The Ultimate DevSecOps Guide: All you need to know

What is the goal of DevSecOps?

The main goal is to make software more secure through its lifecycle and reduce cyber threats. By automating, monitoring and applying security throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC), we can deliver software faster, allow continuous integration and have fewer compliance expenses. However, there are many more reasons why it benefits many organisations. Keep reading, as we will discuss that later on.

Why is DevSecOps needed?

In DevOps everything is automated and geared towards speed. Code changes trigger tests and deployments seamlessly – until security checks slow everything down.

Security must be thorough for applications that handle sensitive data, like online banking. They must be free of vulnerabilities, outdated dependencies, and misconfigurations. This includes, for example, Kubernetes and vulnerable Docker images that developers might miss. But these manual audits can take a long time, and teams are left waiting for security to catch up.

DevSecOps solves this by embedding security throughout the development pipeline to secure each step without bottlenecks.

Integrating security controls at each stage of development helps identify and address vulnerabilities earlier, resulting in better security outcomes and minimized disruptions for users. This way, you can reduce security risk, speed, team collaboration, and compliance and deliver software.

In short: DevSecOps is needed because it seamlessly integrates security into every stage of development, keeping releases fast and secure without the bottlenecks of traditional security checks.

By securing every stage of software development, it helps you:

• Reduce security risk
• Speed up software delivery
• Improve team collaboration
• Enhance compliance
• Deliver more secure and reliable software

DevSecOps vs Traditional Application Security

DevSecOps integrates security earlier into DevOps. This is also known as "Shift Left". Traditional app security was more like "throwing code over the wall" to security teams. They would return it with a long list of issues and security vulnerabilities that made developers unhappy.

In traditional app security, security measures such as security reviews and firewalls were often implemented and added as an afterthought. IT teams would often deploy the code the software developers wrote without applying any security measures.

Only after the software was developed entirely and delivered did they start thinking: Let’s not forget about security, which is when they check for potential code vulnerabilities. 

Most of the time, there were loads of issues requiring a withdrawal code already deployed and written. This left many businesses exposed to security threats.

We don’t have to explain how this “inefficient and risky” way of developing software caused many discussions between developers and security teams, and not to forget, prolonged releases. Fixing code and security only holds you back and costs you time and a lot of money. 

And this is the last thing you’d want in cloud environments, where deployment speed is a must. But in DevSecOps, security becomes part of the complete software development process.

Key DevSecOps concepts

Automation

Security tools and processes are integrated directly into the CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipeline. This includes tasks like testing, code analysis, and vulnerability scanning. Automation ensures security checks are performed consistently and at the right development stages.

Collaboration

Security becomes a shared responsibility by including security in every step of the development lifecycle. Security and development teams work together to identify and resolve security vulnerabilities at all stages of software development. 

Continuous monitoring and feedback

Security is monitored continuously throughout the development lifecycle. Feedback loops are established to detect and remediate security issues as they occur. This proactive approach enables you to detect and respond to security vulnerabilities faster and more efficiently.

Shift Left

Security best practices are shifted left in the development lifecycle. This means identifying and remediating security flaws as early as possible in the development cycle. The earlier you address security flaws, the less time, money, and effort it takes to remediate them. This approach helps you release software faster and more securely.

What are the benefits of DevSecOps?

Now that you know what it means, here’s what’s in it for you:

Continuous and improved security 

DevSecOps provides continuous security because security is integrated into your CI/CD pipeline at every stage. This means you can deliver applications faster because security isn’t a roadblock at the end of the pipeline. Instead, security is infused throughout the pipeline so you can detect and respond to security flaws (like vulnerabilities) faster and more efficiently.

By reviewing, auditing, and testing code, and scanning for security issues early in development, you can fix any issues before introducing dependencies or deploying the code to customers.

With automated security testing and quick feedback loops, you can detect and respond to security issues more quickly. This means you can ship more resilient applications.

Fix issues earlier and reduces costs

You can now identify security vulnerabilities earlier in the SDLC with DevSecOps, which shortens the feedback loop. It also lowers the chance of missing issues until the end of production. This can lead to high costs to fix them later in development.

Developer feedback loop

In a DevSecOps environment, security checks are triggered when developers commit and push code. If a security issue is detected, the developer is notified so they can remediate it before code moves further down the pipeline. You can quickly fix security flaws, like vulnerabilities, before they become dependencies.

Faster time to market

With DevSecOps, you don’t have to wait for developers to complete their work before security can start running checks and measures. Security tasks that once required manual effort by security teams are automated and integrated into the application and delivery pipeline.

With security integrated, you can avoid last-minute bottlenecks. This will speed up your delivery times and allow quicker, more frequent releases.

Compliance and reporting

DevSecOps also helps you comply with industry standards and regulations. You won't have to backtrack to prepare reports. In this environment will have all the info you need for security logs and compliance reports.

Automation friendly

DevSecOps fits in with modern development cycles with automated security checks, which used to require manual checks. This automation slots in to CI/CD pipelines so you can release frequently and securely without slowing down development. It is perfect for modern, agile, and DevOps environments. It has security scans, tests, and compliance checks in the workflow.

