Ensuring safe and stable work with GitHub: TOP rules and recommendations

GitHub is a platform based on a version control system and designed to host IT projects. Today, it is rightfully considered one of the most popular platforms for organizing teamwork and, one might even say, the industry standard. It is widely used by developers to host projects and ensure joint work on code. Thanks to GitHub, specialists from different parts of our planet can make their own adjustments to projects, creating improved versions of the software product.

If you use statistics, then at the end of last year, this service was used by over 40 million programmers from different countries of the world. And most of them use an open source solution. This means that security when working with the platform should be a key priority for everyone who uses GitHub in their work. Reusing code is what significantly increases the risk of spreading vulnerabilities. That is, the issue of data protection on this service remains relevant for a huge number of developers, and in all countries of the world. But despite all efforts, the platform still makes the news due to incidents related to malware and other vulnerabilities that pose a serious threat, including those associated with the possibility of deleting important data.

In today's review, we will dwell in detail on what GitHub is and why it should not be confused with Git. We will talk about how developers can protect their environment on the platform. We will also consider the issue of backup, as one of the key ones in the process of ensuring stable and secure work with GitHub. The information presented will allow you to understand this issue in detail and organize for yourself the most convenient and secure environment when working with this service.

A few words about what GitHub is

GitHub is a cloud platform designed for hosting IT projects, as well as for joint development of a group of specialists. It is based on the extremely popular version control system Git, from which, in fact, the platform got its name, as well as a fully functional social network created specifically for software developers.

The fact that today GitHub is used by a huge number of specialists from different countries of the world is largely due to the wide functionality and ease of use of the platform. Here you can find a huge number of open-source projects presented in different languages. Among them, you can choose solutions where you can participate or place your own portfolio, add code examples to it, and then attach a link to your resume. As a result, it will be possible to view open projects and find interesting architectural solutions in them, watch how other developers write code and even download useful development tools for yourself, completely free of charge and in a fairly good variety. There are also those who have already managed to collect quite an impressive library of useful books, expert articles, and not just individual program codes from GitHub.

Thanks to the presence of a built-in social network, programmers who are dissatisfied with a particular feature presented in an open program on the platform can always speak out in the comments, indicate their distrust, offer their own vision. This is what is designed to improve the quality of finished projects, draw attention to good, promising solutions. Along with negative comments containing criticism, the platform also calls for gratitude to the developers of good open projects. Along with warm words, these can also be donations. This is what will stimulate specialists to develop really cool products.

GitHub is actively used not only by individual specialists, but also by programmers working in large companies. They also actively store their projects on this platform, because it is really convenient, including during complex teamwork. We would like to draw your attention to another well-known resource, also based on Git - GitLab. Despite their significant similarity in terms of functionality, these platforms are still different products. Moreover, they compete with each other. That is, you should initially decide which of the platforms best suits your needs, GitLab or GitHub, and then proceed to direct use.

If you are betting on GitHub, read the review below, since here we will talk about organizing safe work with this platform.

Ways to organize a secure environment on GitHub

Creating for yourself the most secure and safe environment for work on the GitHub platform is something that absolutely every developer interacting with this platform should think about. And here we would like to draw your attention to a number of recommendations that can provide quite impressive results in practice:

1. Thoroughly check all applications from GitHub.
2. Check the code imported from GitHub.
3. Static code analysis is performed for repositories.
4. Correct selection of the GitHub tariff for your own needs.
5. A comprehensive security policy is ensured in your projects.

For a better understanding of the features and scope of the upcoming work, let's consider each of these aspects in more detail.

Thoroughly check applications before adding them from GitHub

One of the mandatory aspects of safe interaction with the GitHub platform can rightfully be called increased caution. Among other things, it will manifest itself in ensuring high-quality and comprehensive verification of all those applications that you will download for yourself and from the platform. If you have already worked here, you probably noticed how widely various applications are presented on this platform. Products created by individual developers or large specialized companies are publicly available here.

