DevOps with a Side of Compliance: How to Integrate Security and Compliance in your Transformation

Organizations are facing an increasing number of threats and regulatory requirements. Compliance and security are critical components of any organization’s digital transformation, and in a DevOps environment, it is essential that these components are integrated into the development and operations processes. However, in many organizations, compliance and security are considered separate from the development and operations teams. This separation can lead to challenges and limitations in a DevOps environment.

Separation of Compliance and Security From Development and Operations

Traditionally, organizations have approached compliance and security as separate entities. Compliance is often managed by a separate compliance team, while security is managed by a separate security team. This separation can lead to silos between the different teams, resulting in a lack of communication and coordination. In a DevOps environment, where development and operations teams work closely together, this separation can lead to delays and increased risk.

For example, in a traditional environment, the compliance team may be responsible for ensuring that the organization is compliant with regulations such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOC2. However, in a DevOps environment, where code is constantly changing and being deployed at a rapid pace, it is essential that compliance checks are automated and integrated into the development and operations process. This ensures that compliance requirements are met throughout the development and operations process, reducing the risk of non-compliance.

Similarly, security is traditionally managed by a separate security team, which is responsible for identifying and mitigating security risks. In a DevOps environment, where code is constantly changing and being deployed at a rapid pace, it is essential that security testing is integrated into the continuous integration and delivery pipeline. This allows for early identification and resolution of security issues, reducing the risk of a security breach.

Integrating Compliance and Security Into Development and Operations

In a DevOps environment, compliance and security need to be integrated into the development and operations processes. This can include automating compliance checks, integrating security testing into the continuous integration and delivery pipeline, and creating a culture of security awareness among all teams.

Automating compliance checks ensures that compliance requirements are met throughout the development and operations process, reducing the risk of non-compliance. For example, organizations can use automated compliance management software to check for compliance with regulations. This software can be integrated into the development and operations process, ensuring that compliance checks are performed on a regular basis.

Integrating security testing into the continuous integration and delivery pipeline allows for early identification and resolution of security issues. For example, organizations can use security testing tools such as static code analysis, dynamic application security testing, and penetration testing to identify and mitigate security risks. These tools can be integrated into the continuous integration and delivery pipeline, ensuring that security testing is performed regularly.

Creating a culture of security awareness among all teams ensures that all team members understand and prioritize security and compliance. Organizations can achieve this by providing regular security and compliance training, promoting a security-first culture, and encouraging communication and collaboration between the security and compliance teams and the development and operations teams.

Staying compliant in today’s complex landscape of software delivery is challenging for many organizations.  The compliance standards that a company is expected to adhere to is ever increasing, with more stringent compliance requirements being implemented regularly. Audit and compliance assurance can be a real drain on the already burdened engineers in the organization.  Therefore, automation and integration of the compliance and security controls into the DevOps pipeline is becoming indispensable for any organization that wants to stay competitive in the market.

Gary Tamber, Director, DevSecOps, ADP

Best Practices for Implementing Security and Compliance in a DevOps Transformation

There are several best practices for implementing security and compliance in a DevOps transformation. One effective approach is to establish security engineering roles that work within the development and operations teams. These roles can drive the automated compliance checks, integrating security testing into the continuous integration and delivery pipeline, and creating a culture of security awareness among all teams.

Additionally, organizations should consider using tools and technologies that can aid in integration, such as security testing tools and automated compliance management software. These tools can help organizations automate compliance checks, and integrate security testing by the DevOps teams as a whole. These team can then be responsible for automating compliance checks, integrating security testing into the continuous integration and delivery pipeline, and creating a culture of security awareness among all teams. Additionally, organizations should consider using tools and technologies that can aid in integration, such as security testing tools and automated compliance management software.

Another best practice is to implement a security management system that includes security policies, procedures, and standards. This system should be aligned with the organization’s overall security strategy and should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that it continues to meet the organization’s needs.

Additionally, it is important to establish an incident response plan that can be used in case of security breaches. This plan should be tested and reviewed regularly to ensure that it is effective and up-to-date.

To ensure that compliance and security are integrated into the development and operations process, it is critical to establish a continuous monitoring process. This process should include regular security assessments and penetration testing, as well as monitoring of security controls and incident response. This will help to ensure that any security or compliance issues are identified and addressed in a timely manner.

Main benefits of this approach is that we build non-functional requirements as close as possible to creation of application/product, and when we will take from research that fixing bug on production is 1000 more expensive than fixing it before. Applying this thinking to lack of security, data leaks, can cause lawsuits and lack of credibility with can run organization.

Janusz Nowak, Senior IT Manager, Procter & Gamble

Conclusion

In today’s digital landscape, compliance and security are critical components of any organization’s digital transformation. In a DevOps environment, it is essential that these components are integrated into the development and operations processes. However, in many organizations, compliance and security are considered separate from the development and operations teams, which can lead to challenges and limitations. By automating compliance checks, integrating security testing into the continuous integration and delivery pipeline, creating a culture of security awareness among all teams, establishing a security role and using tools and technologies that can aid in integration, organizations can effectively integrate compliance and security into their DevOps transformation.