Bridging the AppSec and DevOps Disconnect

Research estimates that cybercrime is going to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, so it is no surprise that cybersecurity has become a top priority for business leaders.

Today, security teams are striving to harden their systems against cyberattacks and improve their resilience through more employee security training, incident response programs and the implementation of technology to monitor and detect threats.

Many organizations are also adopting a shift left security strategy, where security is being addressed earlier in the application development life cycle. These organizations are realizing that finding security issues in their software after it’s released is much riskier and more costly. After all, the longer a bug is in the wild, the longer an attacker has to find and exploit it. By implementing a shift left security strategy, the window of opportunity for an attacker decreases or can be completely removed if a security issue is addressed in the development stages, while also offering organizations significant security benefits and cost savings.

Shifting left is a security testing strategy where DevOps and security teams work in tandem to identify and address vulnerabilities during early development stages. This process significantly improves security as it means vulnerabilities are identified and mitigated before they are introduced to the enterprise environment.

However, one of the biggest challenges organizations face when adopting a shift left security strategy (DevSecOps) is encouraging security teams and DevOps teams to work together.

Encouraging AppSec and DevOps Collaboration

Until recently, DevOps teams and AppSec teams were completely siloed. DevOps teams worked on accelerating the speed at which applications are released into the enterprise; application security teams only got involved in the later stages. However, this process has caused security concerns, particularly as more organizations move to agile development.

When security teams eventually got their hands on new applications and updates, security flaws were inevitably found that caused delays and friction with DevOps teams.

However, as organizations begin to embrace DevSecOps and shift left strategies, these two previously siloed teams are being forced to work together more closely. So, how can the friction be reduced and the disconnect bridged?

Culturally, some ingrained attitudes and behaviors challenge the success of any DevSecOps efforts. Security teams have seen DevOps processes accelerate the speed at which software is delivered, but without security considerations, while DevOps teams experienced security slowing down processes and giving inconsistent results and feedback on security issues. Each party has their own manager to please; their own set of metrics that they’re measured against and a priority list as long as their arms already. Both teams follow different processes and, crucially, use different tools. DevOps can’t get around the security tool complexity and lack of integration with their existing toolset and security teams have no control over the CI pipeline to best implement security assurance.

One of the best ways to overcome this friction is through better technology, process and culture that enables collaboration between teams. First, DevOps teams do care about security, but it might be lower on their priority list. Security teams must understand that DevOps teams care about code, quality and efficiency. They are not security experts and just because an organization is shifting left doesn’t mean they need to become one. Instead, organizations should implement tools for DevOps where security checks can be easily embedded.

So, what can organizations do to improve the collaboration between AppSec and DevOps teams to achieve DevSecOps?

DevSecOps is a culture and it requires a shift in thinking. Security teams and DevOps teams need to understand each other’s priorities and understand that by working together they are improving the overall security of the organization and decreasing the risk of cyberattacks. Does the DevOps team understand the potential risks a vulnerability could have on the organization overall? If not, security teams need to educate them.

Security automation tools offer great support when organizations are moving to DevSecOps, as they allow bugs and vulnerabilities to be flagged automatically as applications are being developed. This will allow them to be addressed before services go live; however, because they generate frequent alerts, this could add to DevOps’ already busy workloads. By deploying tools which can be synced with CI/CD pipelines and provide custom advisories so DevOps teams can address bugs themselves without having to ask AppSec teams, this can significantly speed up the process, reduce friction and ease workloads.