But, unfortunately, it is impossible to determine purely visually how reliable all these products will be in practice. Therefore, do not make hasty movements. Pay attention to pre-checking each software product that you will add to your repository. That is, when installing an application, follow these rules:

• focus on the principle of least privilege: this means that you should never grant applications more access rights than is necessary to ensure work with them;
• carefully check the information confirming that the company that has posted its product on GitHub or an individual developer really exists: you should do this before giving them access to your own repository;
• all access rights or permissions that will come as a request from this or that application should be questioned: evaluate what damage this can cause you if this or that level of access is provided;
• carefully study the functionality and security organization of each of the software products that you plan to work with: this is what will allow you to protect yourself from hacking or at least minimize the occurrence of such problems.

We also recommend that you pay attention to that the security of any application that you plan to download from the GitHub platform is important to evaluate based on its weakest part. As a developer, you probably know such problematic elements in many types of applications. And this means that with a high degree of probability you will know which of them are worth paying special attention to. That is, a comprehensive check is, if not the only, then one of the most effective ways to understand whether this product is worthy of taking a worthy place in your repository and whether it corresponds to the level that was originally requested.

Pay attention to checking all the code that you import from GitHub

GitHub is often used not only by those who are interested in the software product as a whole, but also by developers who want to get a separate code fragment. All the rules that we talked about in the previous block will be relevant in this case. Before copying a code element from third-party developers into your product, be sure to check it. In this case, there is a risk that along with this code, you will pull a malicious element into your repository, that is, make it vulnerable.

Also, we must not forget that the imported code may contain some confidential information, including access data. If it turns out that all this is stored on GitHub, then you will automatically face another risk. Checking the code for vulnerabilities before copying it is what will allow you to identify such phenomena and minimize your own risks. We do not recommend under any circumstances to think that someone else's code will be safe just because it is stored in a closed repository. By using it thoughtlessly and without additional checks, you risk causing serious harm to your own code base.

We use static code analysis for repositories

In order to minimize manual work, as well as to avoid various risks associated with copying unverified code, we recommend using third-party tools to analyze your repository. In particular, in this case, we are talking about you connecting an additional product to work that can scan your repository in automatic mode and identify potential vulnerabilities. Ideally, this should be done in all open parts of the code, and also be able to provide detailed information about the problem itself, as well as offer the most effective ways to solve it.

Study the GitHub Marketplace library carefully, since such software products are presented here in a fairly wide variety. Alternatively, you can opt for WhiteSource Bolt. It fully meets the requirements we discussed above. That is, it will be able to scan the repository and identify vulnerabilities, as well as offer the most effective ways to solve such a problem.

Choosing a GitHub plan for your own needs

Despite the fact that the GitHub platform is in high demand and in demand among developers, many companies have set strict requirements, within the framework of which it is prohibited to place their codes on this platform. Similar restrictions are also set for other similar services. This is especially relevant for companies that work in the financial sector, various government agencies. In principle, there is a reasonable note in this, since even minor fragments of program code can cause a leak of important confidential information.

But the presence of such restrictions is not a reason to refuse all the opportunities that GitHub provides. In particular, for clients working in a strictly regulated niche, the platform offers an exclusive corporate tariff, within which the entire repository will be stored on a local server. We are talking about a tariff such as GitHub Enterprise. And here, higher security indicators are already provided from the start. Within its framework, users get access to absolutely all projects, without even paying attention to other users of the platform.

We focus on a comprehensive security policy in our projects

Here you should understand that security in GitHub is not an individual, but a collective responsibility. That is, if teamwork is carried out, it is important to provide such rules that each employee and all other interested parties would follow. That is, in the end, you should receive a certain combination of solutions from the cybersecurity and development team already at the work planning stage. This is what will help ensure the most flexible collaboration. As a result, it will be much easier for you to create high security indicators during the creation of software products.

But even a very carefully built security system can collapse at any moment if someone from your team neglects the rules, does not store passwords or any other sensitive information properly. As a result, your entire repository may be at risk. It is optimal to document the entire security process, provide this set of rules to each specialist and point out the importance of following them.

By following the rules we have given above, you will be able to ensure fairly good indicators of safe work with the GitHub platform. In some cases, you can integrate additional tools designed to increase code security at any stage of development. We recommend that you pay special attention to the security documentation of the platform itself, both for businesses and for ordinary users working with the platform completely free of charge. Perhaps you will find interesting and useful information for yourself here.

