DevSecOps: All You Need to Know
Now, In this era where cloud services have overtaken everything. People don’t have time to sit back and wait for whole months and years for the updates and security patches. Now it is not only about development and operational teams Because if we still continue to test our software security at the end of development operations and protect the outer perimeters of our codes it is of no use.
Here is when DevSecOps plays its role. Nowadays the software is split into small portions and security teams are added in the development phase. Where the security checks are running side by side with the DevOps teams. In this way, the software can provide built-in security with the API and Development integration and development continues(CI/CD) services. By doing so the software development can be increased to weeks or months instead of years. And we can be ahead in this broader avenue.
Do We Really Need DevSecOps Instead of DevOps
Well, Keeping in mind that how much IT infrastructure has grown. It is absolutely the need of this age. Because of the cloud platform, those days are gone when someone has the months or years for the development. It is sometimes amusing that DevOps has come a long way but due to all those old security check-ups we still have to delay the projects for years.
Overall, Now security is the fundamental need of development as Hackers are trying to exploit new and different ways, Where “Zero-Day Exploit” are more commons. If we don’t intend to follow the DevSecOps methodology and a hacker successfully deploys an exploit in the development procedure and exploit is later on determined after being released. Think about the company's reputation and thousands of people's reviews and privacy. It can be really messy. So, to avoid all this DevSecOps is the step that we need to take.
If we give security an equal level of importance as we give to development. Then every operational developer has security at the front while developing an application. In this number of threats will decrease adequately.
Security End to End
The working mechanism of industries has been changed dramatically due to such hipe of new technology trend. Now things have been changed for the developers and there is a need for change in DevOps.
Due to cloud base infrastructure, the patches are being updated on an almost weekly basis, and Sec. provides us with the end to end security. As the security process being added to every step of development and vulnerabilities are being monitored on every stage of development and operational applications. In this way, there are very few chances of exploits and moreover, this process is more efficient than DevOps.
Because cloud-native technology cannot be dealt with with one-time security check-ups. So there comes the role of the Continuous Integration and Continuous Development(CI/CD) pipeline. In this way, there are frequent security patches are being integrated to avoid from latest threats.
To apply this method the developers work in a control management system in which, one developer works on a code and another can retrieve it later to check the bugs and vulnerabilities and code. Then a test is executed in the tweaked code to check its security and API, and if the code passes the test then it proceeds to the production environment.
Automated Tools for DevSecOps
Earlier when this method was introduced in DevOps it was kind of hard for the developers to eliminate the security vulnerabilities without proper guidance and advanced training in it. It was one of the major problems and also very time-consuming. To deal with this problem there was one security expert present in the team. Who used to check up all the security but it was difficult for the one person to go on the repetitive security check-ups after every time source codes are being tweaked.
It was also the situation that the same person has to review the customer security feedback. So in the start, this method was not that efficient. But after some time there was software developed for this special task so that they can easily be integrated into the special environmental management system to do security check-ups.
The whole heart of the process was automation that there should be automated routine check-ups every time codes are being tweaked and vulnerabilities must be fixed. Now after a couple of years more and more tools are being developed which are more optimized to this CI/CD pipeline workflow. Here is the list of some tools for DevSecOps.
1:SonarQube
It is an open-source project which provides automation through the workflow developer's environment and provides quality inspections throughout the code to detect bugs and exploits. It supports up to 30 programming languages which makes it fit for most developers.
2:Veracode
It offers a number of automated security tools that can help the developers in many stages. These tools are Greenlight, which works like an interpreter it scans the code as code is being written. Sandbox, to scan the vulnerabilities within the sandbox. It also identifies the vulnerable components by Software Composition Analysis (SCA) and Static Analysis, to identify the applicant flows.
3:Codac
It provides a quality type of standardization and automation. Its static code analysis detects the vulnerabilities in the early stages and fixes them. They can address the code complexity, duplication violations of the rule, and quality of codes. In this way, developer teams can look over the quality of their codes and procedures further. T Codacy supports up to 20 programming languages.
4:Red Hat Ansible Automation
Well, it's not a typical security tool. But it let you define the code's manner and rules to determine how to secure your code in the development process. It has three modules which are; Ansible Tower, Ansible Engine, and Red Hat Ansible Network Automation which can be used together or separately.
Conclusion
The two main factors that we gain by using DevSecOps are they are more secure and uploaded faster. Therefore they are also cheaper. That’s why they are known as rapid and Cost-effective software. As its software is mostly automated with environmental management system due to which it remains proactive and gives repeatedly vulnerabilities scans and fixes which results in faster, strong, and cheaper code.
