5 Practices Towards A Well-polished DevSecOps Environment

NovelVista

Last updated 22/07/2021

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Does DevSecOps really work?

Before we answer this question, let us ask you, do you know what is DevSecOps? We guess you are not very clear about what it is. Because the concept of it itself is pretty new. Well, we are here now to tell you what it exactly is.

Have you ever heard of this phrase “Everyone is responsible for security”? DevSecOps is just the concept that brings this phrase to reality. Basically, DevSecOps is the philosophy of integrating security practices within the DevOps process. This involves creating ‘Security as code’ culture with the collaboration between release engineers and security teams. DevSecOps aims to create new solutions for complex software development processes within an Agile framework. The main goal of DevSecOps is to remove the traditional gap between IT and security while ensuring fast, safe delivery of code.

Now coming to the point we mentioned above again. Is DevSecOps really working? What do we need to do to see the benefits of DevSecOps?

In this blog, we are going to tell you about some best DevSecOps practices that can bring the best out of your organization. Before that, let us tell you a little bit about the benefits that can be achieved by DevSecOps. 

An EMA report of 2017 says Security Operations or SecOps provides two benefits: Better ROI and improved operational securities. You can imagine how miracles can take place when it teams up with DevOps. Apart from safety and security, DevSecOps can provide you with:

• Greater speed and agility for security teams
• An ability to respond to change and needs rapidly
• Better collaboration and communication among teams
• More opportunities for automated builds and quality assurance testing
• Early identification of vulnerabilities in code
• Team member assets are freed to work on high-value work

But to achieve all these, you, of course, need to put some practice in your DevSecOps routine. Suppose you are looking forward to joining a gym. Detoxing your body, eating healthy food, following the proper diet, consuming more protein- these all come handy with that. Isn’t it? Else, you’ll just be wasting your money without getting any result. Similarly, we have listed out

5 DevSecOps practices that can help you grow.

Have a look!

1. Keep your code simple:

Did you know this? 

The more complex your code is, the more security vulnerabilities it contains. Codes that are simple and readable, is easier to collaborate on. Suppose one of the developers is not present and you need another developer to check his code urgently. So the other developers should be able to take one look at the code and understand it properly.

After coding, developers often don’t review their codes in the open-source libraries or pay attention to the documentation. Hence, it’s a necessity to have automated processes that can manage code dependency, because you need to know if your open source libraries are causing vulnerabilities to your code. Hence, the code dependency check is the prior fundamental for DevSecOps practices.

2. Automation is the key:

When it comes to DevSecOps, speed is the first and last keyword. And how would you achieve it without automation? 

That’s right. You can’t. 

That is why in an environment of continuous deployment and continuous integration, if you want to leave room for security as well, then you must take the help of automation. If you talk about the traditional waterfall development model, that time the security automation used to run right before the release of code. But DevSecOps came on board and changed the picture completely. In each and every step of development, automation has become mandatory now. 

For security analysis and testing the software lifecycle throughout, so many automated testing tools are available now. From source-code analysis through integration to post-deployment monitoring, they take care of everything.

3. Choose your tools wisely: 

Now that we mentioned the tools, let us tell you something about the choices of your tools as well.

Before you shop for the perfect tool that can help you to achieve DevSecOps culture you need to keep one thing in mind, most of the tools required to insert the security into DevOps are still taking shape. So you need to choose wisely. Here are a few pointers you should keep in mind while going for one:

• The tool should be able to integrate into the development pipeline and make the  DevOps team and security work together
• Should make it easy for developers to initiate scan quickly
• Should be accurate and should be able to work fast
• Should help you to identify and address risks 

If you keep these pointers in mind, you’ll be able to find out a suitable tool in no time!

4. Train the developers:

You already know why DevOps is called a culture. DevSecOps is not any different as well. Once you are looking forward to implementing a new culture to your organization, the 1st step is to make your employees understand the entire thing in depth. Since developers deal with DevSecOps mainly, you need to educate the developers about it. 

Most developers don’t understand that they are coding in an insecure way. So when the code vulnerability happens, they are not able to find out what went wrong. Teaching them all about continuous integration cycles, rapid releases and application security you will be able to clear the air and have a healthy DevSecOps environment. 

5. Focus on threat modeling:

Last but not least, in fact, the most important pointer you need to keep in mind while dealing with DevSecOps. Threat modeling is not easy. We know that. But it is very important to achieve a DevSecOps environment. 

Threat modeling is a process by which potential threats, such as structural vulnerabilities or the absence of appropriate safeguards, can be identified, enumerated, and mitigations can be prioritized. The purpose of threat modeling is to provide defenders with a systematic analysis of control procedures that need to be included, given the nature of the system, the probable attacker's profile, the most likely attack vectors, and the assets most desired by an attacker.

Threat modeling answers questions like “Where am I most vulnerable to attack?”, “What are the most relevant threats?”, and “What do I need to do to safeguard against these threats?”

There are so many Threat Modeling tools that you can use to make your process simpler such as IriusRisk, MyAppSecurity, PyTM, securiCAD, etc. 

Summary:

If we talk about DevSecOps importance, 2020 is going to be “The Year” for DevSecOps. It will show you the face of ML analytics and automated security in CI/CD pipelines. But it will be possible only if you manage to keep up with these practices mentioned above.

We understand you need proper training to do so, thus we have fetched the best one for you right here! 

Have a look at it until we bake some new and interesting topics for you! Till then, stay upskilled!

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