SBOMs and your org: Go beyond checkbox security to manage risk

Software bills of materials (SBOMs) have moved to the forefront of the battle to protect software pipelines, advanced by heightened awareness of the need for software supply chain security, as well as a nudge from the federal government and industry standards bodies. However, creating SBOMs needs to be more than a checkbox exercise if their full value is to be realized.

It’s a losing proposition to generate SBOMs just to land a federal contract or meet an industry requirement, without analyzing and acting on the SBOM data to improve software security. “An SBOM can reveal a lot about a software product’s components, including potential vulnerabilities and outdated libraries,” said MJ Kaufmann, an author and instructor with O’Reilly Media.

“When organizations treat the SBOM as just another item to check off a list, they may fail to act on this critical information, such as patching vulnerabilities or updating components.”
—MJ Kaufmann

Here’s why your organization needs to go beyond checkbox software security with actionable SBOMs.

[ See Special: Go Beyond the SBOM with Deep Visibility and New Controls for Your Software ]

The SBOM in the age of supply chain…