Automating these tasks reduces human error and helps teams go fast and consistent so security doesn’t slow down innovation.

Culture and collaboration

It boosts work culture by promoting collaboration between developers, security, and operations. This model abandons the silos of the past, where security was often tacked on at the end of the development cycle. Instead, it shifts security responsibility to a shared team effort. This means you can address common challenges and prioritise security earlier in the development.

Challenges of DevSecOps

DevSecOps does come with its challenges, which is not surprising because software development is not a simple process. 

People (culture and training)

One of the biggest challenges is people since it requires a cultural shift that makes security a core part of the engineering process. You’ll need trained and security-aware engineers to make it work.

Therefore, invest in training and awareness programs to help cultivate a security-first culture.

Technically complex

Making security part of every layer isn’t as simple as installing a plugin. Each framework, language and architecture is unique with its quirks and working methods.

Security tools don’t work the same across different tech stacks. You may need to configure them differently or find workarounds to make them work. It’s a technical challenge that requires time and expertise.

Not enough time

The pressure to deliver software faster and more frequently leaves little room for anything that might slow down the release train. Engineers are often pressed to deliver updates quickly, making continuous security testing feel like another task piled on top of an already full workload. 

You need to find a way to make security fast and automated so it doesn’t insert itself as a roadblock in the development process.

Lack of DevOps talent

It's hard to find people to fill DevSecOps roles. Great engineers who understand DevOps and security well enough to bridge the three worlds are scarce. You may need to send your existing security team to training and adopt a security-minded culture to compensate for the lack of talent.

Expensive

You must buy security tools, send team members on training sessions, and change your workflow to integrate security into the software development process. This can be expensive.

Some organisations may have legacy systems that require a lot of work to get right. However, the cost of not doing it right is much higher. Think about breaches, fines, and lost customer trust. 

Operations - security misalignment 

Getting development and security to work together is manageable: developers can learn security practices and work alongside the security team. Security can review code and provide feedback during the development process. 

However, operations and security are a different story. When operations engineers monitor the environment, they look at misconfigured software or infrastructure problems. Security teams see anomalies as potential threats. You'll need to teach your ops engineers to think differently about issues and focus on the impact, not just the symptom. It's a mindset change to align with the security team. 

Risks across the pipeline

Security risks are present across the entire pipeline, so you’ll need security in place at every stage to catch issues early. However, coordinating and managing all those security points across the pipeline can be complex. More frameworks can create friction in distributed development. Conflicting priorities may hinder visibility and consistency in the organisation. 

Adapting security for modern cloud environments 

As organisations move to cloud environments, traditional security practices don’t translate directly. Many assume cloud providers manage security settings automatically. But in reality, extra steps are often needed to secure cloud services. 

Moving traditional security skills to the cloud is complex and everyone must be familiar with cloud-specific security practices. 

Also, implement DevOps Orchestration if your workflow uses many tools, plugins, or services. This will help your team work together to handle all DevOps tasks. 

DevSecOps best practices

Automate security

To keep up with DevOps speed, security has to be automated wherever possible. Automated tools can do security tasks. They can scan for vulnerabilities, run credential checks, and manage dependencies, reducing human error.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) adds automation. It ensures consistent, reproducible infrastructure setups and removes manual inconsistencies that can create security risks.

Adopt cloud native security practices

With cloud native apps, adopting security practices that can keep up with rapid deployment cycles is crucial. Containerised applications need full image scanning to find vulnerabilities in application code and base images and dependencies. Kubernetes configurations should follow best practices to avoid misconfigurations in the production environment. 

By using cloud native security, organisations can secure their apps. They can also keep the agility and scalability of cloud native environments.

Assume breaches will occur

A "breach assumption" mindset helps teams prepare for the worst. It focuses on quick response and resilience in the DevOps pipeline. This shift in mindset encourages exercises like simulated attacks. They help find weaknesses and build effective incident response plans.

Give engineering teams more visibility and ownership in incident response. This will empower them to handle incidents and common security issues. This approach reduces the load on your security team and helps you respond more quickly to incidents.

Train developers in security

For it to work, developers need to be trained in security. Regular security training helps developers find and fix bugs in their work. Ongoing training means a security-first mindset. Developers must see security as everyone's job. They should find and fix security issues at the source.

Pick the right tools

The right tools are key to making it a success. Fast, user-friendly, low-false-positive tools let developers stay focused. They avoid getting bogged down by alerts or complexity. Tools must work in local dev environments and CI/CD systems. Before pushing it to shared branches, developers must scan the code for security issues.

Closing thoughts

To secure software in modern environments like the cloud, we must embed security in all software development phases: ideation, coding, testing, deployment, and monitoring.

This lets developers find and fix vulnerabilities more efficiently. So, they can create more secure, robust apps.

Software development's future will be agility, speed, and continuous improvement. We believe DevSecOps is essential for teams looking to release updates quickly without compromising security.

But, it is not just about security. DevSecOps is also about building efficient, reliable, and innovative software.

Ultimately, using DevSecOps will give you a competitive edge and help you stay ahead in the tech industry.