What is DevSecOps?

All organizations face the need to protect their users’ data (and their own reputation) by regularly scanning for common security vulnerabilities. In industries that handle sensitive information, such as healthcare, government, and finance, protecting data integrity and user privacy is both a business imperative and a regulatory requirement.

One of the primary benefits of DevSecOps is the accelerated detection and remediation of security vulnerabilities. By integrating security into the development process, teams can identify and address issues in real-time, minimizing the potential impact of security threats. By addressing security concerns early on, organizations can reduce the cost of fixing vulnerabilities and enhance the overall resilience of their software.

Let’s review some additional benefits.

Benefits of DevSecOps

The importance of DevSecOps lies in its ability to align security practices with the pace of modern software development. The typical software supply chain incorporates not just proprietary code and tools but also a variety of third-party components, open-source libraries, frameworks, and services, along with external APIs and cloud-based resources. Each of these components brings its own set of vulnerabilities and security challenges, making it necessary to implement a robust and comprehensive security strategy.

DevSecOps helps proactively identify and address these challenges by integrating security checks at every step of the development process. This ensures that security is not an afterthought but a fundamental aspect of the development workflow, safeguarding the entire software supply chain from potential breaches and reducing the risk of exploitation due to third-party components.

Moreover, DevSecOps contributes to overall business resilience by reducing the risk of security breaches and data compromises. This protects not only your sensitive information but also your organization’s reputation. As regulatory requirements become more stringent, incorporating security into the development lifecycle becomes a necessity for compliance, making DevSecOps an essential practice for organizations across industries.

Learn more about automating compliance with DevSecOps

DevSecOps evolved from DevOps, an approach to software delivery that aims to shorten software delivery cycles using automation and increased collaboration between software development and IT operations teams.

DevSecOps and DevOps share common principles, but they differ in their primary focus. While DevOps concentrates on accelerating the development and delivery of software, DevSecOps extends this focus to include security as a core component, ensuring that security practices are integrated throughout the entire development lifecycle.

DevSecOps builds on the foundation laid by DevOps, leveraging automation and rapid feedback for a more consistent and comprehensive approach to security. By including security checks in every stage of development, DevSecOps aims to preemptively address vulnerabilities and create a more robust security posture within the development process.

Learn more about DevOps

DevSecOps operates on the premise of shifting security left, meaning that security considerations are introduced as early as possible in the development process.

Key practices include regular security training for development teams, automated security testing, and the implementation of security controls and policies. Continuous monitoring and feedback loops ensure that security is an ongoing and adaptive process, allowing organizations to respond swiftly to emerging threats.

DevSecOps integrates security practices into each stage of the DevOps lifecycle.

Planning and analysis

• Security requirements gathering: Even before the coding starts, security is a focal point. During the planning phase, teams identify security requirements and potential threats. This sets a clear security roadmap aligned with the project’s goals.

• Risk assessment: Conducting a thorough risk assessment helps in prioritizing security tasks. By understanding where vulnerabilities might occur, teams can plan to address them proactively.

Development

• Secure coding practices: Developers follow secure coding guidelines to minimize vulnerabilities right from the start. Code reviews and pair programming are employed to ensure these practices are consistently applied.

• Static application security testing (SAST): SAST tools are integrated into the development process to automatically scan the code for security flaws. This allows developers to identify and fix security issues as they code.

Continuous integration and testing

• Dynamic application security testing (DAST): In this phase, automated DAST tools are used to test the running application for vulnerabilities that only appear in a running state.

• Dependency scanning: Regular scanning of third-party libraries and dependencies ensures that the application is not susceptible to known vulnerabilities from these sources.

Deployment

• Automated security deployment: Security configurations and policies are automatically deployed along with the application. This ensures that security settings are consistently applied across all environments.

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): IaC tools are used to manage and provision infrastructure securely and efficiently, reducing manual configuration errors.

