The security of your organization relies more than ever on the security of your applications. And the only way to optimize your security and ensure it is as robust as possible is to make sure it is on your radar at all stages of app development and that all relevant parties share the responsibility of app security. This is achieved through DevSecOps. Let’s look at what that means, why it’s important, and how to achieve it.
What Is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps stands for Development – Security – Operations. It is the act of establishing a culture of shared responsibility for security across the organization and establishing processes and tools that support security. DevSecOps requires security to be a focus from the earliest stages of software development and a collaboration between developers and the operations team to ensure security teams are an integral part of software delivery.
Why DevSecOps Is Important
DevSecOps is important because it places security as a focus early in the app development phase. This means security can be coded into the app from the beginning, instead of being added later as an afterthought, which is more expensive, more difficult, and exposes the company to greater risk.
DevSecOps is also important because it transcends the barriers between different departments, bringing development, operations, and security together. This partnership allows security to keep up with the fast pace of ap development and allows organizations to deploy more secure applications more quickly, with:
- Faster development iterations
- Higher quality products
- Reduced issues with compliance
- Reduced cycle time
- The ability to automate security functions, such as vulnerability scans, firewalls, and identity and access management (IAM)
Primary Elements of Successful DevSecOps
In order to implement DevSecOps in your organization, you must bring security in during the app development process. There are six critical elements to accomplishing this shift:
- Ongoing code analysis – Instead of pushing out large chunks of code, deliver code in smaller pieces that can be analyzed quickly to help identify vulnerabilities as the development process progresses.
- Managing change – Make it possible for all members of the team to submit changes to the code, then evaluate each change. This improves the efficiency and speed of development.
- Monitoring compliance – Continuously monitor compliance to ensure you are always prepared for an audit, which can happen at any time.
- Investigating threats – As each code update rolls out, identify any threats that may become an issue so you can quickly respond to them.
- Assessing vulnerability – Continuously assess vulnerabilities as code is analyzed so you can determine how long it will take you to respond to and resolve each vulnerability.
- Providing security training – Ensure each member of the software development and engineering team is fully trained in security guidelines so they can work them into their development procedures.
Remember, DevSecOps breaks down silos and promotes a cross-departmental team approach to application security that will help ensure your overall security is as strong as possible. This is critical at a time when applications are becoming the backbone of company operations and an added level of risk when it comes to cyberattacks.
Contact Platinum Technologies today to find out how we can help you implement DevSecOps in your organization.
