Bringing products to market quickly, efficiently and safely is key to brand success, and elite DevOps teams minimize the lead time for changes by quickly and efficiently moving new products and software updates from concept to deployment. DevOps teams often measure lead time in hours, not days, weeks or months, which underscores the centrality of speed in today’s hyper-competitive online environment. Customer experience and brand loyalty are constantly changing as new products and services come to market, and DevOps teams are under immense pressure to stay as agile and efficient as possible. Increased technology development velocity can lead to heightened security risks. As of early 2023, as many as nine out of 10 companies have detected security risks in their software supply chain. This is why companies cannot ignore the rising number of attacks targeting software development teams.
High-profile incidents at SolarWinds, NetBeans IDE, Kaseya and Codecov demonstrate the risks facing software development teams at every company.
These threats exploit the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) process to sneak harmful software into authentic applications and install risky and harmful components whenever possible.
The risk of code injections makes safeguarding internal and external dependencies crucial. If not appropriately protected, compromised software pipelines can lead to data leaks, code tampering and system exploitations, putting the entire business at a heightened risk.
Simply put, DevOps teams must maximize development speed without compromising security. This is an undoubtedly tall order, but one that’s achievable with the right processes in place. Here are three strategies DevOps teams can implement immediately to reach this goal.
Streamline Privileged Access Management
Streamlining privileged access management is vital for enhancing cybersecurity in DevOps teams, particularly with the growing threats to software supply chains. This requires adopting stringent security practices, including temporary access permissions that can be granted and revoked as needed—a strategy ideal for managing temporary services in DevOps workflows.
This approach facilitates automatic management of access privileges, including revoking password permissions when team members leave the organization or project and thorough scrutiny of who has access to what.
At the same time, enforcing least privilege access, a principle that aims to minimize the attack surface by eliminating unnecessary permissions and adjusting overly broad ones, is also essential, reducing the chances of account hijacking or theft of static API keys.
Similarly, zero standing privileges are also essential, relying on just-in-time access management that ensures minimal active permissions at any given moment, enhancing security by reducing potential vulnerabilities.
Leverage AI Solutions for Security
The cybersecurity AI sector is soaring alongside escalating cybersecurity threats to DevOps teams.
Deloitte expects cybersecurity AI solutions to become a $19 billion market by 2025, as the technology’s “ability to adaptively learn and detect novel patterns can accelerate detection, containment and response, easing the burden on SOC analysts and allowing them to be more proactive.”
AI can help DevOps teams detect and prevent cybersecurity incidents by quickly identifying and monitoring applications at risk, ensuring greater resilience in their DevOps processes through CI/CD, applying analytics to streamline data challenges, and identifying potential hot spots before they escalate and present real risks.
AI can also help combat alert fatigue within security teams, reduce analyst workloads and cut down on false positives, saving valuable time. According to a 2022 IT industry study, 60% of respondents receive more than 500 cloud security alerts every day, and alert fatigue is “causing critical alerts to be missed at an alarming rate.”
By leveraging AI for cybersecurity, DevOps teams can enhance their defensive posture without diluting their team’s impact, allowing them to best balance speed and security in the app development process.
Enable Communication and Collaboration in DevOps Teams
In the realm of DevOps, success relies not only on implementing the right tools and technology but also on fostering an adaptive culture that encourages seamless communication and collaboration among team members.
Effective communication forms the bedrock of this cultural shift. By establishing clear lines of communication, development and operations teams can better understand each other’s challenges and perspectives. Open dialogues can foster mutual respect and create a shared understanding of common goals, thereby encouraging a collaborative problem-solving approach.
Meanwhile, fostering a collaborative culture is equally vital. When teams collaborate effectively, they can identify and resolve issues more quickly, improve the quality of the software, and accelerate delivery times.
Embracing Speed and Security in App Development
Achieving faster app development without compromising security is a complex yet achievable goal in today’s competitive environment.
By investing in streamlining privileged access management, leveraging AI and fostering a culture of effective communication and collaboration, DevOps teams can enhance both speed and security.
To be sure, in the face of escalating cyberthreats, speed and security are not mutually exclusive but, rather, two sides of the same coin. By implementing these strategies, DevOps teams can navigate this delicate balance, accelerating development timelines while ensuring robust security.