Operations

• Continuous monitoring: Continuous monitoring tools detect and respond to security threats in real-time. This includes monitoring for unusual activity that might indicate a breach.

• Incident response: DevSecOps emphasizes quick and effective incident response. Automated processes are in place to handle security incidents, with clear protocols for escalation and resolution.

Feedback and Improvement

• Security Posture Analysis: Regular analysis of the security posture helps to identify areas for improvement. This includes reviewing the effectiveness of current security measures and adapting to new threats.

• Learning and adaptation: Feedback from monitoring and incidents is used to continuously improve security practices. This learning loop ensures that the DevSecOps approach evolves with the changing cybersecurity landscape.

By automating security measures and incorporating them into the DevOps process, DevSecOps minimizes human error and ensures a consistent and reliable approach to security across all stages of development.

A crucial aspect of successful DevSecOps implementation is the use of specialized tools that add layers of security throughout the development pipeline. These tools cover a range of functions, including static and dynamic code analysis, vulnerability scanning, and security information and event management (SIEM) systems.

Static application security testing (SAST)

SAST tools analyze source code, bytecode, or binary code to identify vulnerabilities and security flaws within the application’s codebase. They work early in the development cycle, enabling developers to catch issues before they reach production.

Learn more about SAST

Dynamic application security testing (DAST)

DAST tools simulate external attacks on running applications to identify security vulnerabilities. They assess the application from the outside, providing insights into potential weaknesses that malicious actors could exploit.

Learn more about DAST

Software composition analysis (SCA)

SCA tools examine and manage third-party and open-source components used in the software. They help identify known vulnerabilities, licensing issues, and other risks associated with these components.

Container security scanning

Container security tools inspect container images for vulnerabilities and configuration issues. They ensure that containerized applications are free from security threats and misconfigurations

Learn more about container security

Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD)

CI/CD tools automate the building, testing, and deployment of software. Security can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines through various plugins and extensions to ensure secure code is consistently delivered.

Learn more about CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security scanning

IaC security scanning tools assess the security of infrastructure code, such as Terraform or CloudFormation scripts. They identify misconfigurations and vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure.

Learn more about IaC security

Security information and event management (SIEM)

SIEM systems collect and centralize logs and security event data from various sources, including network devices, applications, and servers. They use advanced analytics and correlation rules to detect and respond to security incidents, providing a comprehensive view of an organization’s security posture.

DevSecOps best practices revolve around the core principles of collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement. Recommended strategies for effective DevSecOps adoption include:

• Regular security training for development teams to keep them informed about the latest security threats and best practices

• Automated testing, including static and dynamic code analysis, to identify and address vulnerabilities early in the development lifecycle

• Robust security controls and policies, such as identity and access management, encryption, and secure coding standards

• Secure secrets handling, such as the use of third-party secrets managers or short-lived authentication tokens such as OIDC to prevent unauthorized access of critical data and infrastructure

• Continuous monitoring of applications and infrastructure to ensure that security remains a dynamic and adaptive process

Additionally, organizations should encourage a culture of shared responsibility, where all team members are accountable for upholding established security standards and practices. With DevSecOps, security considerations are not just the domain of a single team or individual, but are the responsibility of every contributor and stakeholder.

Learn more about best practices for DevSecOps

In traditional development models, security often comes as an afterthought, leading to delays and last-minute firefighting. Automating DevSecOps within your CI/CD pipeline flips this narrative. You get the speed of continuous integration and continuous deployment, coupled with the assurance of continuous security.

To integrate security with CI/CD, organizations can implement security testing tools and scans at various stages of the pipeline. CircleCI’s suite of security integrations makes it easy to incorporate cutting-edge security tools into your delivery pipelines, ensuring you have comprehensive security coverage from commit to production.

To get started automating DevSecOps with CircleCI, sign up for a free account or contact us for a customized demonstration of how you can elevate your security strategy with DevSecOps and CI/CD.