The DevSecOps Approach: Everything You Need to Know

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Shifting to DevSecOps

Why do DevSecOps matter to IT leaders?

What is the difference between DevOps and DevSecOps?

What are the main benefits of DevSecOps?

How to implement DevSecOps?

What are DevSecOps tools?

Conclusion

Introduction

Business leaders around the world who are still on the fence regarding transitioning from the traditional to more digitally-driven methods, explain that a major concern behind their reluctance is the vulnerability of digital platforms to data theft. Those used to end-to-end control over their customer data are often afraid that digital solutions will introduce too many new variables over which they’ll have no control and it only takes one significant security breach to lose the trust of customers.

Shifting to DevSecOps

Looking at instances of data theft that are periodically reported by even large enterprises, such concerns cannot be dismissed outright. However, for businesses to really know their customers better, offer them more convenience and explore new revenue streams, a shift to digital cannot be put off any longer. Even before the pandemic hit the world and forced companies to revisit their ways of ensuring business continuity, one can find ample examples of how a refusal to go digital cost established brands dearly. The way to go, therefore, is to keep the pace of digital innovations up while ensuring adequate security measures at every stage starting from inception. This is where we meet DevSecOps, a culture shift that’s becoming indispensable in the software industry.

Why does DevSecOps matter to IT leaders?

Previously, organisations would keep revisiting the security elements of their software and release periodic updates. Depending on what they found, the frequency of these updates would be monthly, or even yearly. However, modern digital solutions involve a number of components facilitating rapid computing and real-time data analysis. We have seen the rise in popularity of public clouds, containers and microservices which break applications down into smaller parts for greater efficiency. These developments have led to an approach we know today as DevOps. It integrated the development and operations teams into a single, high-performing unit which could build and scale infrastructures without having to go back and forth between multiple teams. 

What is the difference between DevOps and DevSecOps?

These two are different only from the security perspective. Put simply, when you add the security elements right from the beginning of a DevOps approach, you get DevSecOps. In the early days of DevOps, security often failed to keep up with the speed at which code was being written. Gradually, as cybersecurity became more and more crucial, the need was felt to plan development with security in mind right from the beginning. Thus, DevSecOps came into being.

What are the main benefits of DevSecOps?

So how do you stand to gain with a DevSecOps approach? We started the article talking about how business leaders are often afraid to take the digital route owing to data security concerns. Well, DevSecOps addresses this exact pain point. Overall, the benefits include:

• Security teams function with greater speed and agility
• Change requests and new requirements are addresses quickly
• Teams work well together as one, seamless unit
• Quality assurance for builds happen faster and with greater automation
• Any issues or vulnerabilities with the code can be discovered and fixed early
• With top-notch security implementations at every stage, the product shapes up to be of the very highest quality from the PoC stage itself

How to implement DevSecOps?

Before you get into the actual development methodologies, it is important to view the DevSecOps approach as a fundamental, cultural shift within your organization, just like true digital transformation would be. Embracing this change could be a bit daunting at first, but once you realize the benefits, it’ll be clear that the initial hiccups could pave the way for great returns. Roughly, here’s how the system is supposed to work:

• Code analysis: change your code delivery process to release small chunks of it so that thorough reviews can be done and vulnerabilities addressed quickly
• Change management: accelerate the process by allowing team members to submit changes and dynamically determine whether to accept or remove the change
• Monitoring compliance: with increased data gathering and storage, solutions need to ensure a number of regulatory compliances to avoid data being misused. Monitor such compliances at every stage to stay on top of the processes
• Threat investigation: be vigilant towards emerging threats every time you update your code and take action quickly to eliminate them
• Vulnerability assessment: once vulnerabilities are identified following quick code delivery, ensure they are assessed and eliminated to make the piece of code robust and error free
• Security training: ensure your team is up to speed with the latest security advancements and compliance guidelines 

What are DevSecOps tools?

In the initial days of DevSecOps, the lack of automated tools to quickly scan and tweak various code parameters were understandably in short supply. However, developers soon took it upon themselves to craft tools that would complement the DevSecOps process and improve its pace. A few notable ones are mentioned below:

1. Contrast Assess: Extremely helpful for review and testing, this tool integrates with apps and runs in the background, monitoring the code continuously. As soon as a security issue is discovered, it alerts the team and also enables them to devise fixes quickly.

2. CodeAI: Taking security fixes a step further, Code AI not only identifies and displays a list of security threats, but also proposes viable solutions to mitigate them.

3. Grafana: Analytics solutions involve 2 indispensable parts-algorithms for data analysis and an intuitive dashboard to present the results. Grafana is an open source analytics platform that allows you to customise your dashboards as you choose. In case that seems too cumbersome, you can take your pick from a range of community-built interfaces to best suit your needs.

4. ThreatModeler: It’s an automated threat modeling system that intelligently scans your data and alerts you of potential threats from the entire attack surface by continuously keeping itself updated on new threats evolving globally.

5. Chef InSpec: As discussed earlier, it’s imperative that you develop keeping all the latest compliance parameters in mind. This tool helps you run automated checks to ensure compliance, security and policy requirements. True to the DevSecOps spirit, these checks are run on traditional servers, containers and cloud APIs at every stage of development

Conclusion

Innovation is an all round process. With technology transforming industries and businesses of all types, organisations are devising creative solutions as well as equipping them with the right armors to protect themselves. For anyone worried about data security, it’ll be heartening to know that partnering with companies that follow the right approaches such as DevSecOps will enable them to achieve the success they deserve while taking care of security that’ll ensure peace of mind. At [x]cube LABS, our top-notch DevOps teams operate with efficiency that gets solutions to market quickly, with zero compromise on security. Get in touch, to discuss how you can put digital innovation on the fast and safe track, with us.