As per CSA (Cloud Security Alliance), in DevSecOps, continuous security processes, principles, and technologies are integrated into the DevOps culture, practices, and workflows. With that, development, operations, infrastructure management, and information security department function together to secure software development. It also adds accountability on each IT team member to consider security as the most important aspect of the respective phase. Throughout the application development life cycle, the team can run automated security tests ensuring security becomes the top priority alongside speed, agility, innovation, and delivery.
DevSecOps in the Cloud
Implementing DevSecOps in the cloud requires collaboration and planning at scale as the goal is to achieve cloud security at several stages in the application. Also, it helps in streamlining the processes for the cloud migration by reducing the potential risk of automated security threats. Here are the steps that can help execute DevSecOps sustainably by providing security in the cloud application.
Steps to execute DevSecOps in the Cloud
1. Code Analysis
Agile development teams have adopted the new trend of changing the code quickly – sometimes a few times a day. However, the old security processes and models do not fit in this rapidly changing environment making the application vulnerable to cyber threats. Adding security in the DevOps process helps the team review the code rapidly for identifying vulnerabilities at each stage. Implementing a full code review is not feasible and penetration testing or application security testing doesn’t help in rapidly changing delivery plans.
2. Automated Testing
The key element of DevSecOps practice is automation. Automation testing helps in improving the testing by reviewing the code with a minimum arrangement of scripts. By executing repeatable tests, analyzing results in detail, and comparing outcomes quickly, automated testing establishes a more accurate feedback system. It also wipes out human error by performing exactly the same activity each time. Automated security testing at each phase of the development cycle boosts proficiency and limits the possibility of mistakes within the code.
3. Change Management
Cyber threats can be avoided before they become an even bigger issue by making change management more effective. Implement a system where the strategic security changes are recommended and approved within 24 hours. There are multiple ways to improve the change management cycle – for example, setting project management technique – PRINCE2; Service management technique – ITIL, management consultancy techniques – Catalyst, and many more.
4. Threat Investigation & Vulnerability Management
It is most important to find and resolve threats and weaknesses that are risen in the deployments with the code recently developed. Run security checks repetitively to identify any new bugs or vulnerabilities even after the code is delivered. As most of the popular digital attacks have happened due to possible human errors, code surveys, and automated testing are required to ensure that you are prepared for anything.
5. Security Training
Enabling the team with security-specific coding training sessions and certification courses can help build domain knowledge. There are ample training projects and testaments that can help the developers understand the real-time challenges and how to solve them.
One of our clients who is a global leader in providing home automation solutions had developed a range of home security products for surveillance purposes. The entire camera network was connected to an AWS-based platform application.
eInfochips has been engaged with the customer for the past five years and helped in optimizing the total cost of ownership by 5x for their cloud-based device deployment. As the number of product variants increased in the deployment and the platform expanded, the codebase of the firmware and application became complex across edge and cloud. As a result, the technology architecture became vulnerable and prone to security threats due to the lack of security scanning at the code level for each product variant, and the code with vulnerabilities was getting pushed to production.
eInfochips’ cybersecurity team helped the customer adopt DevSecOps practices and conducted a thorough security assessment, covering VAPT, container level security for Docker images, and Kubernetes containers in AWS EKS, SCA, and Application Security Testing. This helped the customer achieve cloud security for their multi-variant product solution. Read More.
Final Thoughts
While most organizations have started adopting cloud for their solutions, application security has become a challenge, making the products and data vulnerable to cyber threats. Migrating to the cloud is risky if the application and the processes aren’t secured. However, using DevSecOps tools can help implement security as a part of the process in the DevOps workflow.
DevSecOps can help deliver seamless integration of application security early in the software process chain. It is implemented at every single stage of the development life cycle. It is important to incorporate security in the plan, code, build, and test rather than limiting it to the later stages of the development process.
To know more about our DevOps services, talk to our experts today.
