In March 2025, the cybersecurity community was rocked by a significant supply chain attack targeting a popular third-party GitHub Action, tj-actions/changed-files. This incident, tracked as CVE-2025-30066, has exposed vulnerabilities in up to 23,000 repositories.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued Master Directions on cyber resilience and digital payment system controls emphasizing a "Secure by Design" approach under application security for digital payment systems. This directive underscores the growing importance of robust security measures in India's fast-growing digital payments landscape. It also marks a significant shift toward integrating security at every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). This isn't merely a compliance checkbox; it's a fundamental necessity in today's threat landscape. This blog explores the technical complexities of implementing the framework, addressing key challenges, and presenting CleanStart as a robust solution.