Embedding security best practices into your DevSecOps pipeline is critical for avoiding the many common security issues that plague application development teams. Moreover, it reduces the risk of cyber-attacks that eat up valuable time and resources.
Traditional security practices, however, can slow down a high-pace development cycle and become a bottleneck in DevOps. To overcome this, developers and security professionals need to embrace a new cultural mindset.
Embedded Security
With the increasing speed at which businesses must innovate, build, and deploy solutions, security teams are looking to create dynamic, automated ways of integrating risk management into their software development processes. This is often refers to as DevSecOps, and it addresses the issue of security flaws in code before they are released into production environments.
The key to implementing this strategy is ensuring that security professionals have the tools and resources they need to do their job efficiently. This means hiring experts who understand the security side of development and operations. It also requires a team that has the right skills to implement automation and DevOps-like practices in a secure way.
DevSecOps incorporates security into the development process, from the earliest planning stages to post-deployment. This ensures that security flaws not spotted later and added on as add-ons.
This can have serious consequences. From stiff regulatory fines and civil damages to severe reputational damage, releasing software with security flaws is no longer a viable option.
In this era of connected systems, developing and deploying embedded software presents an additional challenge. Many of these applications have a large number of attack surfaces and are highly vulnerable to cyberattacks.
The good news is that there are several DevSecOps best practices to help you protect your connected products. This includes a focus on early and continuous security testing throughout the software integration process.
Developers should be able to get direct feedback from security analysts without having to wait for a response, and that feedback must be clear and easy to follow so they can make the necessary corrections. This is especially true of static application security testing (SAST) tools.
SAST tools can help you find a variety of defects in the code, such as unchecked external data, buffer overruns, API misuse and more. They also identify the underlying vulnerabilities that can cause these problems.
SAST tools also provide feedback on the results of security testing, making it easy for developers to fix any issues that arise. They also give developers a chance to test their code and learn new ways of coding, helping them to improve the quality of their code.
DevSecOps in Automation
DevSecOps is a software development and operations management philosophy that integrates security into the development process throughout the SDLC. It enables developers and security professionals to work together to ensure that business-critical applications are secure from the start.
The integration of security into a DevOps pipeline is key to delivering software to customers at the speed that businesses need. It can help reduce costs by enabling teams to fix issues before putting the code into production, and it can also make it easier to identify vulnerabilities and threats.
To automate your software development lifecycle, you need to select the right tools that will allow for continuous monitoring and testing of the code and configurations. These tools should be fast, accurate, and simple to use, and they should eliminate human intervention in the analysis and remediation of vulnerabilities.
Automation is important for DevSecOps because it enables developers to quickly remediate security flaws in their code without having to rely on the security team. This saves time and allows them to focus on more strategic projects that may not impacted by the security issues that arise.
In addition, automation can help reduce technical security review (TSR) and the number of errors that occur when security analysis performed manually. It also helps improve developer productivity engineering and velocity, which directly impacts a company’s overall software development process.
Another benefit of automating your security process is that it allows you to detect and prevent breaches before they happen. This means you can avoid costly and disruptive cybersecurity incidents.
One way to do this is by using an automated scanning tool that can scan your code and detect potential threats. This allows you to catch vulnerabilities and breaches before they can impact your organization’s customers.
Choosing the right tools is also important for successful integration of your security technology into your DevOps pipeline. This requires you to choose a solution that can easily integrate with your CI/CD process and that is compatible with the existing tools used by your team.
Automation is a great way to reduce errors and escalations in your security workflow, but it can also be a challenge to integrate into your DevOps processes. To overcome this obstacle, you need to develop a strategy that includes an integration plan and training for your developers, IT security experts, and operations staff. This will ensure that your new automation strategy is a success and that your team will use it effectively.
Guardrails
In a world where security is an essential part of every software development process, developers need to be able to rely on their security team to help them get to production safely. Guardrails are a means of making sure that this happens. They help ensure that security becomes a natural part of the SDLC and that developers and their teams understand the importance of integrating security practices into the entire pipeline.
When it comes to coding standards, for example, they can define a series of rules that apply to variables, algorithms and modules within the code. The goal is to keep the code clean and maintain consistency.
Process and business guardrails can also be use to establish how projects managed. These include budgets and contingencies, along with limits on additional spending without approval from the stakeholders.
Another important thing that guardrails can do is help a development team focus on a specific problem. This can be useful in a situation where the project is under a time-sensitive deadline.
As a result, DevOps and security teams need to find ways to collaborate without overburdening one another or slowing down the project’s progress. The most effective way to do this is by creating a framework in which all stakeholders can communicate and work together toward a common goal.
For example, one way to do this is through a Shape Up approach, which helps the development team think more deeply about the right problems early in the process and start shipping meaningful features on time. It is important to have a strong developer commitment and to have an open communication channel between the development team and the management.
DevSecOps Compliance
As a result of the DevOps movement, security is now a key component of the software development process. Instead of implementing security at the tail end, a DevSecOps approach integrates it throughout all phases of the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Implementing a DevSecOps strategy is a critical component of any modern IT organization. However, moving to a DevSecOps-based model requires buy-in from all stakeholders across the business. This includes the IT department, IT support, security professionals, and development teams.
Getting all departments on board takes time and effort. To achieve this, organizations should develop a shared-responsibility mindset and ensure that security professionals communicate the importance of the changes in a way that developers understand. This also helps to build trust between security pros and developers, which can be an important factor in a successful transition to DevSecOps.
It’s not uncommon for IT departments to be skeptical of DevSecOps, especially if they have been working with the same software development models for years. Moreover, implementing DevSecOps can be challenging because of the change to a new software development process and the fact that it isn’t familiar to most people.
To help overcome this obstacle, companies can consider getting certified and trained in the DevSecOps methodology. These programs are design to train members of the organization on how to improve the speed and security of the software development processes.
This training can do on-site or online, depending on the specific needs of the team. Getting certification and training will give everyone a solid understanding of the DevSecOps philosophy and how to implement it within their own teams.
In addition, these courses can also teach team members how to better collaborate with each other. This is a major benefit of the DevSecOps concept because it enables development teams to work with their security counterparts in an efficient and effective manner.
As a result, DevSecOps can help to improve the overall security of the organization and its products. For example, it can increase the productivity of security professionals by helping to identify vulnerabilities early in the SDLC, allowing them to fix them before the end-users experience them.
Recommended readings:
- What is DevOps?
- What is Process?
- What is CRM and How it Can Help You Grow Your Business
- What is Zero Trust Security in IT?
