What is the relationship between Software Lines of Code and Security Bugs ?

Our world today is more connected than ever. We have our pacemakers, 3D printers, Insulin pumps and even cars connected to the internet. Moore's law states that the number of transistors on integrated circuits would double every two years. Or in simple terms, the processing speed will double every two years or 18 months or 12 months.

With the drastic growth in processing powers, we saw a steep increase in the internet connected systems and software. The millennials are too dependent on internet and apps for personal data storage, banking, studies and even employment. The source code of Apollo 11 Guidance system that took the US to the moon and back was published on GitHub. It contains 145,000 Lines of Code (LOC). Now compare that with a space shuttle that uses a 400,000 LOC, curiosity (rover) 2.5 Million LOC, Android 12 Million LOC and Google services which is at a whopping 2 Billion LOC.

Many researches state that, on average, there are around 30 to 50 bugs in 1000 LOC. Now if we do the math, that is nearly 1.5 to 2.5 Million Software bugs for 50 Million Lines of Code. As a result, we see a high increase in security vulnerabilities since the codebases are on a rapid increase.

End of Moore's Law

Most industry experts suggest that the Moore's Law has reached its end. Moore's Law has been driving the digital revolution for more than half a century. There are few new technological architecture emerging which will be commercialized within 10 to 15 years. The growth of Quantum computers and neuromorphic computing will threaten the current technologies such as PKI systems which is used for encrypting our internet traffic.

Ever-Increasing Vulnerability on technologies and software products

The graph below shows that the rate of increase in publicly disclosed vulnerabilities (CVE) each year. If you notice, the year 2017 has the maximum number of vulnerabilities disclosed. This is due to multiple factors such as the increase in Internet connected devices and technologies.

Software companies and developers must focus on the real problem of fixing security bugs on their system rather than focusing on the background noise.

Reference:
CVE Details: http://www.cvedetails.com/
Image Source: https://www.itworld.com/article/2725085/big-data/curiosity-about-lines-of-code.html

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