Ask HN: Any recommended companies that can do security audits for startups?

3 pointsbhb17y ago7 comments

I'm wondering whether or not a professional security audit would be a good investment. While we're working hard to build a very secure system, I think an outside perspective could help us identify threats we hadn't considered.

7 comments

4 comments · 2 top-level

jamess17y ago· 2 in thread

What sort of price are you looking to pay? I've written a lot of secure software in the past, and I may well be able to recommend a couple of firms who have done a similar job for me but I'm afraid they don't come terribly cheap.

bhbOP17y ago

Honestly, I don't really know what kind of price is standard (or even the amount of time a audit would take). Can you give me a ballpark number?

Off the top of my head (which is likely to be way off), I was expecting something between $1000 - $3000

jamess17y ago

Oh, OK. The number I was looking for something close to had a couple more zeros on the end of it, I'm afraid. A decent code audit will take about a quarter of the time it took to write the code and its accompanying tests, and is an extremely specialised job. I'm not sure I can recommend anything in that sort of price range.

What is it you're actually wanting audited, and what is at stake if it turns out to be broken?

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yan17y ago

Paging tptacek.

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