How to Integrate Security to Your Development Workflow?

Software development and release have gained speed in a few years. Every organization wants to release its software as quickly as possible to stay one step ahead of the competition. Earlier, developers had to manually deploy the programs, which consumes a significant amount of time. However, implementing DevOps models has increased the speed of software deployments through automation. 

Though the primary focus of every DevOps team is to improve the software development lifecycle, they have to consider another crucial factor: Security. This blog aims to shed some light on the need to integrate security into the DevOps workflow and the process to accomplish this task.

What happens when you treat Security as an afterthought?

Many organizations default to adding security in the later stages of DevOps rather than from the beginning. Not only does it pose security threats, but it can slow down the entire development and deployment process. With that in mind, here are some common pitfalls when security is addressed at the end of SDLC.

1. Delayed Application Releases: If security is integrated at the end of SDLC, the entire process may be delayed resulting in slower application deployment. Security checks, compliance processes, tests, and many other security-related tasks consume much time, and performing them at the end will increase the deployment time. 
2. Slow Recovery in Security Attacks: Security attacks are more common than most people think. However, the security practices make recovery faster, due to which most people aren't aware of such attacks. When security is not implemented in the workflow, recovering from a security attack may take longer than anticipated as the teams have to make special efforts to identify and find the vulnerabilities in the well established processes. 
3. Minimal Compliance Costs: Software should meet the necessary compliances set by the authorities to function in the industry. Such compliances exist to ensure the data safety of the users as well as the clients of the organization. With security at the end of SDLC, meeting these compliances can be challenging and may become expensive. Furthermore, if any compromises are found in the compliances, the authorities may impose hefty fines on organizations. 

Common Reasons for Security Breaches:

Security breaches in software are more common than most people think. One of the most significant reasons organizations become vulnerable to such attacks is that they are unaware of the common pitfalls that become the causes of such incidents. With that in mind, here are the most common causes of security breaches in software that you should know. 

• Human Errors: Unsafe communication methods and easily guessed passwords are some of the most common human errors that lead to security breaches. In order to avoid these sorts of issues, it is important to provide every team member with specific training on how to maintain a secure work culture and how to use proper security practices. Additionally, applications can be designed with error anticipation in mind.
• Vulnerable Code Dependencies: Development teams often depend on third-party libraries to integrate different functionalities into their applications. However, there's a strong possibility of a security breach due to the third-party's wide user base as a potential vector. 
• Software Misconfiguration : Any misconfiguration in exposed services or authentication mechanisms in IT infrastructure can cause data leaks. Software misconfiguration can include easily accessible data, unprotected data, or data protected by weak passwords.

What is Secure SDLC?

As technology advances, the need to secure software becomes more important. Integrating security into the entire development workflow is one of the best ways to improve the security of software. The traditional practice is to leave security until the ending phases of the SDLC rather than from the beginning.

Integrating security in the DevOps workflow can reduce security vulnerabilities in the software while minimizing the development and deployment time as well. Adding certain security layers and actions to the existing SDLC can enhance its security. Here are the different phases of SDLC and the process of integrating security in the DevOps workflow.  

