Security threats increase dramatically every year, and their costs aren’t getting any lower.

For organizations to effectively protect their web applications and data from malicious actors, a strong security stance is imperative. However, many organizations miss an important component of security.

Developed first and secured later, many apps are surrounded by security solutions but contain exploitable vulnerabilities that could have been rectified during the development process. To limit these vulnerabilities going forward, some organizations have begun using DevSecOps protocols and integrating tools like WAF with their CI/CD pipelines. Ultimately, this has had a positive impact on application security.

The Convergence of Security and Development

Traditionally, security and development teams have not worked together during the development process. The friction between the two segments, caused by competing priorities, has made it easier for organizations to develop first and secure second. This approach satisfies the development priority of speed, but it has caused a growing number of vulnerabilities in the finished product.

Emerging as a solution to the gulf between developers and security professionals, DevSecOps is becoming a more common approach. This integrates security with the software development lifecycle, promoting security checks and tests throughout the development process.

While companies still want apps to be built quickly, many leaders are realizing that integration between development and security will lead to lower long-term costs. Downtime after release can also be reduced by integrating security with the development process. When security and development teams work together to find bugs early, they can solve them before the problems affect users.

Implementing Security in CI/CD

Prioritizing security during application development is critical for optimal security. While it’s possible to implement security measures and patch vulnerabilities at the end of the development process, the app will be less secure. Code that has not been checked for bugs and weaknesses throughout development tends to have more potential exploits and weak points than comprehensively secured code.

Attacks are growing more strategic and effective every year, so organizations need to ensure that they are doing as much to secure apps from the get-go as possible. Upon release, apps should be largely secured and debugged. Once the apps go live and customers begin to use them, the strength of the code and security measures will prevent attacks and major incidents.

For best results, security, development, and operations activities should all occur in the continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD) pipeline. This pipeline prevents issues like information silos by centralizing information and ensuring that there are repositories for data. This prevents conflicts in the code, minimizes human error, and improves efficiency.

There are several ways to accomplish implementing DevSecOps in the CI/CD pipeline.

• Shift-left security principles. While security throughout development is important, teams should begin implementing security testing and tools as early as possible.
• Automated testing and validation. Because developers often try to build and release applications or updates as quickly as possible, integrating security tends to slow down the process and create frustration. Automating testing can reduce the time needed for security checks.
• Infrastructure-as-Code security configurations. This is another component of automation. It allows developers to run code that will manage infrastructure without significant manual intervention.
• Continuous monitoring and feedback loops. During development, written code is tested for functionality and then the developer and operations teams will make changes as needed. By automating some of this process with monitoring and feedback loops, it can be streamlined and time reduced. Additionally, the automation decreases the likelihood of transcription errors and other mistakes.
• Tools and technologies for seamless integration. There are a variety of tools that can be helpful for CI/CD integration, like automated testing. Security solutions should be built into the application as well so that the app is protected immediately upon release. For example, a WAF is a highly effective security solution that works well with the CI/CD pipeline.

The Role of the WAF in DevSecOps

DevSecOps is needed for secure application development, but its effectiveness depends on the type and quality of tools used in the security component. Introducing a web application firewall (WAF) to the CI/CD pipeline can help developers adapt to needed changes and effectively protect evolving applications without sacrificing other priorities.

WAFs block malicious activity by using rules to detect suspicious patterns and then denying the user’s requests. With or without DevSecOps, a WAF is an effective guard against unwanted traffic that will not get in the way of your customers’ access to the app. Within the CI/CD pipeline, the WAF has additional benefits.

As part of automated testing, WAFs are useful for constant scanning and monitoring. Testing for threats like injection and XSS attacks can be done as the app is coming together rather than at arbitrary points during development. Incorporating a WAF helps developers find security issues early in the process as automated monitoring and testing occur in real-time.

Although security and development teams have historically operated separately, integrating their processes is important for maximally secured and high-quality applications. Integrating WAF with the CI/CD pipeline during the software development lifecycle facilitates this relationship. Rather than developers pausing so that security teams can test, WAFs and other tools allow real-time, automated monitoring and testing that save time and resources.