What Is DevSecOps And How Can You Benefit?

Software development is laden with various processes that can be exploited by cyber fraudsters. In the previous years, companies moved to merge development and operation teams to come up with better and faster ways of deploying a software product. This process has since been known as DevOps.

Before DevOps, software development took time, as the staff from software operations knew very little about how the development team members work and vice versa. With this disconnect, minor changes and updates to the product required teams to start from scratch. With DevOps, however, this problem has been addressed, making software development more cost-efficient and time-saving.

With further advancements in information technology (IT), another element has been included in software development: software security. Thus, the procedure formerly known as DevOps has now become DevSecOps.

Let’s take a closer look at how DevSecOps works and how it can benefit your organization.

DevSecOps: What is It?                                                       

DevSecOps is a type of approach that involves the integration of security in various DevOps processes. This entails promoting a culture of security at the same time implementing variable collaboration between and among software engineers and security teams.

This working modality closes the former gap between IT and security while at the same time aiming to produce a safe and secure code. This means all of the teams involved, such as the security, development, and operation staff, must practice open communication and proactiveness in the entire software development life cycle (SDLC).

As such, DevSecOps requires consistent implementation for companies to achieve and maintain fully reliable processes that allow security issues to be addressed as early as possible.

How Does DevSecOps Work?

DevSecOps typically require developers to keep all the versions of their code that need to undergo peer review processes before it can move forward.

After a single configuration step for each application, developers can establish an automated platform to test their apps in every release. Fuzz testing is one of the testing principles held by DevSecOps practitioners. This approach involves the belief that vulnerability is always present. With this, developers are able to identify actual problems rather than waste time waiting for potential issues.

Security rules in the past only focused on identifying vulnerabilities, while fuzz testing automatically sets up a test and evaluation suite.

With its collaborative nature, not one team or staff member can gain complete control of how updates are done. For instance, the operations team supports the entire software development stages, such as updating and sustaining the operating environment, identifying and implementing the deployment process, and recording each detail of the process.

For their part, the security team points out and removes any kind of flaw. If the vulnerability passes through the production process, the DevSecOps should be able to trace how it developed and why it was left unnoticed.

The deployment process of an application to production typically starts with coding changes in the traditional development processes. With DevSecOps, the stages of building, testing, and security scans are done earlier, alongside other tasks, which include design reviews and monitoring.

Benefits of the DevSecOps Approach

With security being intertwined in every stage of software development, teams are able to produce a more secure software product with more efficiency and at a lesser period.

In more specific terms, below are the benefits of the DevSecOps approach to software development:

• An overall increase in profits
• Costs are saved due to the speed at which security and other issues are fixed
• Enhanced operational efficiencies across all departments involved
• Shortens the overall software development processes
• Provides the security teams with better agility
• More effectively fights cybercrimes and cyberattacks with up-to-date security and communication processes
• Increased capacities to respond to rapid changes and modifications based on customers’ needs
• Improved communication and collaboration processes, leading to increased efficiency
• Swift identification of flaws in the coding process
• Increases the speed of product delivery
• Promotes the security awareness of developers and operation staff
• Enables a culture of striving to improve constantly
• Produces a more resilient software product
• Can potentially increase sales as consumer trust mounts with every secure product released
• Helps reduce risk and legal liabilities, as products delivered are precisely what the consumers paid for

What are the Main Principles of DevSecOps?

Collective Responsibility: This approach requires all team members, whether a part of the security, development, or operation department, to be conscious of safety. This means all of the staff members should be fully aware of what their contributions and responsibilities are and take these to heart.     

Automation: DevSecOps is entirely dependent on automation. All of the software builds and deploy systems, as well as testing and quality checks, are done digitally. Because of this, work is done and completed at a faster pace.  Companies don’t need to have state-of-the-art IT infrastructure to implement DevSecOps. Even enterprises with limited bandwidth and human resources are capable of adapting.

Acceleration: Because of automation, DevSecOps allows you to get things done faster than in the traditional setup. With the previous approach, departments were working in a fragmented manner, making it challenging to ensure consistency and efficiency. This new approach to software development accelerates the whole process while ensuring the reliability of the finished product.

Accessibility, Communication, and Collaboration: DevSecOps promotes collaboration and communication between and among the staff. For instance, jobs are run through a standard library of scripts, and because those scripts are shared across all jobs, you can transition easily from one tool to another. Changing the set of instructions or replacing current tasks will be seen by all team members, and these can easily be checked and reviewed by the developers.

This is important, as the current setup has involved remote workers, from developers, applications managers to operations staff, testers, and security teams, coming from different parts of the world.

Accountability: Because the processes are automated and shared with everyone, it’s easy to trace vulnerabilities and make staff members accountable. With this function, coders will be more careful in creating low-quality products and can focus on writing a more secure code.

What are the Main Steps in Implementing DevSecOps?

To get started in implementing the DevSecOps approach, below some of the essential steps that the software company has to focus on:

• Implement proper security training and workshops
• Get all staff to work as a team
• Examine your processes
• Analyze the code
• Manage and assessing the changes
• Identify vulnerabilities
• Monitor compliance
• Investigate potential and present threats
• Review and audit security systems
• Introduce improvements

The Bottom Line

Developers are hired with the goal of enhancing software features and improving its functionalities. When done efficiently, the DevSecOps approach allows organizations to increase profitability and scalability by facilitating the creation of products that are well-designed and more secure.

With security integrated into all levels of software development processes, software delivery becomes better overall.