DevSecOps for Startups: Building Cybersecurity into Your Product From the Beginning
If you’re leading a startup, you should prioritize security from the beginning. You can’t have bad actors stealing your intellectual property (IP), and you don't want to turn down business opportunities because you can’t comply with regulations or meet security standards. But what’s the fastest and most efficient way to build security into your product? That would be DevSecOps.
Never heard of it? No problem. Let’s dive in.
What is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps may sound like a secret, obscure practice from a Bond or Bourne movie, but it’s much simpler and less nefarious than that. It stands for development, security, and operations and describes an application development practice where security is integrated into all software development life cycle (SDLC) phases.
Wait…what is the SDLC?
The SDLC involves planning, writing, modifying, and maintaining software. It typically has six or more phases. For our conversation, let's assume there are seven:
Planning your project—You can try to build software without any planning… but good luck with that! Once you have an idea, you want to bring together a team to help you brainstorm and set realistic goals, even if they’re ambitious. Going through this initial phase will also help you identify security risks so that you don’t get a couple of months into the project and realize you haven’t done anything to account for the fact that, even as a startup, you are likely to experience cyberattacks.
Analyzing requirements—In software development, project organization is vital. You need to research all the steps of your plan to build a project plan that meets your expectations. Understanding the requirements will help you break down your work into tasks and keep everyone focused. It will also allow you to pinpoint precisely how security will factor into each phase.
Designing mockups—Wireframing is where the “work” begins. Think of wireframes as the basic blueprints that help teams align on requirements, including screen layouts, navigation bars, components of user experience and user interface design, and interactive elements.
Developing code—The meat and potatoes of the SDLC. It takes time, energy, and expertise. You’re coding your product, working with databases, and designing functionality and a user interface. This is where your security will “live,” so you can think of the three previous phases as critical preparation for ensuring that you won’t miss anything vital once you're in development.
Testing—But how do you know whether your product works and is secure? Testing for bugs. And testing… and testing… and more testing. You get the point.
Implementation—Once your product passes all tests, it can integrate into new systems and networks. Implementation should be relatively seamless if you’ve successfully built security into your product. If you haven’t built security, you’ll have to do it now—and that may involve a lot of pain as you realize all the patches you need to make to satisfy customer and client security needs. This is the point where skimping on security will rear its ugly head.
Maintenance—No software operates under a “set it and forget it” protocol, so don’t get fooled into thinking security does either. Just as you fix bugs to ensure ongoing reliability for product functionality, you need your product security to evolve with the threat landscape. This is another place where building cybersecurity into your product from the beginning really pays dividends. If you’ve done that, you’ll be able to stay ahead of the latest threats rather than constantly diving back deep into the code to implement security.
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Now, back to DevSecOps. As you build your software, you must incorporate security practices in every stage of the SDLC! Skipping a single stage comprises the whole endeavor because you work with layers. Once you build the product, you can’t re-architect or un-bake it without running the risk of breaking everything.
DevSecOps is like constructing a building or baking a cake—once the many layers of the foundation are set, you’re pretty limited in changing them. Even if you can add new steel beams or inject egg and flour into the edifice, you have to be incredibly precise, and the end result will never match up with what it would have been had you done it from the beginning.
Now, think about that in software development. Do you have the time and money to take shortcuts early on, accumulating technical debt that you may never pay off and that, even if you could, would result in a worse product? Why bother when you could just follow the process from the beginning? Yes… I even mean implementing DevDecOps when you build your prototype, your minimal viable product (MVP). At a minimum, you should be aware of DevSecOps principles when designing your MVP. Are you wondering if DevDecOps is worth the added time and effort? It is. Let me explain why.
Is DevSecOps worth it?
At this point, you may be thinking, “OK, but what benefit am I getting? Isn’t DevSecOps security overkill?” In that case, don’t just think about the security benefits (though that’s the main part). Consider how DevSecOps can help with many aspects of your product development. The top three benefits are it:
1. Enhances security and reduces vulnerabilities
How does it do this? In summary, making DevSecOps a priority for your development team enables them to be proactive. Being proactive is the best way to stay ahead of the threat. Specifically, DevSecOps:
DevSecOps can save you millions!
60% of small businesses fold six months after a data breach. How much money did you pump into your business that could have been saved if you were better prepared?
Allows for early threat detection by integrating security practices throughout the SDLC. This will enable you to identify and fix security vulnerabilities early in the process before they become costly problems in production.
Enables faster, secure development, assuming you have automated security testing and integrate security tools into the development pipeline; DevSecOps helps developers write secure code faster, reducing the risk of security breaches later.
