What Is DevSecOps and How Does It Work?

Keeping their apps and data secure is an ongoing struggle for organisations in the quickly changing world of software development. Traditional development approaches frequently prioritise functionality and time to market over security, which creates flaws that coubad actors could useevSecOps has arisen as a complete strategy incorporating security practises throughout the entire software development lifecycle to fill this gap. This article examines the idea of DevSecOps, its core ideas, and how it promotes a security-conscious environment in software development.

In this blog, I aim to give you the zest of the following topics:

• What is DevSecOps ?
• Core Values of DevSecOps
• How is DevSecOps different from DevOps ?
• Why is DevSecOps important ?
• Which application security tools are used in DevSecOps ?
• Conclusion

What is DevSecOps ?

The name DevSecOps, which combines the terms “development,” “security,” and “operations,” is an outgrowth of the DevOps methodology. Instead of treating security as an afterthought, it emphasises the integration of security practices throughout the software development process. Embedding security concepts and controls throughout the whole software development lifecycle is the goal of DevSecOps, which promotes communication between developers, operations teams, and security specialists.

The Core Values of DevSecOps 

DevSecOps’ approach to secure software development is supported by a number of guiding core principles:

1. Shift Left: The early incorporation of security practises in the development process is emphasised by the shift-left principle. Organisations can detect and fix vulnerabilities early on, lowering potential risks later on, by addressing security requirements and testing as early as possible.
2. Automation: DevSecOps relies heavily on automation to help businesses implement security controls reliably and widely. Automated security testing, code analysis, and deployment pipelines make it possible to quickly respond to emerging threats, find security flaws, and enforce policy compliance.
3. Continuous Monitoring: DevSecOps promotes continuous monitoring throughout the whole lifecycle of the application. Organisations can quickly detect and respond to security problems by putting real-time monitoring tools and strategies into place. This helps to maintain the application’s security posture over time.
4. Collaboration: The development, operations, and security teams collaborate more when using DevSecOps. Teams may collaborate to identify and manage security issues faster and more effectively by developing a culture of shared accountability.
5. Secure Coding Guidelines and Practises: Developers receive secure coding guidelines and practises training. In order to reduce the introduction of security defects during the development phase, this includes being aware of common vulnerabilities and adhering to secure coding standards.
6. Automated Testing: Static code analysis, dynamic application security testing (DAST), and interactive application security testing (IAST) are all included in DevSecOps. These tests aid in locating holes and flaws in the design and code of the application.
7. Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response: DevSecOps promotes the continual observation of running applications. Security information and event management (SIEM) solutions, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and real-time monitoring tools all aid in the quick identification and reaction to security issues.

How is DevSecOps different from DevOps ?

Both DevSecOps and DevOps are ideas that work to advance the software development process. Even though they are similar, the two strategies differ greatly from one another. Let’s examine the differences between DevSecOps and DevOps in greater detail, such as:

Focus on Security

The emphasis on security distinguishes DevSecOps from DevOps in a key way. DevOps streamlines the software delivery process to achieve a quicker time-to-market and greater efficiency. It primarily focuses on collaboration and integration between development and operations teams. Security concerns, however, are frequently covered in a different process or added after the fact.

On the other side, DevSecOps starts the development process by putting security at its centre. It ensures that security is prioritised and regularly addressed by integrating security practices and controls into every phase of the software development lifecycle. A proactive approach to security is encouraged by DevSecOps, which integrates security activities into every stage of the development and deployment process.

Integration of Security: 

Security is often handled in a post-development phase in DevOps, and is frequently referred to as “bolt-on security.” Potential vulnerabilities are often found after the development period is done because security measures are implemented. The time to market may be impacted by delays and rework due to this reactive approach

Contrarily, DevSecOps adopts a “shift-left” strategy and incorporates security practises early in the development cycle. DevSecOps enables the early detection and remediation of vulnerabilities, lowering risks and stopping security concerns from spreading farther downstream, by addressing security needs and testing as early as possible.

Promoting Shared Responsibility: 

DevOps places a strong emphasis on collaboration and communication across the development, operations, and occasionally QA teams. This cooperation facilitates process simplification and boosts productivity.