1. Requirements & Analysis Phase: The foremost step in the software development lifecycle is the requirement phase, where the team and the stakeholders determine the software's functionality, capabilities, performance, and use cases. Injecting security by encompassing security around each feature right at this phase will ensure that the application remains secure from its inception. 
2.  Design Phase: In this phase, the team will decide how to meet the software's set requirements by building a robust development plan. Furthermore, the tools, techniques, and methodologies that will help in building the software will be determined in this step. Hence, following points should be considered in this phase : 
   • A threat modeling process should be followed to identify and eradicate all possible threats from the plan.
   • Decide how the application and the data will be maintained and secured after releasing the application.
   • Review the design to identify underlying security risks in the early development workflow so that it does not hamper the overall security of the software.
   • Red team ensure security to detect any proverbial 'chinks in the armor'. Better now at this stage than later. 
3. Development/Coding Phase: In this phase the development team focuses on writing the software code by keeping security practices and guidelines in mind. Reviewing the code is also part of the process through technologies like Static Application Security Testing (SAST). SAST is a testing process where the source code is analyzed to identify security vulnerabilities that can put software at risk of cyberattacks. 
   Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools can also be used to check open-source software components that are not written from scratch. Such tools automatically identify dependencies in the codebase and analyze it to identify any security vulnerabilities, compromised code quality, or compliance issues. In short, following measures introduced in this phase would help propagate the notion of security to later stages :
   • Performing Static Analysis Software Testing (SAST) is essential to identify vulnerabilities and issues in the code.
   • Using SCA would help reduce the technical debt of using vulnerable open source code and SDKs. 
4. Testing Phase: The traditional practice followed by legions of development teams is integrating security in the testing phase. Integrating security from the beginning will reduce the time consumed in the process while enhancing the overall security of the app. Automated testing plays a crucial role in this phase of the process. 
   • Integrating CI/CD pipelines for release and bug fixing
   • Testing software in a non-production 'Sandbox' is a great way to observe operations in a safe environment.
   • Adopting security testing techniques like Fuzzing, Penetration testing, and Interactive Application Security testing to integrate security.
5. Deployment Phase: Release and maintenance are the two significant actions that are performed in this phase. However, the developers now put in their efforts to prepare the app for emerging threats and vulnerabilities from open-source components. Sometimes, the vulnerabilities in the code may slip the testing and may only be found once the app is used. Such issues are identified and fixed in this stage.
   • Create a reliable system to identify emerging threats that can hamper software security
   • Use robust techniques that can detect security issues unknown during the development stage
   • Evaluate the network and server configurations for any underlying infrastructure security issues
   • Add a web application firewall for better security from online threats.

DevSecOps

DevSecOps is a cultural approach in an organization which promotes collaboration between development, security and operations teams. Rapid deployment cycles have become exponentially more important due to automation. DevSecOps is about integrating security from the beginning of SDLC. Selecting the right tools for continuous integration of security is an essential element of DevSecOps. Below are the top tools that can enhance DevSecOps.

1. Sonatype Nexus: The Sonatype Nexus is a tool that enhances collaboration between the development and security teams to help them find vulnerabilities and malicious open sources in the initial stages of development. The time required to find susceptibilities in the SDLC is reduced drastically through Sonatype Nexus. Furthermore, this tool is used by leading names, including TD Bank, the US Department of Energy, and Equifax.
   • It comes with a Nexus Vulnerability Scanner that builds software bills of materials for all the different components of the app and analyses them for any known vulnerabilities.
   • This tool can highlight security issues, license analysis, and policy violations within the application after performing a single security scan.
   • You can create a custom license, security, and architectural policies depending on the software created.
   • The firewall safeguards the SDLC from faulty open source components.
2. SonarQube: Developed by SonarSource, Sonarqube is an open-source platform for continuous monitoring of software code quality. This tool allows users to perform SAST on the code, which helps find code smells, duplications, security vulnerabilities and bugs. One of the key features of this tool is its support for over 25 renowned programming languages. With this tool, the users can monitor security requirements like usage of insecure methods, obsolete libraries and many others.
   • With support for cloud as well as on-premises, the user does not have to worry about where their code is stored.
   • This tool is compatible with all the major code repository platforms, including Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, GitHub, and GitLab.
   • It provides detailed security reports that help track code security against OWASP Top 10. These reports can be downloaded as PDFs for better shareability.
   • SonarQube comes with native integrations, which are used to schedule the execution of analysis from CI engines.
3. Snyk: Snyk is another popular developer security platform that can automatically find and fix vulnerabilities from the code. This tool is considered one of the most effective tools in the industry due to Synk's Intel Vulnerability Database, which combines proprietary research, public sources, and developers' input to evolve with the security threats.
   • It supports leading programming languages, including .NET, Java, Golang, JavaScript, Scala, Bazel, PHP, Python, and many others.
   • Snyk can be integrated with CI/CD, registry, repository, and IDE tools.
   • Continuous monitoring of this tool ensures that users can develop code while it scans it for vulnerabilities.
   • Identifies and fixes vulnerabilities automatically
   • With all these features, Snyk is a free tool which can be upgraded to a premium version.
4. IriusRisk: IriusRisk is an automatic threat modeling platform to safeguard software from vulnerabilities. With this tool, the users can create an initial threat model within minutes, which will be based on their internal security policies. Furthermore, this tool can help users make their engineering teams aware of the security tasks and guidelines required before writing the code.
   • Particular vulnerabilities may dodge DAST and SAST tools which IriusRisk can identify and fix automatically.
   • Users can define diagrams through draw.io, push security tasks, and generate threat models quickly and easily through this tool.
   • It can automate repetitive threat modeling tasks.
   • IruisRisk comes with threat libraries which can be used to access the apps for necessary security regulations.
   • Identify security and compliance requirements as per the software.
5. Phabricator: Phabricator is a set of software development tools that help bug tracking, project management, code review, and many other crucial tasks. This tool is used by renowned names, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, AngularJS, Khan Academy and many others. It comes with a post-commit auditing feature to monitor the code. Though the tool is free, it comes with a premium cloud-hosted package for better coding and project management.

