Can DevSecOps Covers Holes Made by Digital Transformation?

by Ritika Singh on February 24, 2021

Digital transformation in most organizations is gathering steam post the COVID-19 pandemic. Every company is shifting their business towards the online portal in line with the need of the hour. However, this paradigm shift brings new digital assets, including databases, applications, cloud computing servers, and websites, enhancing the enterprise’s attack area. Thus, to prevent costly breaches, maintain customer relationships, and safeguard company reputation, it is critical to implement a built-in and bottom-up security approach in the form of DevSecOps or DevOps security. Let’s find out more about the benefits of the DevSecOps in digital transformation and how it addresses security issues.

How does DevSecOps Ensure Security?

Till now, security was disjointed from software development, but with new DevOps security tools, there is a rise in the frequency of application code changes and deployments. This is an excellent change as digital transformation makes a giant leap, but it also increases security risks. The only way to safeguard the code is to give developers the security tools to use within their existing workflows rather than waiting for cybersecurity people to analyze the security risks.

Earlier, most of the security tests would take place late in the production cycle, which meant if there were any security issues near launch time, you would find yourself going back to the start of a long development cycle. This delay in production would lead to a delay in deliverables. Thus, ignoring security concerns could mean having security debt later in the product lifecycle. But with the coming in of DevSecOps, security is integrated within the product pipeline iteratively, incorporating it with the remaining part of the DevOps approach.

Benefits of DevSecOps in the Digital Transformation Era

Off late, there have been many data breaches and hacks taking advantage of loopholes in DevOps application security that were missed out during the development process. With organizations treading ahead with the digitization of their businesses, bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic, DevSecOps should be a must-have. Businesses need to understand the implicit requirement to have built-in security, with the CISO’s role becoming increasingly poignant.

1. Faster code to production with lesser risk

Shifting security analysis to the CI/CD workflow, developers can identify and fix security vulnerabilities before the code reaches production. Besides, having run-time security components, embedded with the applications always ensures security. This new security is automatically deployed where the new codes or applications are. This has a two-way advantage – the developers can have code to production much faster and with lesser risk, knowing that it is being monitored at run-time. This is a much-needed capability as some of the threats and attacks are initiated during run-time itself. In the present times of constant cyber-attacks on applications, it is best to have a foolproof way to build the applications.

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2. Increase in Employee Engagement and Inclusivity

DevSecOps makes everyone in the team accountable and responsible for security. It blends in two conflicting goals of fast delivery and secure code into one streamlined process.

3. Less Time Spent on Configuring Security Systems

With the help of DevSecOps, the time spent on manually configuring security systems is reduced. All the functions such as vulnerability, firewalls, identity management, and access control are automated through this process. This gives security teams time to work on policies and strategies.

4. Enhanced ROI

DevSecOps gives better ROI on an organization’s security infrastructure as well as provides enhanced operational efficiency in security and IT roles.

5. Faster Identification of Vulnerabilities

Hackers are just waiting for an opportunity to hack into software applications. They use malware to penetrate systems. Security teams can only find out about these vulnerability gaps once the application is in production, which could be damaging for the company’s reputation. However, with DevSecOps continuous vulnerability testing, these gaps are captured immediately.

Other than these primary benefits of imbibing DevSecOps, organizations also gain from better agility and speed to work for security teams, better collaboration amongst various teams, and enhanced operational efficiency across varied departments.

Conclusion

In the era of digital transformation with increasing security threats and hacks, every enterprise’s goal is changing. Today, organizations understand the relevance of DevOps security and are making security the core component of the software development chart and not retrofitting it into the cycle. The first step in that direction is to unite IT operations, application developers, and security teams as well as to facilitate a bottom-up security approach.

Remember, in today’s world of rapid release cycles, continuous integration, and increasing security threats, DevSecOps is the only way to be safe. Cloud DevOps security is the way forward. So, go ahead and make it a seamless part of your process and watch your business thrive.