DevSecOps best practices
DevOps isn’t just about development and operations teams. If you want to take full advantage of the agility and responsiveness of a DevOps approach, IT security must also play an integrated role in the full life cycle of your apps.
In the past, the role of security was isolated to a specific team in the final stage of development. That wasn’t as problematic when development cycles lasted months or even years, but those days are over. Effective DevOps ensures rapid and frequent development cycles (sometimes weeks or days), but outdated security practices can undo even the most efficient DevOps initiatives.
Now, in the collaborative framework of DevOps, security is a shared responsibility integrated from end to end. It’s a mindset that is so important, it led some to coin the term "DevSecOps" to emphasize the need to build a security foundation into DevOps initiatives.
The following factors facilitate and constitute an important role in implementing DevSecOps.
Practice Secure Coding
The obvious importance of secure coding is the ability to develop software that has a high resistance to vulnerabilities. Not practicing secure coding may invite a multitude of software security risks, such as a breach of an organization’s confidential information. Hence, it’s crucial that developers are skilled enough to do it—even if it translates to a time and cost investment. Establishing and adhering to coding standards also come in handy, as they help developers write clean code.
Embrace Automation
Just like it is in DevOps, automation is a key characteristic in DevSecOps. In order to match the pace of security with your code delivery in a CI/CD environment, automation of security is a necessity. This is especially true for large organizations where developers push various versions of code to production multiple times a day.
It’s important to be thoughtful when automating security testing. Choosing the wrong automated tools for the wrong purposes can be detrimental. Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools are widely preferred to continuously check and identify any potential issues early in the development cycle. Choosing the right security automation tool and going forward with it is crucial for the success of company’s products.
Shift Left
The shift left testing approach means baking security into your applications at the very beginning, instead of waiting until the final stages of the delivery chain. The obvious advantage of doing this is you can identify potential vulnerabilities and work on resolving them sooner. And the earlier you find any bugs, the cheaper it will be for you to fix them. So it’s a great practice, but it does come with its fair share of complications. A common challenge is that shifting left might temporarily disrupt your existing DevOps process workflow. Overcoming this might be hard, but it’s definitely a best practice to shift left in the long run if you adopt DevSecOps.
People, Process, and Technology
The holy trinity of people, process, and technology plays a major role in the success of DevSecOps.
People
It doesn’t matter how good you are at the other stuff; if the people aren’t interested, then a mature, effective DevSecOps environment simply isn’t possible. Convincing senior management to make the switch could be an uphill task. But the fact that intense and high-profile data breaches occur frequently because of inefficient security should help your case. Security specialists and “security champions” will play a key role in getting your DevSecOps right.
Process
A process consists of many components. The most important ones are workflow standardization and documentation. Typically, various teams within an organization will carry out different processes. But DevSecOps advocates for framing commonly agreed-upon processes and executing them to strengthen the extent of security in development.
Technology
Technology equips people to effectively execute DevSecOps processes. Some common technologies that are used in DevSecOps practices include automation and configuration management, Security as Code, automated compliance scans, host hardening, etc.
There’s no doubt that DevSecOps revolutionizes the way organizations handle security. Security and privacy are a top area of concern and investment for organizations. With data breaches and the associated costs for these threats continuing to grow, more organizations are looking for ways to improve security, if your company is one of them, contact us and start to implement the best security practices.
