In today’s volatile world of ever-emerging cybersecurity threats, effective security solutions are more essential than ever before. In the past, cybersecurity was perceived as ancillary to Information Technology activities, but developers are increasingly turning to new methods that blend such more effectively like DevSecOps—which is a process and not technology. It’s a cultural and engineering practice that breaks down barriers and opens collaboration between software development, security, and operations to instill a rationale oriented around automation and delivery.
What Is DevSecOps?
In the domain of cybersecurity and software development, modern challenges are being met by a strategic approach known as DevSecOps. In essence, it’s a cohabitation encompassing Security and Operations development. DevSecOps embodies a philosophy that seeks to integrate security practices seamlessly into the software development lifecycle.
DevSecOps promotes a cultural shift that shatters traditional silos, fostering a shared responsibility for security across the development pipeline. This means that security isn’t merely an add-on or a final checkpoint. It becomes a proactive and integral part of every phase: planning, coding, testing, and deployment. Vulnerabilities and risks are identified early, allowing for timely mitigation and reducing the potential impact of security breaches.
While it may seem simple to code security into your programs, not all factors are necessarily in a user’s control. Today, many companies employ in-house software engineers, albeit, much of the code is programmed by open-source developers. In fact, a 2019 report found that 96% of codebases contain at least some open-source code. While using open-source code does not negate the possibility of DevSecOps, it does mean that security solutions must account for all code, including programming written by other developers.
DevSecOps, in its essence, promotes harmony, collaboration, and a shared sense of responsibility among development, security, and operations. It envisions a world where security isn’t an obstacle but a guiding principle, enabling organizations to build resilient, secure, and high-quality software while maintaining agility and speed. In this paradigm, security is no longer a checkpoint — it’s the guiding star that illuminates the path to digital resilience.
The Current State of DevSecOps
According to the 2023 Application Development Software Global Market Report, the application development software market is expected to grow from $334.86 billion this year to $915.96 billion in 2027. Not only are those numbers significant, but they represent an average Combined Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of well over 28%.
Enterprises and IT Integrators are continuously looking to stage projects along five phases: business modeling, data modeling, process modeling, application generation, and testing and turnover. Applying cryptography from the start has been difficult due to a dependency on a key management system that encrypts and decrypts an application or data and generates latency in the process.
The Growing Importance of Inherent Security
Perhaps the greatest value of DevSecOps lies in its commitment to continuous improvement and learning. Teams that analyze security incidents and feedback are able to evolve their practices to stay ahead of emerging threats. This iterative loop empowers organizations to adapt quickly, enhancing their security posture in a landscape where cyber threats evolve at a rapid pace.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the significance of DevSecOps has taken center stage, marking a pivotal turning point in the world of cybersecurity and software development. This is especially true in today’s landscape of emerging AI-enabled threat vectors.
In the past year—2023—organizations have found themselves navigating an increasingly complex and perilous cybersecurity terrain, where the threats have become more diverse, dire, and persistent. It is in this dynamic environment that the DevSecOps approach emerged as twin pillars of resilience and adaptability.
Regulations and Compliance
Gone are the days when security could be an afterthought—a mere hoop to jump through at the end of the development cycle. During 2023, the stakes and exposure to cyberattacks rose exponentially in which breaches Breaches led to severe financial losses, regulatory penalties, and the erosion of customer trust, thereby blurring a traditional divide between development, security, and operations and making it no longer tenable or viable to work in a siloed mode.
Henceforth, organizations are embracing digital transformation and cloud environments, microservices, and IoT devices, all of which introduce new attack vectors. The sheer diversity and complexity of these technologies demand a proactive security approach. DevSecOps advocates for the integration of security from the earliest stages, ensuring that vulnerabilities are identified and addressed before they can be exploited.
Failure to sufficiently protect data can subject companies to regulatory hot water. For instance, in the United States, all information related to individual health is protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Compliance with HIPAA regulations is dictated by the US Department of Health and Human Services and enforced by the Office for Civil Rights. Non-compliance with privacy laws such as HIPAA, CCPA legislation in California, or the GDPR (pertaining to EU subjects) is prone to penalization.
In short, effective and dynamic security is necessary to stay on the right side of data protection laws. The DevSecOps approach becomes a catalyst for such agility. It empowers teams to respond swiftly to emerging threats, adapting their strategies in real-time. The iterative nature of DevSecOps ensures that security remains an evolving practice, aligned with the ever-changing threat landscape.
The Future of DevSecOps
As we navigate the uncharted waters of 2023 and beyond, DevSecOps stands as a cornerstone of resilience, enabling organizations to not only weather the storms of cyber threats but also emerge stronger, more secure, and more adaptable than ever before. But how can businesses and agencies adopt a DevSecOps approach?
Enter self-protecting data solutions, such as Sertainty’s cutting-edge technology. By embedding intelligence directly into data files, self-protecting data can recognize and counter malicious activities, even in the absence of known vulnerabilities or patches. As a pioneer of this approach, Sertainty redefines how information is protected to ensure data privacy where perimeters fail. Using cutting-edge protocols and embedding intelligence directly into sensitive data files or datasets, Sertainty leverages patented processes to govern, track, and defend data through the files themselves.
Instead of database security based on privileges to access the network directory where the file currently resides, Sertainty Self-Protecting Data technology empowers the files to defend themselves against malicious activity immediately. Sertainty UXP Technology recognizes itself through a Zero-Trust framework that contextualizes the environment, behavior, and action of the intended receiver — whether human, machine, or application. With these protocols, the data remains secure even in situations where systems have been compromised.
Government agencies are recognizing the importance of this approach. In fact, an executive order from last year demands that all US federal agencies adopt a Zero-Trust security model to improve data security efforts. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has also been applying pressure on both the private and public sectors to increase commitment to digital security and Secure-by-Design Technology.
Empower Your Built-In Security with Sertainty
Sertainty Technology automatically bakes in security at every phase of the software development lifecycle, enabling the development of secure software in a Waterfall or Agile construct. This enables the secure automation of processes, standardizations, protections, and contextualization of data. Moreover, Sertainty UXP Technology demonstrates homomorphic capabilities, specifying what needs to be decrypted and worked on. This is a huge operational gain, streamlining processes and touchpoints.
Through its UXP Technology, Sertainty leverages proprietary processes that enable data to govern, track, and defend itself — whether in flight, in a developer’s sandbox, or in storage. These UXP Technology protocols mean that even if systems are compromised by AI tools or accessed from the inside, all data stored in them remains secure.
At Sertainty, we know that maintaining secure files is the most valuable asset to your organization’s continued success. Our industry-leading Data Privacy Platform has pioneered what it means for data to be intelligent and actionable, helping companies move forward with a proven and sustainable approach to their cybersecurity needs.
As the digital landscape evolves and networks become more widely accessible, Sertainty is committed to providing self-protecting data solutions that evolve and grow to defend sensitive data. With the proliferation of human and AI threats, security breaches may be inevitable, but with Sertainty, privacy loss doesn’t have to be.