Today, cloud computing is a standardized norm in IT infrastructure worldwide. Undoubtedly, there is no other match that can offer such scalability as cloud computing. While many organizations are transitioning to the cloud from on-premise infrastructure, cloud security is a key concern for all!
DevSecOps, an Agile Approach, integrates security workflows with the modern software delivery process. Are we hearing about it for the first time? Keep reading as we will discuss the importance of DevSecOps in cloud environment security.
“IT environments need protection from data thefts, security violations, and cyber attacks – DevSecOps brings the ultimate solution to deploy software code and infrastructure in the cloud securely.”
What is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps comprises a set of practices that addresses various security challenges that developers might face in every stage of the software development lifecycle. It promotes better collaboration between developers, operation experts, and security teams to ensure fully-secured cloud deployments.
Finding The Correlation Between DevOps and DevSecOps
DevOps emphasizes collaboration and communication between software development and operations teams. On the other hand, DevSecOps follows the primary principles of DevOps while integrating the security prospect into the software development. The main difference is that DevSecOps prioritizes security over software delivery speed and agility.
Why is DevSecOps Important in Cloud Security?
Cloud computing offers many benefits, like high scalability, deployment flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. With the increasing use of cloud environments, the risks for data breaches, cyber-attacks, and unauthorized access have increased. DevSecOps can help eliminate these risks by integrating security into the development workflow.
Early detection and prevention of security vulnerabilities
Cloud DevSecOps incorporates security testing and analysis with the software development workflow. Developers can detect security vulnerabilities in the development cycle and address them accordingly. It reduces the likelihood of encountering vulnerabilities in the production environment.
Faster response to security incidents
Like the early detection of security incidents, DevSecOps offers a great way to respond to vulnerabilities faster. How? DevSecOps initiates smooth collaboration between developers, operations experts, and security engineers. With a joint corporation, teams can react to pre-detected vulnerabilities more quicker.
Improved compliance and governance
Organizations follow different regulatory requirements and compliance standards. DevSecOps can help such organizations meet their security requirements by performing compliance checks in different phases of the development workflow. Thus, organizations can ensure that the developed software meets all regulatory requirements to become compliant.
Security as a shared responsibility
DevSecOps fosters a culture of cloud security where everyone is responsible for adhering to all compliance standards during software development and infrastructure deployment. This means all developers, operations teams, and security teams are responsible for developing a more secure software development workflow.
Focus on continuous improvement
The Cloud DevSecOps process involves continuous security testing and analysis, allowing continuous security improvements in all development phases. Developers continually monitor and analyze the cloud environments to find areas for improvement.
Recommended Security Controls in CI/CD DevOps Process
Let’s review what security controls DevOps teams can implement in each DevOps CI/CD development process stage.
Plan and Develop
Introducing security in Agile development methodology planning should focus on the following:
- Threat modeling to understand an attacker’s perspective
- IDE Security plugins for lightweight static analysis
- Pre-commit hooks integration within the IDE
- Peer reviews to identify secure coding standards
Commit The Code
Developers should create, manage, and share software code in Azure Repos or GitHub. It helps to have centralized control of the version-controlled code library. Also, here are a few recommendations that developers should plan before committing the code:
- Design static application security test cases
- Plan security unit and functional test cases
- End-to-end resource dependency management
- Secure pipelines with code deployments
Build and Test
In DevOps security, it’s a must to build and release pipelines that can standardize and automate the code deployment processes. Here are a few suggestions to integrate security with release pipelines:
- Dynamic application security testing
- Cloud configuration validation
- Infrastructure scanning
- Security acceptance testing
Operate in Production
When it’s time to go live in production, DevOps engineers must focus on the following activities to ensure optimal security:
- Run security smoke tests
- Perform configuration and infrastructure scanning
- Run live site penetration testing
- Continuous monitoring with threat intelligence
Cloud Security Best Practices for Implementing DevSecOps
Implementing cloud DevSecOps requires a mindset shift along with the process change. Here are some best practices that organizations can follow:
Security by Design
Consider the security perspective since the beginning of the development phase with the term “Security by Design.” Make it a part of the initial design requirements and analysis phase.
Process Automation
Automation is the key to implementing DevSecOps as it allows faster identification and resolution of security issues.
Team Collaboration
DevSecOps requires collaboration between developers, testers, operations experts, and security teams. This ensures that cloud security challenges are not an afterthought but are handled carefully with joint coordination.
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous monitoring in the cloud environment is essential for identifying potential security threats. It can help detect potential threats early, allowing for quicker resolution from the security team’s perspective.
Training and Education
DevSecOps requires a change in mindset among the DevOps teams. DevOps teams should take agile training to understand the recommended security controls they can implement in the development workflow. The sooner teams understand the importance of security, the faster they can implement necessary security enhancements in the system.
Is DevSecOps The Ultimate Solution To Automate Cloud Environment Security?
Cloud computing, being the latest infrastructure standard, is facing increased risks to its service security. DevSecOps, a combined approach of DevOps and Cloud Security, is helping organizations integrate security controls into every software development stage. Is it a new norm? Undoubtedly, DevSecOps is essential for implementing standard security and compliance checks in the development workflow. It helps improve team collaboration and builds a culture of security across all cloud environments!
Consult with our DevSecOps experts to implement security controls within the cloud environment.
BDCC
Latest posts by BDCC (see all)
- How AI is Revolutionizing DevOps: The Future of Automated CI/CD Pipelines - November 20, 2024
- Top 10 DevOps Tools of 2024 - November 13, 2024
- Public vs. Private Cloud: Key Differences Explained - November 11, 2024