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Strong cybersecurity measures have always been necessary. But as companies continue to collect, store, and use massive amounts of data like never before, a solid security strategy is more critical now than ever.
A recent Forbes article highlights 2021 as a “devastating year for cybersecurity,” noting the historic number of data breaches. Anybody who follows cybersecurity news has likely seen multiple articles identifying one primary culprit for this: the mass work-from-home shift that many businesses made in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The urgency prompted by this public health crisis forced companies to accelerate their digital transformations to enable employees to work remotely. The increased security risks this created didn’t go unnoticed by cybercriminals.
But employees working from home with insufficient security measures in place aren’t solely responsible for the rise in cybercrime. To competitively position themselves, many public and private organizations are rushing to transform how they do business by implementing the latest digital technologies. But hasty attempts to make these organizations more agile and ready for growth are often implemented with an insufficient cybersecurity strategy, presenting opportunities for data breaches, ransomware, and other cyberattacks.
This emphasizes the critical importance of a well-thought-out and robust cybersecurity strategy. And, although various technologies and tools play leading roles in these strategies, the adoption of DevSecOps principles and practices can, and even should, be the foundation of a robust cybersecurity plan.
What is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps is an approach that integrates multidisciplinary teams (development, security, and operations) to improve, accelerate, and automate the software development lifecycle. Eliminating organizational silos and operating with cross-team collaboration from the start enables better, faster, and safer software development and deployment.
How can DevSecOps enhance a cybersecurity strategy?
Here are five ways implementing a DevSecOps approach can benefit your cybersecurity strategy:
1. Considering “security” from the beginning
DevSecOps is a proactive approach to cybersecurity. It provides security by design, integrating and prioritizing security throughout the entire software development lifecycle. Code reviews, audits, and scans are continually performed, and any issues are addressed as soon as they are detected.
2. Eliminating dependency vulnerabilities
One of the many crucial tasks DevSecOps teams undertake is to develop a clear understanding of a system’s dependency tree. Open-source and third-party software components are widely used in application development, and these components can introduce security vulnerabilities. So DevSecOps teams ensure that non-essential dependencies are eliminated, while constantly monitoring those in use, and addressing vulnerabilities as soon as they are detected.
3. Continuous monitoring
New security threats and vulnerabilities frequently emerge, and cyberattacks can occur at any time. So, obviously, constant monitoring is ideal when it comes to cybersecurity. And because of the importance DevSecOps places on security, continuous security monitoring is one of its inherent benefits. With this proactive, 24/7 monitoring approach, teams actively search for vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by criminals. And this ensures that security issues are addressed before adding any additional dependencies.
4. Automation
An important element in DevSecOps is automation. The automation of manual processes provides more efficient software development and delivery. But it also plays a primary role when it comes to security. This can include automating vulnerability assessments, logging and event monitoring, compliance checks, patch management, and more. Automation simplifies security processes, and ensures that security is applied consistently and from the very beginning of a project.
5. Security is a shared responsibility
By eliminating organizational silos, DevSecOps transforms security to a shared responsibility, rather than placing the sole responsibility on the security team. This collaborative approach improves a team’s response to detected vulnerabilities, minimizes or eliminates downtime, and keeps security at the forefront of every stage of the development cycle.
These noted features provide a basic demonstration of how DevSecOps can benefit a cybersecurity strategy. Xebia offers broad DevSecOps services, and specializes in helping companies innovate and manage development projects effectively and safely. If you’d like to learn more about implementing DevSecOps, or other security solutions, contact us to better understand the options available to you and how Xebia can help provide you with essential cybersecurity solutions.