Security architects are an essential presence in every IT department. But if any firm hasn’t embraced it so far, it’s time to adopt the DevSecOps culture in their workflow. DevSecOps is a trending software development methodology that involves DevOps and security. Similar to SecOps or DevOps, It is a concept that combines two separate teams into a unified environment. It is responsible for providing conditions for continuous secure software development.
DevSecOps was created to emphasize security automation and IT operations in the SDLC as a new concept in the IT field. It includes security as part of the DevOps foundation and is involved in every phase of the SDLC. It emphasizes software security throughout the whole software delivery process while delivering products at a faster pace than the traditional process.
The DevOps model is a new approach to creating software products that use agility, CI, and CD. Unlike the traditional software development process, where a security team only joins after a product is finished, it combines security while the software is being produced.
According to the report by the GitLab ‘2021, Global DevSecOps Survey’ found that there are dramatic advances in automation, security postures, continuous deployments, and release cadences. Nearly 4300 professionals shared their opinions that 25% of respondents were willing to have complete test automation. 60% of developers release code 2x higher performance and speed than ever.
Before delving into the topic, let’s explore what DevSecOps is, how it works, and its pros and cons.
About DevSecOps Services
The DevSecOps movement started in 1976 and continues to rise on the IT industry’s radar. The SDLC process has experienced a significant makeover in the last two decades. It mainly aims to deliver quality software in less time. This radical overhaul includes adopting tools, techniques, and DevOps principles. However, rapid software development has a higher risk of developing insecure code, so it further develops the DevOps principles to include security in their process, i.e., DevSecOps.
DevOps applications have stormed ahead in terms of size and speed. However, they lack compliance and robust security. For this reason, the DevSecOps concept was introduced into the SDLC to combine development, operations, and security under one roof. Like DevOps, its security concerns automation, culture, and shared responsibility. The security operation aims to release better software quickly and detect software problems in production.
The main reason for involving security in the DevOps approach is to ease security issues in the last stages of the SDLC. DevSecOps boosts automation and involves security in the design, testing, planning, development, and monitoring. A few years back, a security team would add security to software towards the end of the development cycle, and a quality assurance team would test it.
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DevSecOps Engineer is responsible for securing software development and identifying security threats.
Their job is similar to IT security professional roles. The top skills required for engineers are:
- Good communication skills
- Strong collaborating skills
- Good understanding of DevOps tools
- The person should know threats, compliance laws, and threat modeling tools.
- IT pros should know automated code analysis to detect threats and fix vulnerabilities.
- The IT pro should be familiar with Ansible, deployment systems tools like Hibernates, and developer tools like GitHub. He should also be familiar with programming languages like Java and PHP.
Adoption of DevSecOps
The following principles are adopted by DevSecOps engineers as follows:
- The first phase is planning, where engineers strategically prepare and aim for successful adoption.
- The next is the development phase, where the team’s engineer gathers valuable resources to provide guidance and set up a code review procedure to improve uniformity.
- The next step is the building phase; the source code involves machine code through tools.
- In the testing phase, the automated testing framework is subjected to multiple testing practices in the pipeline.
- In the following phase, engineers run IaC tools to automate the process and increase the pace of software delivery.
- The following phase is operation, one of the essential processes, and operation teams frequently engage in periodic maintenance.
- The scaling phase is one of the crucial steps in which IT engineers ensure that companies do not waste their resources to preserve big data centers.
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How does DevSecOps work?
DevSecOps workflow follows the following steps:
- First, the version control system is used for development.
- Team member assesses the application changes. The employee does this by addressing changes in security faults, code quality, and potential flaws. The application is then deployed within security configurations.
- Using test automation, the application is then tested in integration, user interface, back end, and security.
- The application moves to production if it successfully passes the test.
- Security software and multiple monitoring programs monitor the application in production.
Pros of DevSecOps
It can ensure that an application is stable and less vulnerable to malicious attacks. The two most essential benefits of this concept are security and speed. In addition, numerous features for DevSecOps services benefit businesses of all sizes.
1) Better communication and collaboration between teams
This security solutions culture promotes collaboration and teamwork among IT professionals with multiple skills and competencies to accomplish one goal. One of DevSecOps’ primary goals is to integrate teams.
2) Improve the agility and speed of development teams
Team members are under pressure to respond quickly, review, and fix vulnerabilities and other software issues while in the ongoing development process.
3) Improves better quality control and threat exposure
Although the DevOps team may see the security team as a source of delay, this shouldn’t be the case. Issues are detected and finished immediately before the entire project is completed. This strategy ultimately leads to better quality control procedures and shorter time projects.
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4) Enables early detection of software flaws
One of the security team’s main tasks is to manage and reduce risks effectively. This can only be improved by including the security team in the DevOps process. Doing this can efficiently combine a product’s speed and reliability.
5) Provides better and quick response to changing client requirements
DevSecOps can work faster in reviewing projects, scanning vulnerabilities, and integrating changes and applications during development.
Cons of DevSecOps
DevSecOps can’t solve all business issues. Every organization must evaluate its requirements and needs.
The below mentioned are some of the disadvantages of DevSecOps:
1) Dev Speed suggests more missed sensitive data
The DevSecOps approach has sped up the application’s development at the starting stage. However, this speed comes at the price of missing vulnerabilities.
2) Difficult to specify design vulnerabilities
This model depends on the agile system. It uses multiple techniques to produce the first application as soon as possible. This comes from the fact that it is based on client feedback to improve the application. So, it becomes hard and time-consuming to find design-based exposures.
3) No early-phase documentation
The absence of documentation in the beginning phase of application development makes identifying exposures, particularly the business logic ones, more complex, as security experts will require more time to understand the application logic.
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4) Lack of open communication will not work
Communication and collaboration are the two essential steps of the IT department; software development and security must be developed to work. However, if any of these teams withhold crucial information from each other, it may not work correctly.
5) Management’s top priority may not be possible
Not every executive in a software company views security as a top priority. As a result, an organization executive may not accept the changes a manager tracks. The business may only resume security testing once the software development processes are complete.
Conclusion
DevSecOps is a new model involving security in software development’s starting stages. It can ensure full functionality, reduce cyber threats, and fast software product deployment. Implementing security at every stage of the SDLC allows software products to be delivered quickly. This security solution can be implemented in the automotive, healthcare, finance, and retail industries.
It is a management model that involves security, operations, application development, and IaaS in a continuous delivery cycle. DevSecOps’s goal is to apply security at all stages of the SDLC. Using security at each stage of the SDLC allows for continuous integration, reduced cost compliance, and quick delivery of software products. Its main objective is to make everyone responsible for security.
Veritis, the Stevie Award winner, has been a trusted partner for small to large companies, including Fortune 500 companies, for over a decade. We have enough expertise to deliver solutions for IT projects and combine emerging technologies in a dynamic environment. Veritis offers multiple technology services for your business with a cost-effective solution. So, contact us to embrace productivity with the best DevSecOps tools.
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