What is DevSecOps? How Does It Work & What Advantages Does It Offer?

What Is DevSecOps?

Development, security, and operations are all linked into one continuous process under the umbrella of the discipline known as DevSecOps.

Let's discuss what is DevOps first before moving on to DevSecOps. The technique or rather the philosophy of integrating the operations and development teams involved in product development is known as "DevOps". To improve the software development life cycle, DevOps encourages cooperation between developers and operations (via the Software Development Life Cycle). DevOps seeks to provide high-quality products in a quicker and more efficient way by using CI/CD.

The Security element wasn't a key component of DevOps when it initially started to be used. After finishing their work and developing the product or feature, the DevOps team delivered it to the security team for testing. However, this led to some bottlenecks. First off, the SDLC took longer since security involved a unique methodology. Second, the product might have needed to undergo significant revisions if the security team discovered bugs, vulnerabilities, or security flaws in it.

DevSecOps is the process of integrating development, security, and operations to create a superior product that is secure. DevSecOps can be thought of as the improved form of DevOps. When using the DevSecOps methodology and tools, security must be considered at every stage of the SDLC, from the planning stage and design to testing and deployment. This enables us to find security flaws in the early stages of software development, as well as to test the security of individual software components and the program as a whole to be able to fix such discoveries before releasing them to your audience.

DevSecOps VS Cyber Security, What Is The Difference?

We can see that we employ both cybersecurity and DevSecOps to establish security and maintain the CIA triad (Confidentiality, integrity, and availability) after learning what they are. DevSecOps can be thought of as the union of DevOps and cybersecurity. We use them differently depending on the situation.

A vast array of domains is involved in cybersecurity such as Risk Management, Identity & Access Management, Incident response, etc. DevSecOps, however, is restricted to the SDLC Process. As previously noted, there are many different types of cybersecurity, and you can employ a variety of tools, strategies, approaches, etc. DevSecOps, on the other hand, is a philosophy and a technique that emphasizes integrating security into every phase of the SDLC. Planning, designing, implementing security, post-incident, forensics, etc. are just a few scenarios where cybersecurity is involved in applications, networks, and infrastructures. DevSecOps, however, may only be used throughout the SDLC phases of software development and redesign.

Example of DevSecOps Tool:

• Sonar Qube
• OWASP ZAP
• ThreatModeler

Such tools are used within your CI/CD to improve your code quality and security by analyzing source code within your environment and enabling you visibility on your security baseline on a periodic level.

Examples of DevSecOps Approaches:

• Shift Left Security - When we talk about Shift security left it means implementing security measures during the entire Software development lifecycle, rather than at the end of the cycle.
• Security By Design - Security by Design is a methodology/approach to improve the cybersecurity of the organization by automating its data security controls and developing a robust IT infrastructure. This approach focuses on implementing security protocols from the foundation up of the entire IT infrastructure design. 

By incorporating DevSecOps into the software development life cycle (SDLC), you may think of it as an implementation of application security in a continuous cycle.

What are the Pros and Cons of DevSecOps?

DevSecOps's Philosophy can help teams to avoid security issues during the software development process while improving the security quality of your products and increasing visibility on vulnerabilities and threats.

A few Pros of DevSecOps:

• Early detection of software vulnerabilities inside of your products/features
• Provides better and faster response to ever-changing compliance needs
• Increases the product's security baseline in a continuous cycle

A few Cons of DevSecOps:

• Implementing the security philosophy might be challenging and requires transparent open communication across the various teams
• Security is often seen as a hindering extra "step" when it comes to pushing out products or features due to fixing any security-related issues identified in the CI/CD stages which slows down the overall process

DevSecOps also provides accountability for the implementation of security. Essentially, this Security as Code mentality is part of the emerging “shifting left security”. Rather than waiting until the end of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), this kind of mindset makes sure that security issues are fixed in real-time, whenever or wherever they occur in the CI/CD process. 

Security testing using a classic waterfall-style development approach, in which various components are handled individually, has become less popular in the last few years. With this method, QA / Security Teams are frequently brought in later in the process, making it difficult to debug software nearing completion and giving developers less time to correct flaws. As a result, end users are more likely to identify issues, rather than the development teams.

Security can be strengthened in the process by creating one in which testing is done continuously. The main advantage of DevSecOps, according to Google Cloud Solutions Architect Drew Stevens and Enterprise Modernization Architect Mike Ensor who created a whitepaper on the subject, is that it promotes the use of secure techniques throughout the deployment process:

"Integrating security practices and evaluation earlier in the development cycle enhances software quality and system health and prevents the need for pricey security solutions that may arise if vulnerabilities are discovered later in the cycle. Failure quickly and the prompt eradication of security and quality flaws are the main advantages of shifting left."

Another good resource that is worth checking out is Microsoft's DevSecOps Controls via their Framework of Cloud Adoption Framework which takes you through each stage of continuous integration and continuous delivery, in short, the CI/CD Process and which security controls are best practices and which should be used according to Microsoft.

Final Thoughts...

DevSecOps is an important element that should be in place in order to have proper security controls in place while providing a secure product/feature to your audience.

DevSecOps is primarily utilized when developing a product, although cybersecurity may be applied anywhere there is digitalization. You need to be sure that your company, its assets, network, and data are secure because cyber threats are growing every day. Additionally, for the highest level of security, DevSecOps and cybersecurity are crucial.

Cybersecurity and DevSecOps are related concepts. Cybersecurity is a component of both DevSecOps and DevSecOps, and vice versa. Although DevSecOps and cybersecurity both aim to improve security, their key distinctions lay in the scope and application of their respective fields.