The Sec in DevSecOps: Adding security to DevOps practices

Rohitpatil
Catalysts Reachout
Published in
4 min readNov 13, 2022
Source: Dynatrace news

What is DevSecOps?

DevSecOps (development plus security plus operations) is a management model that integrates application development, security, operations, and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) in a continuous delivery cycle that is automated.

The primary objective of DevSecOps is to automate, monitor, and apply security throughout the software lifecycle, which includes planning, developing, building, testing, releasing, delivering, deploying, operating, and monitoring. Using security at every level of the software development process allows continuous integration, lowering compliance costs and delivering software faster. Using security at every level of the software development process allows for continuous integration, lowering compliance costs and delivering software faster.

DevSecOps implies that every person and team is accountable for security from the start, and they must make choices quickly and implement them without jeopardizing security.

How is the working flow of DevSecOps?

A common DevSecOps workflow looks like this:

  • The version control system is used for development.
  • A different team member examines the application updates. The employee achieves this by taking into account the security flaws of the component that is changing, the overall quality of the code, and any potential defects.
  • The program is installed under security settings.
  • The program is then tested in the back end, user interface, integration, and security domains using test automation.
  • The application gets transferred to the production environment if it passes the test.
  • Various monitoring apps and security software monitor.
DevSecOps Pipeline

The Development Side

New software applications are created and iterated on by development teams. This includes the following:

Apps developed in-house for a particular, specialized purpose.

API-driven links that connect ancient systems to new services.

Apps that use open-source code to speed up the development process.

Agile methods, which promote continuous improvement over sequential, waterfall-style phases, are used in modern development techniques. If developers work in isolation without taking into account operations and security, new apps or features may generate operational challenges or security vulnerabilities that are costly and time-consuming to fix.

The Operations Side

The methods of controlling software functionality throughout its delivery and usage life cycle are referred to as "operations."

System performance monitoring

Repairing flaws

Testing following upgrades and modifications

Tuning the software distribution system

In recent years, DevOps has gained traction as a method of combining important operational concepts with development cycles, realizing that these two processes must coexist. Post-development processes that are siloed can make it simpler to identify and handle possible problems, but this method forces developers to loop around and resolve software issues before moving on with new development. This results in a detailed route map rather than a simplified software approach.

Organizations may minimize deployment time and boost overall efficiency by running operations concurrently with software development processes.

The Security Side

Security encompasses all of the tools and techniques required to design and develop software that is resistant to attack, as well as to identify and respond to errors as rapidly as feasible.

Traditionally, application security has been addressed after development by a different team of individuals, independent of both the development and operations teams. This compartmentalized strategy hindered development and reaction time.

Furthermore, security tools have generally been categorized. Each application security test focused solely on that program and frequently exclusively on its source code. This made it difficult for anybody to get an organization-wide picture of security vulnerabilities or to grasp any software risks in the context of a production environment.

“To successfully implement continuous delivery, you need to change the culture of how an entire organization views software development efforts.”- Tommy Tynjä

What’s the work? What’s the pay?

In the United States, the average DevSecOps income is $140,000 per year or $71.79 per hour. Entry-level salaries begin at $117,578 per year, with most experienced professionals earning up to $176,555 per year.

Source: Mobilunity

DevSecOps engineers work in the same field as other IT security experts. To detect and evaluate risks, these jobs employ a variety of tools and techniques, such as risk assessment, threat modeling, and cybersecurity. However, as compared to a specific IT security employment function, there are several crucial distinctions to consider.

The notion of cooperation is believed to be the primary practice implemented in the DevOps environment. DevOps and security engineers collaborate to guarantee that all security issues are addressed throughout the development process.

Automation tools are utilized to discover vulnerabilities; therefore, DevSecOps engineers should be more familiar with them. They should be aware of how security affects each development phase and the services.

Thank you for reading. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs.

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