When done the right way, DevOps implementation is sure to bring about better collaboration among teams, faster time to market, improved productivity, enhanced customer satisfaction, and increased efficiency. Unfortunately, all these efficiencies and enhancements that come with DevOps are almost useless without security. That is why DevSecOPs is the introduction of security practices into DevOps.
DevSecOPs stands for development, security, and operations. It is a fluid integration of security and protection throughout the production and development lifecycle of software. Similar to the goal of DevOps, the goal of DevSecOps is to release better software that responds quickly to flaw detection.
The Benefits of DevSecOps
- Faster delivery: The delivery speed of the software is enhanced when security is integrated into the pipeline. Bugs are quickly identified and fixed before deployment, allowing developers to focus on shipping features.
- Reduced costs: Operational costs will be greatly reduced as bugs will be detected in time to prevent any outrageous damage.
- Enhanced security: As a shared responsibility model, DevSecOps ensures security is tightly integrated—from development and deployment to securing production workloads.
- Enhancing overall business success: There is greater trust in the security of developed software and increasing adoption of new technologies enhances revenue growth and overall business success.
How does DevSecOps work?
Software designers and engineers write code and develop software in the development stage. This software can be custom-built used for in-house purposes or an enterprise customer-facing application. They can either be single-purpose or multipurpose.
Development Stage: This is the stage where the real work of building the application commences. After all the software development project requirements must have been put in place, the development team commences activities of “coding” the requirements. This serves as the beginning of the cycle.
Operation Stage: This is the process of monitoring, repairing defects, managing the functionality of the software, and testing updates and changes throughout the software’s life cycle.
Security: Security refers to all the tools and techniques that are needed to design and build software that effectively detects and resists attacks and responds to defects (or actual intrusions) as soon as possible.
DevSecOps Best practises
Companies that want to integrate IT operations, security teams, and application developers need to integrate security into their DevOps workflow. The goal is to make security a major component of the software development workflow, rather than trying to fit it in later during the cycle.
Here are just a few best practices that will make the DevSecOps process run smoothly:
- Automation – Automation is a crucial component of DevSecOps, just like it is in DevOps. Automation of security is required in a CI/CD environment to keep up with the rate of code delivery while maintaining security. This is especially true for large businesses where developers frequently push different versions of their code to production.
When automating security testing, care must be taken. It might be harmful to pick the incorrect automated tools for the wrong jobs. For the majority of developers, It is preferable to use static application security testing (SAST) technologies to continuously monitor and spot any possible problems early in the development process. The success of your company’s products depends on selecting the appropriate security automation tool and implementing it.
- Use DevSecOps for efficiency – For early detection of bugs, flaws, and faults use security to increase efficiency.
- Carry out threat modelling – Exercises in threat modelling can help you identify the weak points in assets and close any security control gaps. You may use Dynamic Data Protection from Forcepoint to pinpoint the riskiest activities taking place throughout the infrastructure and include the required security in your DevSecOps workflows.
Conclusion
While there is still some argument about DevSecOps, it is undoubted that organizations that use DevSecOPs will be able to build powerful, effective, and cost-effective software that increases brand trust and increases the adoption of technology.
