Learning institutions are continually releasing developers into the world. However, most of these institutions only focus on teaching developers how to actualize functionalities in application systems. Very few developers join the market with the aspect of security in development. As the IT environment is continually becoming less secure and more unpredictable, a new approach is required when developing apps and systems.
DevSecOps is a premise that states that anyone involved in software development is responsible for bringing together development and security. Initially, security used to be an after-thought. The development team would build the software first and then integrate security into it.
DevSecOps discourages this, and instead enforces a new development approach where security is tightly coupled with all other software development phases. Security is thus embedded in all development processes rather than coming in as an addition at the end of a development project.
DevSecOps ensures that the responsibility of security is equally shared in a software development project and that security is continually integrated from start to end. With the integrated approach, security is not built around the perimeter of systems—it is built within every part of the system. This makes it hard for malicious persons to compromise the system. During software development, developers have security in mind and they continually share their insights on security threats and how they can make their software resistant to the threats. For instance, if the known threat takes advantage of a one-time authentication procedure, the developers can implement authentication at every module of a software so that an unauthorized person is not able to carry out any significant transactions in a system, even after bypassing the initial authentication process.
When learning DevSecOps, you will develop a new perspective on development. It will not just be about functionalities, but the security of the software as well. You will learn how to determine the risk tolerance of a software and how to improve it. You will also learn how to do a risk/benefit analysis. At times, too much security might hinder some essential services or make the software needlessly slow. Therefore, DevSecOps ensures that security is not at either extreme so that it makes a software unusable due to the inclusion of too many security controls, or insecure to use due to few security controls. DevSecOps is fast gaining popularity in the market and organizations are looking for system developers that use this approach of building software. The benefits of DevSecOps are as follows:
- Speed and agility: Software development is done in small iterations in which security is continually added. Also, security teams do not have to wait until a piece of software is completed to integrate security controls.
- Response to changes: There are many changes that occur in the IT environment and they may, at times, affect the way security is integrated into software. For instance, new threats may emerge during software development and the developers have to respond by making their system resistant to the threat. For instance, older systems were built to check where login credentials matched those in a database. However, when hackers began using password dictionaries, software developers responded by including a counter to prevent a certain number of login trials from being exceeded. DevSecOps prepares developers to react in such ways.
- Quality assurance testing: Systems built with the DevSecOps approach are easier to test, since all components are tightly coupled. Security is not a module; rather, it is built into the software and can be thoroughly tested when other functionalities of the software are being tested.
- Early identification of vulnerabilities: With DevSecOps, software does not have to get to bug testers for vulnerabilities to be identified. All developers have the mindset of ensuring the security of a system, so they are always on the lookout for vulnerabilities that can be exploited. With many eyes sweeping through the code just to find out vulnerabilities, nearly all possible vulnerabilities are identified and resolved during development.
DevSecOps training is focused on a technical shift where you learn how to prioritize security during development. You also learn how to collaborate with other developers or security teams to ensure that the end deliverable is highly secure. DevSecOps is also focused on agility and fast responses to change. When taking the training, you will mostly learn code analysis, change management, compliance monitoring, threat investigation, and vulnerability assessment. In the future, other software development approaches will slowly be abandoned and companies will be looking for developers who are well-versed in DevSecOps. Therefore, take the course today and reserve yourself a guaranteed space in software development in tomorrow's job market.