In the application development ecosystem, DevSecOps has emerged as one of the most affluent buzzwords. In theory, the definition of DevSecOps is pretty simple, and it’s easy to understand why you should implement it.
DevSecOps environment incorporates DevOps efficiencies to software security.
But when you finally start implementing DevSecOps into your application development ecosystem, things can get trickier. You cannot entirely implement DevSecOps overnight— implementation requires utilising a set of tools, following best practices and an efficient release management plan.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the various aspects that you need to consider to achieve DevSecOps.
What is the DevSecOps Environment?
When you connect the security built-in into the DevOps pipeline, you achieve a DevSecOps environment.
In DevSecOps, the security component is incorporated into the development pipeline right from the start. It means building security into the design, code, production and deployment phases— precisely your complete DevOps cycle.
Older, outdated security practices can slow down the workflow of the development teams. With increasing competition transitioning into demands for a shorter time to market, application development teams had to find a solution to accelerate their software creation process without compromising security. That’s how the DevSecOps environment was conceptualised.
The ultimate aim is to eliminate the gaps between security teams, application developers and IT operations management while ensuring fast, secure delivery of codebase. Siloed culture is replaced with collaboration and active interaction between different teams and shared responsibility of software security.
5 Best DevSecOps Practices
Scan Your Codebase For Vulnerabilities
This is the basic step you can take to secure your application. Vulnerability scanning for your codebase should be incorporated into your CI/CD pipeline- an evident approach to initiate the DevSecOps environment.
This indicates that at every significant phase of the release management plan, your developed code is checked. From the stage when it is first drafted to when it is deployed into the production environment.
To achieve such levels of security integration, you must ensure that the concerned teams working at these various phases of the delivery pipeline receive adequate training and tools to efficiently identify vulnerabilities in your code.
Runtime Threats Protection
Runtime threat protection is another vital security component that must be incorporated across the CI/CD pipeline as an element of your DevSecOps strategy.
Runtime threats protection involves securing your application against security threats that arise while your software is running.
Although runtime threat protection is traditionally integrated into the production phase, these threats can exist during primitive development lifecycle phases.
And even if you don’t encounter any such threats in the preliminary stages, considering runtime security early in the release management process helps eliminate runtime threats during deployment. Both of these reasons should drive your teams to integrate runtime security throughout the CI/CD pipeline and not just inside the production environments.
Leverage Security Features Offered By Cloud Service Providers
Your cloud service provider offers certain security services. Take advantage of the same for incorporating the DevSecOps environment into your software development process.
Many of these security tools are placed at the deployment and post-deployment phase of your DevOps pipeline, therefore, resembling the conventional after-the-fact security services.
However, they still function as a crucial security element as part of your software’s outer defences. Additionally, since they’re already integrated into your cloud infrastructure, they are ideally easy to automate and systematise.
While using this feature, remember that your CSP’s security elements might not be enabled by default. You may need to update specific configuration settings to make the best use of them.
Integrate Quality Standards And Organisational Policies
Determining security standards and organisational policies is mostly a manual job. The process of deciding the security properties and adequate enforcement requires human intervention.
Stringent data compliance standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) makes it even more critical to formulate and integrate security standards at the preliminary level of a release management plan.
On the other side, incorporating such policies and security standards at the operational level can be automated by utilising orchestration service mesh features such as RBAC.
Container And Service Management
Container orchestration tools are a fundamental element of the DevSecOps environment at the deployment level. They induce highly scalable insulation layers between containers and the outside world. Therefore users and potential attackers are only able to access services concealed behind proxies.
It includes taking care of activities such as authorisation, authentication and encryption. Additionally, these tools are crafted explicitly for automation.
Just like CSP CSP security features, you need to enable (if necessary) the security services provided by the orchestration tools and configure them.
Conclusion
Implementing a DevSecOps environment into your existing software delivery processes requires a comprehensive audit of the current IT resources and DevOps approach. Then you can craft a holistic strategy that integrates more robust security into all of the phases.