How can ThinkSys help in Integrating Security into DevSecOps?

When it comes to getting professional assistance in integrating security into DevOps workflow, you can always rely on ThinkSys. Having provided such services for over a decade, ThinkSys has evolved to be recognized as a leading name in offering DevSecOps services. Additionally, our team of experienced and skilled developers and testers ensure that all the components of SDLC are maintained while keeping the utmost quality of work. 

Our Approach to DevSecOps

At ThinkSys, we take a systematic approach while doing DevSecOps. Our customized approach for each client allows us to provide the best-in-class DevSecOps services to our clients. For every DevSecOps action, ThinkSys uses the renowned Phabricator tool.

1. Analyzing Existing Security Measures: The team at ThinkSys will perform threat modeling and risk assessments to understand the existing security measures in your culture. Our team will identify potential threats and current security controls with this analysis. Furthermore, it will allow our team to prioritize the areas which require immediate attention and modifications.
2. Integrating Security into DevOps: Our experts will analyze the entire development workflow to incorporate security practices in this phase. Even during the process, the professionals at ThinkSys will ensure that the development process is not disrupted due to integration and works better than before.
3. Integrate DevSecOps with Security: DevSecOps cannot be completed without collaboration between the three departments or teams. ThinkSys will ensure that the development, security, and operation teams are dedicated to enhancing collaboration and integrating security processes in the DevOps workflow. Meanwhile, our experts will monitor the entire process and security concerns.

How do we Follow Compliance on the Client Side?

Organizations and software should have certain compliances before they can begin functioning. They can become compliant by following certain practices and ensuring that they meet desired criteria. ThinkSys follows all the guidelines to meet the necessary compliances and ensures that the clients follow the same. Here are the different compliances that ThinkSys follows.

1. HIPAA: HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a series of regulatory standards that highlights the lawful use and disclosure of protected health information. Being HIPAA compliant means that the organization's security culture embraces a security mindset, which can be done by implementing a DevSecOps culture in the organization.
2. PCI-DSS: The PCI-DSS or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a set of security standards that aims to safeguard debit and credit card transactions from data fraud. PCI DSS compliance ensures that the business secures the card details per PCI SSC's guidelines. At ThinkSys, we do that by adding firewalls, encrypting data transmissions, securing networks, managing vulnerabilities, monitoring and testing, and information security.
3. SOC 2: System and Organization Controls or SOC 2 is a compliance standard developed by the American Institute of CPAs for organizations that define the way how organizations should handle customer data. The SOC 2 report is created to analyze the enterprise's information systems for security, privacy, confidentiality, and processing integrity. ThinkSys is certified with SOC Type II report which defines operational efficiency and ensures utmost customer data security.