Cybersecurity is getting crucial today as more businesses start to embrace digitalization. Because if companies are going digital, malicious attempts to breach data are also sure to upgrade. In light of this, tightening security to eliminate threats and cyber-attacks has been the top priority of many businesses.
However, the market is so competitive today that you have to develop new products quickly. So, it can be challenging for businesses to run sufficient quality and security checks. The good news is that you can achieve the two objectives together with DevSecOps. We’ll demonstrate how implementing DevSecOps can give you the highest level of security without sacrificing performance. But first, let’s have a clear overview of what it’s all about.
Understanding DevSecOps
For starters, DevSecOps stands for development, security, and operations. It aims to integrate security into the software development life cycle to eliminate susceptibilities from the start of the process. It combines DevOps and security to make software development, testing, and deployment more secure. To give you a clearer overview, let’s break down the term “DevSecOps.”
Let’s start with the first abbreviation, “dev.” Dev, as you might already know, stands for development. In the context of DevSecOps, this development refers to building software, which developers and operations engineers do. They work together to ensure that the programs released on the market are high quality and working properly.
The next abbreviation is “sec,” which means security. In the past, security checks only happen in the final stage of the development process. That wasn’t a problem, though, when development cycles could last for months or even years. That was until the competition in the market became tough. Today, top DevOps engineers provide quick development cycles, lasting only days or weeks, while ensuring security. This implies that security has now become an integral part of the entire life cycle of an app.
Finally, there’s “ops,” which refers to operations. People who manage operations continuously check servers and other resources are working correctly.
Why Is DevSecOps Important?
As mentioned above, in the past, security checks only happened at the end of the software development life cycle (SDLC). And software upgrades were less frequent. But now, with the emergence of DevSecOps, security implementation is at every stage of SDLC. In other words, there’s security from initial design to integration, testing, deployment, and delivery. And you can also automate it with DevSecOps. With that, less manual work and human-made problems can risk confidential information.
Aside from automation, DevSecOps also offers the ability to find any vulnerabilities in code quickly and proactive security. Teams with established DevOps procedures may now have a threefold increased likelihood of identifying vulnerabilities. In light of this, DevSecOps play a crucial role in software development. With its constant monitoring ability, you can fix any problems before they become serious, which helps cut costs.
Moreover, DevSecOps enhances team communication and collaboration. It ensures that rather than being the sole duty of a security silo, security in the application and infrastructure is a shared responsibility. Security can work together with development and IT operations teams. This collaboration will address quality, security, and other product issues at once.
Relevance of DevSecOps in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity and DevSecOps are two related concepts. Cybersecurity is a part of DevSecOps, whereas DevSecOps is a component of cybersecurity. Although both practices aim to improve security, their key distinctions lay in the scope and application of their respective fields.
As we already know, you use DevSecOps in the SDLC. You can consider it as a combination of security and DevOps. On the other hand, cybersecurity is vast—it works in a broader scope wherever there is digitalization.
By definition, cybersecurity is an approach to protecting and securing web/computer systems, networks, and applications from digital attacks. Its primary objective is to uphold the CIA triad, which stands for confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
There’s actually a common misconception about utilizing cybersecurity. For instance, people think you only use it to safeguard networks and assets against hackers and other malicious people. But that’s not always accurate. Keeping the CIA triad in place is its top priority, whether the attempt to break it is intentional or not.
There are many different types of cybersecurity. There’s network security, cloud security, and application security. And it is in application security that you can relate DevSecOps to cybersecurity. By definition, application security aims to develop and test security measures within applications. Like DevSecOps, it helps prevent susceptibilities such as modification and unauthorized access.
Simply put, DevSecOps is an implementation of application security by making security an integral part of the SDLC.
The Bottom Line
Security has become a top priority for all businesses as we move towards a digital world. After learning about DevSecOps and cybersecurity in this article, we can say that we need both to achieve maximum security. So, protect your company from cyber threats and attacks by integrating DevSecOps and cybersecurity in your business operations.