How DevSecOps Improves Security in Custom Software Development

It is no secret that companies across various industries are looking to deploy applications quicker and quicker. Why, you ask. Well that would be to gain a competitive edge. In order to keep up with the demands of the modern market, more and more companies are deploying their applications with the help of cloud computing. And there is certainly no denying that cloud based applications bring forth a world of benefits. But it can also cause a jump in the number of attack elements your business is exposed to.

This is especially true if you still use traditional methods to secure your software. Having your app security team go through each application risks making you fall behind the competition. Thankfully, a handy solution to these obstacles exists: All you need to do is implement new ways of thinking when it comes to software development and IT security.

I will explain the security must be a continuous consideration across the development process in order for your apps to remain secure. This is where DevSecOps comes into play. This framework is engineered to empower your team to identify code vulnerabilities and enforce access controls. And all this is done without slowing down release schedules, of course.

In this blog, I will discuss DevSecOps, i.e. what it is and its benefits for safeguarding your digital assets while still maintaining high development pace.

DevSecOps Fundamentals

The term refers to a software development strategy. It brings together security practices into each stage of the software development lifecycle. As you can see, it differs from traditional models wherein security is simply a final check before release. Instead DevSecOps integrates automated security testing, vulnerability scanning, etc. straight into CI/CD pipelines. This is also conducive to collaboration between developers, IT, and security teams. And most importantly, DevSecOps ensures security flaws are found and remediated early in the development process.

Top Benefits of DevSecOps for Building Custom Software

• Reduced security incidents: The use of this framework means automated security tools are embedded straight into the early coding stages. And when you do find and fix vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and broken authentication during the development process, you can prevent insecure code from making its way into production. As you can imagine, such a proactive approach greatly reduces the overall volume of active security breaches and operational incidents.
• Decreased time spends on compliance audits: The DevSecOps approach also involves the automation of security testing reports, code review logs, etc. Since measures such as security policies and compliance guardrails are integrated and recorded as code, security and compliance teams don't have to manually gather evidence or reconstruct change logs from a handful of different systems. So when a regulatory audits does happen, you have all the documentation ready to go.
• Quicker remediation of zero-day vulnerabilities: Yet another benefit of this approach is the use of automated dependency scanning tools. These solutions continuously analyze third-party libraries and open-source packages against global vulnerability databases. When a new zero-day exploit comes to the fore, DevSecOps will instantly get to work. It will scan all active codebases and repositories to find where the vulnerable component is used. This immediate visibility helps development teams to patch or update the compromised dependency extremely quickly.
• Faster deployments: DevSecOps does away with manual security testing models. In their stead, it brings to the table automated security tests which run in parallel with code development. Since security is being continuously validated inside the CI/CD pipeline, the approved code can move from development to production automatically.

Ready to embrace DevSecOps, then? Then you must first start looking for a trusted software development services company.