Exploring Automated DevSecOps: Revolutionizing Security in Development published 9/21/2023 | 3 min read

Automated DevSecOps: A Game Changer in Security Practices

Traditionally, security was isolated from the software development process. However, the evolution of development paradigms has rapidly changed this practice. With DevSecOps, security is now firmly integrated into the development pipeline, facilitating a more proactive approach to security concerns. This post explores the concept of Automated DevSecOps, its importance, benefits, and how it is revolutionizing security in the realm of software development.

The Rise of Automated DevSecOps

DevSecOps is a natural progression from DevOps, a popular development practices that brings together developers (Dev) and operations (Ops). Adding security (Sec) into the mix, hence DevSecOps, ensures that secure coding and application security testing are integrated into the development workflow.

Automated DevSecOps, as the name suggests, leverages automation to enforce security across the development pipeline. Automated tools are leveraged to find and fix vulnerabilities in real-time, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of security strategies.

Key Benefits of Automated DevSecOps

Automated DevSecOps has numerous benefits:

1. Earlier Detection of Vulnerabilities: Automation allows for security checks to occur throughout the development process. This leads to earlier detection and rectification of security vulnerabilities.
2. Increased Speed and Efficiency: Automated security tests run much faster than manual tests. This allows developers to receive security feedback quickly, improving the overall development workflow.
3. Reduced Costs: Automating security practices reduces the costs associated with addressing security issues after deployment.
4. Improved Compliance: Automated DevSecOps has the potential to enhance regulatory compliance due to its ability to trace security controls.

Implementing Automated DevSecOps: Key Practices

Transitioning to Automated DevSecOps requires embracing a few key practices:

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) allows developers to automate the management and provisioning of infrastructure. This eliminates manual processes, making infrastructure setup more reliable and faster.

For instance, using Terraform, you can define and manage infrastructure using HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language):

  
provider "aws" {
  access_key = "<ACCESS_KEY>"
  secret_key = "<SECRET_KEY>"
  region     = "us-west-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c94855ba95c574c8"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "example-instance"
  }
}

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

Continuous Integrations and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is essential in DevSecOps, providing a reliable and quicker way of releasing new code changes.

Security as Code

Security as Code transforms the way we implement security controls in the development life cycle. It necessitates defining and managing security policies as code files, which can be versioned and audited just like any other code.

Automated Testing

Automated security testing is a critical component of DevSecOps. Tools like OWASP ZAP can be used for automated security testing:

  
from zapv2 import ZAPv2

# Here is your APIkey to be defined
apiKey = 'your_secret_zap_API_key'

zap = ZAPv2(apikey=apiKey)

target = 'http://target'

# Spidering the target
zap.spider.scan(url=target, apikey=apiKey)

# Active scanning the target
zap.ascan.scan(url=target, apikey=apiKey)

# Viewing the results
print(zap.core.alerts())

Automated DevSecOps is a critical feature of today's software development practices. It not only ensures swift and reliable development, but it integrates all-important security checks throughout the process. By leveraging tools and practices aligned with this approach, organizations can build robust, secure software faster and more efficiently.

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