Change control procedures and requirements are described in the AlignAI Labs, Inc. Operations Security Policy.

Significant code changes must be reviewed and approved by a developer before being merged into any production branch in accordance with the release process found here: Release Management.

Change control procedures shall ensure that development, testing and deployment of changes shall not be performed by a single individual without approval and oversight.

Software Version Control

All AlignAI Labs, Inc. software is version controlled and synced between contributors (developers).Access to the central repository is restricted based on an employee’s role. All code is written, tested, and saved in a local repository before being synced to the origin repository.

Technical Review of Applications after Operating Platform Changes

When operating platforms are changed, business critical applications shall be reviewed and tested to ensure that there is no adverse impact on organizational operations or security.

Restrictions on Changes to Software Packages

Modifications to third-party business application packages shall be discouraged, limited to necessary changes and all changes shall be strictly controlled.

Secure System Engineering Principles

Principles for engineering secure systems shall be established, documented, maintained and applied to any information system implementation efforts.

At a minimum, the following secure-by-design and privacy-by-design principles shall be applied:

Secure-by-design principles:

Minimize attack surface area
Establish secure defaults
The principle of Least privilege
The principle of defense in depth
Fail securely
Don’t trust services
Separation of duties
Avoid security by obscurity
Keep security simple
Fix security issues correctly

Privacy-by-design principles:

Proactive not Reactive; Preventative not Remedial
Privacy as the Default Setting
Privacy Embedded into Design
Full Functionality - Positive-Sum, not Zero-Sum
End-to-End Security - Full Life cycle Protection
Visibility and Transparency - Keep it Open
Respect for User Privacy - Keep it User-Centric

Engineering documentation and technical references can be found in the AlignAI Tech Docs here.

Software developers are expected to adhere to AlignAI Labs, Inc.’s coding standards throughout the development cycle, including standards for quality, commenting, and security.

Secure Development Environment

AlignAI Labs, Inc. shall establish and appropriately protect environments for system development and integration efforts that cover the entire system development life cycle. The following environments shall be logically or physically segregated:

Production Test / Staging

Development

Outsourced Development

AlignAI Labs, Inc. shall supervise and monitor the activity of outsourced system development. Outsourced development shall adhere to all AlignAI Labs, Inc. standards and policies.

System Security Testing

Testing of security functionality shall be performed at defined periods during the development life cycle. No code shall be deployed to AlignAI Labs, Inc. production systems without documented, successful test results and evidence of security remediation activities.

Application Vulnerability Management

Application code should be scanned prior to deployment. Patches to address application vulnerabilities that materially impact security should be deployed within 90 days of discovery.

System Acceptance Testing

Acceptance testing programs and related criteria shall be established for new information systems, upgrades and new versions.

Prior to deploying code, a Release Checklist MUST be completed which includes a checklist of all Test Plans which show the completion of all associated tests and remediation of identified issues.

Protection of Test Data

Test data shall be selected carefully, protected and controlled. Confidential customer data shall be protected in accordance with all contracts and commitments. Customer data shall not be used for testing purposes without the explicit permission of the data owner and the Chief Technology Officer.

Acquisition of Third-Party Systems and Software

The acquisition of third-party systems and software shall be done in accordance with the requirements of the AlignAI Labs, Inc. Third-Party Management Policy.

Developer Training

Software developers shall be provided with secure development training appropriate to their role at least annually. Training content shall be determined by management but shall address the prevention of common web application attacks and vulnerabilities. The following threats and vulnerabilities should be addressed as appropriate:

prevention of authorization bypass attacks prevention of the use of insecure session IDsprevention of Injection attacks prevention of cross-site scripting attacks prevention of cross-site request forgery attacks prevention of the use of vulnerable libraries

Exceptions

Requests for an exception to this Policy must be submitted to the Chief Technology Officer for approval.

Violations & Enforcement

Any known violations of this policy should be reported to the Chief Technology Officer. Violations of this policy can result in immediate withdrawal or suspension of system and network privileges and/or disciplinary action in accordance with company procedures up to and including termination of employment.