Reduces downtime and costs. Early detection and vulnerability mitigation will minimize the chances of security incidents, preventing downtime and associated financial losses.
All of these allow you to be proactive rather than reactive. DevSecOps also will enable you to expedite deployment!
2. Increases agility for faster deployment
Startups are in a tricky position—they need to build their MVP quickly but without sacrificing quality or security measures that could come back to hurt them later on. DevSecOps allows you to stay agile and deploy more rapidly. Specifically, DevSecOps:
Streamlines workflows by fostering collaboration between development, security, and operations personnel. The enhanced collaboration enables more efficient and faster release cycles.
Allows for Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD). DevSecOps integrates seamlessly with CI/CD practices, automating security checks and ensuring secure code is deployed in production quickly.
Fosters faster innovation by removing security bottlenecks. This allows development teams to focus on innovation and prioritize the delivery of new product features.
Work quickly and stay agile—this is where startups excel. DevSecOps will help you achieve that!
3. Improves team efficiency and collaboration
Startups don’t work in silos, so it’s important to have processes that improve team collaboration and ensure efficiencies across them. Specifically, DevSecOps:
Fosters a culture of shared responsibility by placing the onus of security on developers, product managers, and those driving the company's vision from the beginning. Each has a say and ownership in securing the product.
Improves communication by breaking down silos between development, security, and operations personnel. The removal of barriers facilitates better communication and fosters a collaborative environment.
Reduces friction by defining and streamlining security processes. Once those processes are agreed upon, they reduce conflict between development, security, and operations personnel, allowing them to focus on their core tasks.
With cybersecurity attacks always looming overhead, DevSecOps is a great way to unite everyone collaboratively.
How do I make DevSecOps work for my startup?
Once you know how and why DevSecOps will help your startup, you want to integrate it in practical ways. Bear in mind that I know you don’t have an unlimited budget and may not even have a security team, but that should not stop you from striving to secure your product. Here are three pieces of advice to help guide you.
1. If you don’t know how to do something, find someone who does
Integrating DevSecOps requires specific expertise. If you don’t have expert advice, you can’t ensure you’re doing it correctly. It will be too easy to make mistakes that cost you time, money, and opportunities because you probably won’t know you’re making a mistake until you get deep into the process. So if you start integrating DevSecOps and realize you don’t know how to do something, no problem — find someone who does. Just ensure you do this in the planning stage, not when implementing your project.
2. Integrate DevSecOps throughout the SDLC
Once you have your expert, ensure they integrate DevSecOps up and down the SDLC! Don’t be stingy; get every ounce of DevSecOps up in there! LOL. For example, let’s look at the first stage of the SDLC, the planning stage, which would look something like this:
Step 1—Incorporate security into requirements gathering: Expand your requirements gathering process to include security considerations, such as identifying potential threats, vulnerabilities, and attack vectors relevant to your application.
Step 2—Facilitate threat modeling workshops: Conduct brainstorming sessions with developers, security professionals, and other stakeholders to identify and document potential security threats.
Step 3—Identify automation opportunities: Task your security team with finding opportunities to automate security testing throughout the SDLC. Consider tools for static code analysis, vulnerability scanning, and security configuration management.
As you engage in this process, who takes the lead? Is it “Bill,” your CTO (an IT-do-it-all expert), who steps up to make the plan and ask tough questions? Look to Bill to help determine whether your team has the DevSecOps expertise to complete all the SDLC stages successfully. And if you don’t have a Bill, or if your Bill doesn’t “fit the bill” (get it?), go back to my previous point and find one.
3. Build a feedback loop
OK, you’ve got your DevSecOps “expert,” and they successfully integrated DevSecOps into all aspects of the SDLC! Mission accomplished? Not quite. But you are off to a fantastic start! You must prepare to revisit your DevSecOps integrations and keep things up to date. Build a feedback loop that keeps everyone on track and involved. This should be something your DevSecOps expert handles continually. Like the SDLC, DevSecOps isn’t a “set it and forget it” exercise.
Conclusion
DevSecOps may sound like the practice only larger organizations can follow. But startups need to use it, too. It’s one of the fastest, clearest, and most beneficial ways to build security into your product from the beginning. It will help ensure you are well-protected and prepared for a cyber incident. In addition, If you show investors how DevSecOps works through every part of your SDLC, you’ll be more likely to retain their confidence as you build your company and innovative new products. I would call that a win-win!
I'll have what she's having. Right after I share this article with all my friends!
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