But still, in order to ensure the highest possible indicators of security for your work with GitHub, it is important to pay due attention to the backup system. The effectiveness of your data protection directly depends on how well you organize these works. We will tell you how to implement all this correctly below.

Why is it important to perform backups when working with GitHub

As the popularity of the GitHub platform has grown, the number of incidents affecting the interests of users has also steadily increased. In particular, over the past year it has increased by more than 20%. At the same time, about 14% of them had a serious negative impact on the operation of the service as a whole.

If we analyze what is happening this year, the situation is clearly not improving. Among all the incidents, there are those that require only technical maintenance to fix the problem, but there are also more serious cases that carry both reputational and financial risks. Considering the fact that users have recently begun to pay much more attention to ensuring security when working on the service, the situation is not improving much. This indicates that cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated.

If you want to improve the stability of working with GitHub, minimize various problems, reduce the risks from various vulnerabilities, then we recommend paying due attention to backup. The advantage of this solution is that no matter what incidents occur, you will always be prepared even for the worst-case scenario, that is, you will be able to:

• protect your own repositories, metadata on the GitHub platform from various failures and unforeseen threats, quickly restoring a copy in any other place, which will ensure the continuity of business processes;
• protect your work from errors and risks associated with the human factor, including accidental deletion of important information;
• implement all the requirements that the shared responsibility model implemented on GitHub implies: it specifies the roles and responsibilities of each individual user;
• restore data very quickly if you find yourself under a ransomware attack: in this case, backup is this is, so to speak, the last line of defense;
• comply with all those requirements and protocols in the field of secure data storage, requiring the company to store backup data for a longer period of time and have recovery guarantees.

But here it is also very important to implement the upcoming work correctly, because any errors made at the backup stage can negatively affect the overall efficiency of these works. There is a risk that you simply will not be able to correctly implement backup.

10 tips for effective implementation of backup on GitHub

Now we will introduce you to 10 practical techniques that will help you implement backup on the GitHub platform as effectively as possible, thereby increasing your resilience to cyber threats. Take them into service to minimize potential risks in the event that other security solutions do not give the desired result. In particular, we are talking about the following recommendations:

1. Ensure the most comprehensive data coverage. This means that you take into account not only all repositories, but also metadata, including pull requests, ongoing tasks and comments on them, labels, webhooks, deploy keys, wikis, projects, Git LFS, containers. Only in this way can you ensure the full integrity of your repository and comprehensive data protection.
2. Use different backup schemes in your work. This is what will allow you to minimize the load on the storage. Use different rotation schemes and implementations for individual backups. In practice, you can use full, differential and incremental copies.
3. Automate the backup process. You should develop appropriate policies in advance and set the time interval based on which backups will be performed automatically. Alternatively, you can set up copies to be created every 2-3 hours.
4. Pay attention to the consistency of multiple repositories. It is important for you to provide for the placement of a copy in different storage locations, which will minimize the risk of serious consequences in the event of a serious threat. In this case, it is worth using the so-called "3-2-1" rule. According to it, you need to have at least 3 backup copies in at least 2 storage locations, and one of them must be remote. At the same time, it is recommended to use not only local but also cloud storage for storing the repository and related data.
5. Focus on long-term storage. This is due to the compliance with the requirements for data recovery, and from any point in the past. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that by default, GitHub can store logs for 90 days. But for many organizations, this will not be enough. This is especially true for those working in regulated industries. If you want, you can set a longer retention period. In some cases, it is important to organize so-called unlimited storage, which allows companies to restore their repository created several years ago.
6. Provide for backup replication. We have already mentioned above that backups should be stored in different places, but it is also very important to organize replication between these places. This is the action that will ensure that all copies are consistent. And even if one of the storages stops working, you will be able to restore from any other.
7. Provide for transparent management and constant monitoring. In this case, we are talking about not all members of your team having equal access to backups. This means that the software you use should allow for the distribution of access rights, assigning different responsibilities to certain team members. Alternatively, one of your programmers should be responsible for setting up backups on the GitHub platform, and another - start recovery in case of failure, the third is to monitor backup performance. You can also separately engage the services of a system administrator who will single-handedly keep the entire backup process under control. It is also very important to set up notifications. We are talking about receiving information that the backup has been completed or that automatic recovery has occurred in case of failure and knowing all the details of this process. You can receive such notifications by e-mail or in other ways. But you can also use a special console, which will display complete information based on current tasks, SLA, data and reports on compliance with current requirements.
8. Organize an additional level of protection against ransomware. We have already said above that backup is the last line in ensuring the security of your repositories and associated data. The use of so-called immutable storage will help provide protection against ransomware. With its help, all data will be stored in a non-executable format, that is, it will be initially ready for any attack format. If an attacker manages to get them, he will not be able to decrypt them and use them for his own purposes. But if you need backup recovery, you will be able to extract this information and decrypt it using specialized programs. It is also important to provide secure access authorization. Experts recommend using SAML SSO protocols in practice.
9. Use encryption both in transit and at rest. You must understand that the GitHub repository, along with its metadata, must be comprehensively protected, regardless of the state it is in at a given time. It is optimal to set up a personal encryption key, which will be an additional measure to ensure security. The encryption key itself should be stored on a third-party device and can only be accessed during the backup process. This is what will allow you to configure compliance with the zero-encryption approach.
10. For fast and effective disaster recovery, it is important to have a consistent GitHub backup available. This is what will allow you to restore information in the event of a server failure, ransomware attack, infrastructure issues, etc. Data can be restored to the same account or a new one, to a local computer or to another Git platform, such as GitLab, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket. It is best to organize the recovery process so that existing data is not overwritten, but restored as a new file. It is also important to provide the ability to fully or partially restore.

