It is an established finding that when implemented properly, DevOps deployment can yield profitable results for any organization: improved effective teamwork, faster delivery, increased overall productivity, increased customer satisfaction, and more.
But what uses are all of these advantages to your organization if you don’t prioritize security? The “Sec” in DevSecOps, i.e., “Security,” is a dependable backup that provides constant support.
This blog discusses the overview of DevSecOps, its benefits, and the practices to maximize those benefits.
What is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps is an approach to tackling IT security with the idea that “everyone is accountable for security.” It comprises embedding security requirements into the DevOps process of the company. The goal is to incorporate security at every stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC). Unlike previous development models, DevSecOps indicates that security is not deferred until the completion of the development cycle.
It simply secures apps as well as the infrastructure using DevOps training approaches, guaranteeing that the product is less vulnerable and more user-ready. Everything is automated, and security tests begin from the very beginning of the app’s pipelines. Selecting the proper technologies for Continuous Integration security meets security goals, but tool selection alone is insufficient; security staff, in addition to the right tools, are required to meet the requisite security.
If your organization already practices DevOps, you should think about transitioning to DevSecOps. DevSecOps is largely based on the DevOps methodology, which helps support your case for making a change. And doing so also allows you to bring together skilled professionals from various technological disciplines to improve the company’s existing security practices.
Benefits of DevSecOps
There has been a surge in cyber-attacks in recent years, and even the most equipped businesses cannot dismiss the possibility of a cyber-attack. It was recently shown that zero-day assaults accounted for more than 60% of all attacks, and risks to cloud-based apps have surged dramatically, which were previously inconsequential as more organizations migrated to cloud settings.
Incorporating security into the DevOps process is critical because security can no longer be ignored or disregarded. This increasing level of danger has also resulted in the emergence of DevSecOps.
The following are the benefits of DevSecOps:
- Expense cuts and increased delivery rates.
- From the start, security, tracking, deployment testing, and notification mechanisms are in place.
- It promotes accessibility and transparency from the beginning of development.
- Design for security and the capacity to measure.
- In the event of a security issue, recovery time is low.
- Enhances overall security by providing immutable systems, which includes further security automation.
Maximizing Benefits of DevSecOps – Best Practices
DevSecOps is a multistep concept. Here are the methods to fully utilize the advantages of DevSecOps. While there are no precise, sequential phases that work as a road map, these strategies are common.
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Planning & Process
For successful execution, the plan must be strategic and clear. Simple feature descriptions cannot suffice. Acceptance test criteria, interface designs, and threat models should be established by the professionals.
A process involves many different parts. Workflow standardization & documentation are the most crucial. Typically, distinct procedures are carried out by separate teams inside a company. However, DevSecOps argues for developing and using universally agreed-upon methods to increase the level of security in development.
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Integration
Integrating data security in agile development allows businesses to have a completely secure workstream across the whole project development cycle.
In the agile environment, security must be included at the earliest feasible level, which is usually the ‘requirement formulation’ stage. This concept, known as ‘shifting security left,’ aims to lower the cost of providing security.
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Compliance
Compliance is not always a paper-based process. You can incorporate metadata describing the compliance criteria into your assets.
Security policy automation can also leverage this by labeling assets that can adopt the required security architecture, such as zoning. Consider being able to respond to a break under the new GDPR requirements in less than 72 hours.
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Metadata, Version Control, Orchestration
To keep track of all updates, you must use sufficient & immutable versioning. Every action requires a version to allow for a speedy recovery and to be maintained in the usual way that code is. Once transformed into metadata, operational staff can quickly track & monitor a change.
Orchestration software not only provides a repeatable method of deploying infrastructure but also delivers a massive quantity of metadata about each activity. This metadata may be utilized not just by the orchestration software but also as a reliable source for integrated tools. When combined with versioning, orchestrating software provides a valuable source of data for all operational teams.
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CI/CD Security Tooling
Security has been fighting to shadow IT for a long time, but it has built its own shadow IT by having distinct security tooling. If you connect Vulnerability Management to the pipeline through APIs, you may have the orchestration contact them for each build. Security establishes the requirements, while DevOps teams regulate the frequency of scanning events according to the development processes.
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Incident Management
Responding to data breaches is never an unscripted or impromptu activity. Workflows & planning processes should be developed ahead of time to enable a systematic, repeatable, and quantifiable reaction to an incident.
Proactive & preventive risk monitoring, as well as continuous detection & reaction to risks and attacks, implies fewer big incidents and much more mitigations in a DevSecOps environment.
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Red Teams, Blue Teams & Bug Bounties
DevSecOps teams should use proactive ways to identify vulnerabilities & security flaws as soon as possible. Here are some alternatives:
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Red teams
— An ad hoc external team of cybersecurity professionals hired to research methods to attack IT infrastructures and break their defense. The purpose is to identify security flaws and potential attack routes so that the organization may mitigate before a true breach happens.
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Blue teams
– Typically, an internal team in charge of incident response or overall security. The blue team must defend against the attacks performed by the red team & prevent them (along with any genuine danger) from invading the network.
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Bug bounty programs
– Reward people who disclose bugs or security problems in software products. DevSecOps teams may use this information to guarantee that their systems are free of high-risk weaknesses.
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Final Words
There is no doubt that DevSecOps is changing the way businesses approach security. The technological and financial advantages that firms may garner from deploying DevSecOps are quite promising. Although there will undoubtedly be some bumps along the way, embracing DevSecOps may do a lot of good for your firm in the long term.
That is why learning DevOps can be extremely beneficial.
Get DevOps Certification & Enhance Your Career Prospects
Enroll in Cognixia’s DevOps Training to advance your career. Take a step to improve your employment potential and future opportunities. Register for our DevOps certification course, which provides you with hands-on, collaborative, and instructor-led training sessions. Cognixia is here to give you an exceptional online learning experience, to help you enhance your expertise through intuitive training, and to add significant value to your level of skills and knowledge in increasingly competitive markets. Individuals and businesses alike can benefit from Cognixia’s online courses.
Regardless of experience in IT technology and procedures, the DevOps Plus course delivers a thorough introduction to the discipline, covering all important principles, approaches, and tools. Beginning with a basic introduction to DevOps, it covers the fundamentals of virtualization, its advantages, and the several virtualization technologies that are crucial in both understandings and implementing the DevOps culture.
DevOps tools like Vagrant, Containerization, VCS, and Docker, as well as Configuration Management tools like Chef, Puppet, SaltStack, and Ansible, will be covered.
This DevOps course covers intermediate to advanced aspects. Get certified in DevOps and become acquainted with concepts such as the open-source monitoring tool Nagios, including its plugins, and the usage as a graphical user interface. The Advanced DevOps fundamentals are discussed in full, as well as Docker container clustering leveraging Docker Swarm & Kubernetes in the CI/CD Pipeline Automation.
Our online DevOps training covers the following concepts –
- Introduction to DevOps
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Prerequisites
This course requires just a basic grasp of programming & software development. These requirements are helpful but not compulsory because this all-inclusive training is aimed at newcomers and experienced professionals.