By involving security teams as active contributors throughout the development lifecycle, DevSecOps expands on this collaborative approach. In order to identify and address security issues, security professionals collaborate closely with development and operations teams, contributing their knowledge and skills in the process. Through this collaboration, security issues are tackled from various angles, resulting in software that is more reliable and secure.

Why is DevSecOps important ?

The following are the reasons why DevSecOps is most important:

Early Risk Identification and Mitigation: By incorporating security practises at the very beginning of software development, DevSecOps adopts a proactive stance. As a result, security threats can be identified and mitigated early on, avoiding vulnerabilities from growing worse. Organisations can greatly lower the chance of potential breaches and unauthorised access to sensitive data by addressing security concerns up front.

Strengthened Application Security: DevSecOps ensures that security measures are not considered as an isolated step or an afterthought by integrating security as a crucial component of the development process. Instead, it encourages the use of continuous monitoring, automated security testing, and secure coding practises. This multi-layered strategy aids in minimising vulnerabilities, finding and fixing security problems, and enhancing the general security of programmes.

Compliance with Regulations and Standards Compliance has become a key factor for organisations due to the constant focus on data protection and privacy rules. By including compliance checks and security controls across the development lifecycle, DevSecOps makes it easier to comply with legal obligations. Organisations can reduce the risks of non-compliance, which can have serious legal and financial repercussions, by taking a proactive approach to compliance.

Rapid Reaction to Security issues: DevSecOps places a strong emphasis on ongoing surveillance and real-time threat identification, enabling businesses to react quickly to security issues. DevSecOps teams may quickly identify and mitigate security breaches, lowering their impact and limiting possible harm, by putting in place reliable monitoring tools and incident response procedures. This flexibility is crucial in the face of evolving cyberthreats and ensures a prompt and effective response.

Cost-Effectiveness: It is less expensive to address security vulnerabilities early in the development cycle than to try to fix them later. With the help of DevSecOps, businesses can quickly discover and address security flaws, saving time and money on post-deployment patches. Organisations can avoid the costs of security incidents, compliance violations, and reputational harm by proactively managing security risks.

Which application security tools are used in DevSecOps?

To improve security procedures throughout the software development lifecycle, DevSecOps makes use of a number of application security solutions. These technologies help in discovering and fixing vulnerabilities as well as automating security procedures and enabling continuous monitoring. Among the tools used frequently in DevSecOps for application security are:

Instruments for Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

To find potential security flaws, coding errors, and compliance problems, SAST tools examine source code, byte code, or binaries. They look through the codebase of the programme for well-known patterns and coding conventions that can present vulnerabilities. Veracode, Checkmarx, and SonarQube are a few SAST tool examples.

Tools for Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): DAST tools send requests to running applications and examine the responses to determine how secure they are. In order to detect typical vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and unsafe setups, they replicate actual attacks. A few well-known DAST tools are Acunetix, Burp Suite, and OWASP ZAP.

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) Tools: SAST and DAST components are combined in interactive application security testing (IAST) tools. During testing, they engage with the active programme to find flaws and give real-time feedback. To find security problems, IAST tools can instrument code or examine runtime data. IAST tools include, for instance, Quotium Seeker, Seeker, and Contrast Security.

Tools for Software Composition Analysis (SCA): SCA tools evaluate the security of application-use-required open-source and proprietary software components. They pinpoint difficulties with licence compliance and known vulnerabilities in certain components. Organisations can manage the security risks brought on by software dependencies with the aid of SCA tools. SCA tools like Black Duck, WhiteSource, and Snyk are frequently employed.

Security tools for containers: As containerization has become more widespread, DevSecOps has integrated security controls expressly for containers. Container security tools perform vulnerability screening, access control, and compliance checks as well as container image analysis and runtime behaviour monitoring. For container security, programmes like Twistlock, Anchore Engine, and Docker Security Scanning are frequently employed.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment(CI/CD): The build, testing, and deployment procedures are automated by continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) systems. Security checks are included into these pipelines by DevSecOps to guarantee that security controls are upheld during the development and deployment phases. There are plugins and integrations available for popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, and CircleCI that are security-focused.

Conclusion:

As a result, security is now an essential component of the software development process thanks to DevSecOps, which signals a huge shift in the industry. DevSecOps enables businesses to proactively address security concerns, lessen vulnerabilities, and produce safe and reliable apps by integrating security practises throughout the whole software development lifecycle.