With the continued growth of mobile technology and Cloud Computing leading more users to embrace eCommerce, there has been a subsequent increase in cases of identity theft, ransomware, and other forms of cybercrime. Nefarious agents – essentially hackers – are finding more targets on a daily basis. This puts the onus on software developers to ensure their web application remain as secure as possible. Enter DevOps.
Application engineering firms are now leveraging the faster development speed provided by DevOps to ensure their software products – and user base – stay protected from cyber criminals. Let’s take a closer look at how this modern methodology helps teams with cybersecurity.
One of the most important technical principles within DevOps is the use of automation to make certain aspects of the software engineering process more efficient and subsequently faster. According to a recent article in InfoWorld, automated routines are also helping teams implement cybersecurity throughout the software development life cycle. In the past, adding security routines to a codebase was cumbersome; this is apparently no longer the case.
A 2017 survey on “DevSecOps” by Sonatype noted a change in how developers felt about adding cybersecurity routines to their applications. 84 percent of the respondents now feel coding application security routines is a necessary safety measure, as opposed to something hampering their creativity or delaying the release date of the application. The increased use of automation to build security into software is one of the reasons for this change in attitude.
Wayne Jackson, Sonatype’s CEO noted the advantages of leveraging DevOps for application security. “DevOps is not an excuse to do application security poorly; it is an opportunity to do application security better than ever,” said Jackson. His company’s survey also noted that the organizations who have no issues adding application security tend to be the same ones with a mature implementation of DevOps itself.
As the automation ushered in by DevOps has led to a faster software development process, companies are finding it easier to improve their code in other areas, most notably in security. Tyler Shields, vice president of Signal Sciences, highlighted this change.
“Successful application security has been defined as increased automation that doesn’t slow down the development and operations process. Imagine a scenario where developers embrace security rather than find ways to work around it,” said Shields.
Some of these automated security routines include fuzz testing and software penetration testing. Both are an important aspect in truly vetting an application’s barriers against hacking and other cybercrime. Analytical routines used by continuous integration software also check for vulnerable code – both in-house developed as well as within third-party components.
With hacking and ransomware in the news on seemingly a daily basis, software development companies known for writing secure applications will gain themselves a competitive advantage compared to those shops that still see cybersecurity as a hassle. It is yet another example of what DevOps brings to the table for any application engineering organization.
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Posted on May 19, 2017 May 19, 2017 Categories Software Development Tags DevOps, Security