5 Tips for safe DevOps

5- Tips Safe DevOps Certification

In the past, DevOps and IT security were divided into different organizational silos. Companies have to break down the barriers between the two. This is the only way to promote mutual trust and the common interests of a secure, agile IT operation. After all, no one can have a serious interest in using DevOps practices to allow a kind of "state within the state" within their own organization to undermine the information security of an entire company.

The following are the five most important aspects to work on in order to establish security in DevOps practice and thus achieve DevOpsSec (secure DevOps).

1. Take advantage of the pipeline of deployments

The basics of the DevOps concept include the continuous delivery of improvements and the associated automation tools. This networked set of tools for developing, integrating, testing, delivering and monitoring code throughout its entire lifecycle is at the heart of an efficient and continuous integration and delivery process. Forrester analyst Amy DeMartine says that IT security has a real chance when it takes advantage of that very pipeline to deploy security tools to permanently improve security metrics.

2. Standardize software and keep it up to date

This applies, for example, to the implementation of the continuous pipeline, i.e., the integration of certain units of code or applications in sprints. It needs to be agreed that these sprints will be completed in time for IT security managers to be able to comprehensively test them for security deficiencies before the code is used productively.

The early integration of safety and quality checks into the development process is a crucial measure when it comes to best practices for application security. Here, the security team can create a great benefit by helping to plan where and how tests and security gates can be inserted during the overall process without unnecessarily slowing down the desired high speed of DevOps software deployment.

3. Standardising tools and processes

The DevOps processes often proliferate organically in different areas of an organization as in a neglected garden. There is a danger that the security efforts will remain random or selective and will only be pursued at irregular intervals. Each department begins to manage things in their own way and selects their individual testing tools and methods.

Then it happens that the participants speak different languages and communication stalls. While it is true that different teams occasionally have to use different toolsets because they work with different cloud infrastructures, development languages and platforms. But whenever possible, organisations should strive for standardisation at this point.

4. Monitoring with automated audit protocols

Contrary to many fears of security specialists, DevOps does not necessarily mean that a Wild West mentality is gaining ground. There are ways to introduce a task separation (separation of duties) and thus to keep track of who touches what. The participants only have to use the possibilities of automated systems, which can be used to control the continuous delivery pipeline.

Even though in many cases the old methods for introducing security releases have unfortunately fallen by the wayside, one advantage of all these newer tools must not be overlooked: They generate audit trails. Such trails may contain automated safety alerts within the production environment. With them, you can see when there are burglaries and security incidents. In addition, the teams could, for example, prioritize sensitive systems for security approvals. In addition, it is left to the system to automatically roll out the code. This means that only the tools can allocate the exact IT Resources.

These trails can be used by the IT security team to detect anomalies or to understand where something might go wrong. Anomaly detection can provide meaningful information as to whether outsiders or employees put their hands on systems that are better left untouched.

5. Making IT security palatable to developers

Security specialists should look less for gentle ways to tell developers how to develop more securely, and more for efficient ways to assist developers in their complicated work with high time pressure.

Conclusion: DevOpsSec are available

The DevOps concept for powerful and powerful enterprise IT deserves full support from IT security. However, it will hardly receive them overnight. It helps to imagine the approach that the various IT organizations work together productively as a kind of migration project: From DevOps to DevOpsSec - an organizational development for secure and agile IT.