If you use these rules, you will be able to set up a fairly effective backup, which will be the key to quickly restoring information from GitHub if such a need arises. But in any case, it is important for you to understand how effective the work you have done will be in practice. That is, it is important to make sure that the chosen strategy will prove to be effective in practice.

How to understand that your GitHub backup is implemented correctly?

In order for your GitHub backup to be effective, you must implement all 10 tips that we described above. But in any case, your entire strategy here should be built taking into account the size and specifics of the platform ecosystem, take into account potential risks, and comply with security requirements and regulatory documents. Many specialists in practice use the archive download option for individual files and folders, backup scripts. But here you need to understand that in this case automation will not be provided, that is, you will not receive proper protection from ransomware in this case. The fact is that such a solution shifts responsibility for protecting the data provided on the site to the user.

As an alternative solution, you can connect specialized software created specifically for organizing backups to work here. With its help, you can easily distribute roles in protecting data on the site, create good availability and automatic recovery in the event that a vulnerability manifests itself.

That is, you should rely on automated solutions in backup procedures, as well as ensure maximum data coverage, provide correct places for storing copies, take into account protection from ransomware, and set up fast auto-recovery. Only by implementing all these works, you can be sure that each line of the source code will be, if not protected, then at least not lost in the event of unforeseen situations and active actions of intruders.

Summing up

We hope that now you have realized how important it is to ensure high security indicators for GitHub repositories and other related data, and also know how to implement all this in practice as correctly as possible. But even if you managed to implement as correctly as possible all the works that we indicated above, do not forget to also provide for backup, connecting automated software solutions to it. Here, it is also worth following the recommendations that we gave above. In this case, you will be able to quickly restore all the information from the repository if you suddenly encounter intruders or even accidentally lose important information.

For all those who deal with software development and testing in their professional activities, we recommend that you additionally connect mobile proxies from the MobileProxy.Space service to your work. You can find out more about what this product is, what functionality it has, and current tariffs at the link https://mobileproxy.space/en/user.html?buyproxy. But in any case, thanks to mobile proxies, you will receive maximum security and anonymity when working on the Internet, you will be able to bypass regional restrictions, and test applications in the conditions of a particular local market. And all this without the slightest risk of running into blocking or other sanctions from the system.

If you encounter any difficulties in your subsequent work, or need competent assistance, please contact the 24-hour technical support service.

Share this article: