DevSecOps means security is baked into the way you build, test, and deploy software—rather than bolted on at the end. It combines DevOps speed with continuous security practices so you can move fast without leaving holes.

Why DevSecOps?

• Shift left, stay fast: Catch issues in code and dependencies before they ship.
• Continuous assurance: Every pipeline run includes security checks, not just quarterly audits.
• Shared responsibility: Developers, ops, and security own risk together—no handoffs that slow releases.
• Compliance as code: Policies are automated and verifiable, reducing manual evidence hunts.

Core practices

• Secure coding & reviews: Threat modeling, secure patterns, and code reviews with security checklists.
• Dependency hygiene: SBOMs, vulnerability scans (SCA), and rapid patching of third-party libraries.
• Secrets management: No secrets in code or CI logs; use vaults and short-lived credentials.
• CI/CD security gates: Static analysis (SAST), dependency scans (SCA), container scans, IaC scans, and policy checks on every build.
• Infrastructure as Code scanning: Check Terraform/Helm/Kustomize for misconfigs (open security groups, public buckets, no encryption).
• Runtime hardening: Least privilege, network segmentation, signed images, admission controls, and container/runtime policies.
• Observability & response: Centralized logs, metrics, alerts for anomalies, and rehearsed incident response with runbooks.
• Supply chain security: Signed commits/builds/images, provenance (SLSA-style), and verified deployments.

How it fits into the pipeline

1. Plan/Design: Threat modeling, data classification, and acceptance criteria that include security.
2. Code: Linting + SAST in IDE/CI; enforce pre-commit hooks for secrets and style.
3. Build: SBOM creation; dependency and container scans; signed artifacts.
4. Test: Unit/integration tests plus DAST for key endpoints and IaC checks.
5. Release: Policy-as-code gates, approvals where needed, signed manifests, and change logs.
6. Deploy/Run: Admission controllers, runtime policies, least-privilege identities, and continuous monitoring.
7. Respond/Improve: Alerts mapped to runbooks, post-incident reviews, and backlogs for hardening.

Tooling patterns (pick equivalents for your stack)

• Code & CI: Pre-commit hooks, SAST/SCA (e.g., Semgrep, Trivy, Dependabot), secrets scanners.
• Containers: Base image scanning, minimal images, image signing, and provenance.
• IaC: Terraform/Helm/Kustomize scanners for misconfigurations and policy-as-code (e.g., OPA/Conftest).
• Runtime: WAF, mTLS, network policies, admission controllers, eBPF/runtime protections.
• Observability: Central logs, SIEM/SOAR hooks, SLOs for availability and security signals.

Culture and process

• Security champions: Engineers embedded in squads to surface risks early.
• Education: Lightweight training on secure coding, secrets hygiene, and incident handling.
• Metrics: Track time-to-fix vulns, scan coverage, false positives, and deployment frequency.
• Governance without drag: Automate evidence and approvals; avoid manual gates that stall delivery.

Getting started

1. Add secrets scanning and SCA to CI; fail builds on critical issues.
2. Generate SBOMs and sign artifacts/images.
3. Scan IaC before apply; enforce least-privilege defaults.
4. Introduce runtime policies (admission controls, network policies) and basic anomaly alerts.
5. Document runbooks and rehearse incident response; iterate based on findings.

DevSecOps isn’t a separate security phase—it’s how you build and run software every day. Done well, it keeps releases fast and makes security a shared, automated habit.