Understand The Meaning of DevSecOps in Two Minutes

Under the DevOps collaboration framework, security protection is the shared responsibility of the entire IT team, so that the term "DevSecOps" was born.

What is DevSecOps?
We know that DevOps is not just about development and operations teams. And if you want to give full play to DevOps agility and responsiveness, you must integrate IT security protection into the entire life cycle of the application.

why? In the past, security protection was only the responsibility of a specific team, and it would only intervene in the final stages of development. When the development cycle is several months or even years, there is no problem in doing so; but now, this approach is no longer feasible. Adopting DevOps can effectively promote rapid and frequent development cycles (sometimes only a few weeks or days), but outdated security measures may drag down the entire process, and even the most efficient DevOps plan may slow down.
Today, under the DevOps collaboration framework, security protection is the shared responsibility of the entire IT team and needs to run through every link of the entire life cycle. This concept is very important, so the term "DevSecOps" was born, emphasizing that a solid security foundation must be laid for the DevOps program.
DevSecOps means that the security of applications and infrastructure must be considered from the beginning; at the same time, certain security gateways must be automated to prevent the DevOps workflow from slowing down. Choosing the right tool to continuously integrate security protection (such as integrating security protection functions in an integrated development environment (IDE)) helps achieve these goals. But effective DevOps security requires more than new tools. It also requires the entire company to implement DevOps cultural changes, so as to integrate the work of the security team as soon as possible.

Whether you are used to calling it "DevOps" or "DevSecOps", it is best to ensure that security protection is integrated into the entire life cycle of the software. DevSecOps is to have built-in security protection, not just to make a fuss on the application and data level. If you leave the security issue at the end of the development process and then consider it, even if the enterprise adopts the DevOps method, it will return to the old road of a long development cycle, and this is what everyone wants to avoid from the beginning.

DevSecOps emphasizes that the security team must be invited to ensure the security of information when the DevOps program is just launched, and an automatic security protection plan should be developed to achieve continuous IT protection. It also emphasizes that it is necessary to help developers ensure security at the code level; in this process, the security team needs to share global information, provide feedback, and perform intelligent analysis against known threats. Since DevSecOps does not always focus on the more traditional application development model, this may also include providing new security training for developers.

So, what is the real integration of security protection? For novices, a good DevSecOps strategy should be able to determine risk tolerance and conduct risk/benefit analysis. How many safety control functions should be equipped in a specific application? How important is speed to market for different applications? Since running manual security checks in the pipeline can be very time-consuming, automating repetitive tasks is the key to DevSecOps.

DevOps Security Protection Automation
To implement DevOps, companies need to: ensure that development cycles with short time and high frequency are adopted; take safety measures to minimize operation and maintenance interruption time; apply innovative technologies such as containers and microservices in a timely manner; The team of the team strengthens cooperation-all this is a difficult task for all enterprises. All of the above measures are based on people, and all need internal collaboration and cooperation; however, to realize the transformation of these people in the DevSecOps framework, automation is the key (click to see the advantages of automation).

So, where should companies automate? What should I do specifically? This enterprise automation checklist may be able to provide you with answers. Enterprises should take a step back and look at the entire development and operation and maintenance environment from a global perspective. It involves: source control repository; container registry; continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline; application programming interface (API) management, orchestration, and release automation; and operation and maintenance management and monitoring.

New automation technologies have helped companies apply more agile development practices and have also played an important role in promoting new security measures. However, automation is not the only change in the IT field in recent years. Now, for most DevOps initiatives, cloud-native technologies such as containers and microservices are also a very important component. Therefore, enterprises must adjust DevOps security measures in a timely manner.

DevOps security protection for containers and microservices
Containers can achieve greater scale and a more flexible infrastructure, which has changed the way many organizations conduct business. Therefore, DevOps' security protection practices must adapt to the new environment and follow container-specific security guidelines. Cloud native technology is not suitable for implementing static security policies and checklists. Instead, companies must ensure that continuous security protection is integrated into every phase of the application and infrastructure life cycle.

DevSecOps means that security protection runs through the entire process of application development. To achieve integration into the pipeline, we need both a new way of thinking and suitable new tools. Therefore, the DevOps team should implement security protection automation to protect the overall environment and data, and at the same time implement continuous integration/continuous delivery processes-and perhaps also ensure the security of microservices in the container.

Environmental and data security protection:
Environmental standardization and automation.
Each service should have restricted permissions to minimize unauthorized connections and access.

Centralized management of user identity and access control functions.
Since authentication is initiated at multiple points, strict access control and centralized authentication mechanisms are essential to ensure the security of microservices.

Isolate containers running microservices from each other and the network.
This includes data in transit and at rest, because acquiring these two types of data is a key target for attackers.

Encrypt data between applications and services.
Using a container orchestration platform with integrated security protection can minimize unauthorized access.

Use a secure API gateway.
A secure API makes authorization and routing more visible. By reducing the public API, organizations can reduce the attack surface.

CI/CD process security protection:
Integrated security scanner for containers.
This should be one of the steps to add a container to the registry.

Security testing in automated CI processes.
This includes running static security analysis tools during the build process; and when dragging any pre-built container images into the build pipeline, scans are performed to check for known security vulnerabilities.

Add automated testing for safety functions to the acceptance test process.
Automatic input verification test, identity verification and authorization functions.

Automate security updates, such as patching known vulnerabilities.
DevOps can achieve this. In this way, when creating a log that records changes that can be tracked, the administrator does not need to log in to the production system.

Automated system and service configuration management functions.
This will ensure compliance with security policies and avoid human error. Audit and remediation operations should also be automated.