With the holiday season rapidly approaching, people all over the world will be making their lists and checking them twice to make sure they have everything they need for the most magical — but also, frequently, the most stressful — time of the year. This is especially true for anyone who works in IT and cybersecurity. After all, while the holidays may bring joy and goodwill, they also bring an increase in cyberattacks and data breaches. These IT security threats are most common against businesses in the software, banking, and finance industries. Therefore, as we look forward to “the most wonderful time of the year,” IT professionals, CTOs, and cybersecurity analysts will also have to look forward to comprehensively improving their cybersecurity before it’s too late.
Fortunately for the good boys and girls of IT, DevSecOps has proven to be an effective solution to the heightened risks of data breaches and hacking attempts that the holiday season often brings. Read on to learn more about the innovative and proactive benefits of a comprehensive investment in DevSecOps best practices and what can happen to the naughty companies that fail to take the necessary steps toward cybersecurity. Then, learn about how a partnership with Kiuwan for all a business’s DevSecOps needs is the best Christmas present that IT professionals can get.
DevSecOps is short for “ Development, Security, and Operations.” As a protocol, DevSecOps evolved out of the DevOps philosophy that has become second nature to IT professionals across the business world. However, while DevSecOps maintains DevOps’ comprehensive combination of IT philosophies, tools, and good practices, it adds an essential focus on cybersecurity as part of the entire IT picture.
Through effective security approaches such as SAST and SCA, a DevSecOps approach will allow companies to find previously unseen vulnerabilities in their applications, prevent data breaches before they happen, and save themselves a good deal of financial and organizational grief.
With a DevSecOps approach, companies will emphasize a focus on security as a shared responsibility through all aspects of the IT lifecycle. This added focus on security is especially useful given the increased turnaround time of the IT cycle over the past few years. Through a DevSecOps approach to IT, companies can proactively prevent cybersecurity risks and data breaches before they happen, rather than merely reacting to hacks and data breaches after the fact.
With the holiday season quickly approaching and bringing its surge in cyberattacks along with it, now is the perfect time for companies to make the necessary investment in DevSecOps before leaving themselves exposed during this critical time. While many IT professionals do recognize security as an essential step during the developmental and operational processes, too many don’t move to integrate it into their IT until the very last step in the process. However, this often results in system vulnerabilities that are not discovered until it’s too late and leaves the resulting security protocols insufficient to deal with an increase in security threats. Through a DevSecOps approach, IT professionals will more thoroughly integrate security as a holistic approach through the entire process.
Some companies may still go back and forth on investing in DevSecOps for this holiday season. After all, it may not be clear how the initial investment will pay off, especially if they believe that their current software security and data security protocols are sufficient.
But, ultimately, the cost of failing to comprehensively integrate security into IT development and operations will far outweigh the cost of doing so. According to stats from the past few years, the overall financial losses due to data security breaches have been steadily increasing. So far in 2022, companies have already seen an average of around $4.35 million in losses due to security breaches. This number already exceeds all previous years and doesn’t yet include the cyber threat surge that the holidays will likely bring.
In 2021, more than 280 million people were affected by corporate data breaches. These losses will lead to lost customers and, ultimately, lost revenue. Despite this, more than 50% of companies still employ a reactive security strategy that does not integrate proper security throughout all areas of the DevOps process. While these companies undoubtedly believe that they are saving money up front, the true cost will make itself known after the New Year rolls in.
For a good example of how DevSecOps can bring positive results to companies, take a look at the example of Comcast. For years, the telecom giant employed a post hoc security approach in its DevOps processes. Through its hundreds of individual application development teams, the developers did not integrate security throughout most stages of development and operations.
Rather, these teams would hand their completed applications off to a separate security team, which would tack on the necessary security protocols after the fact.
This approach, of course, proved ineffective at dealing with the surge in cyberattacks every year. What’s more, the separate security teams would often have to return the apps to the developers after security threats and data breaches had already occurred. This resulted in Comcast’s DevOps teams wasting time and resources reworking apps they had already worked on, creating an overall inefficient process.
When Comcast finally integrated a more thorough DevSecOps approach to their application development, the company saw a whopping 85% drop in security incidents in the apps with an integrated security approach. In addition to saving hundreds of millions of dollars, Comcast ended up with a much more efficient app development system and many more satisfied customers. Overall, the company’s initial investment in DevSecOps paid off big-time.
To properly integrate DevSecOps into its preexisting IT system, a company will need an excellent cybersecurity partner. That’s where Kiuwan comes in. As a recognized leader in code security for both web and mobile application development, Kiuwan has extensive tools and resources for any company to make sure that their investment in DevSecOps gets the best return on investment.
Though the heightened threat of holiday hacking may dampen a company’s Christmas cheer, there’s no reason to be a Grinch. With the development security resources available from Kiuwan, companies can keep their data safe and secure, improve their efficiency, and provide a truly merry Christmas to all.
