What is DevSecOps? Security built into DevOps
DevSecOps explained: what shifting security left means, the practices in each stage, the roles involved and how to measure it.
2 min read
Definition
DevSecOps integrates security into every stage of DevOps. Instead of a final security review before release, security checks run continuously and the whole team shares responsibility for the result.
Shifting security left
“Shift left” means moving security activities earlier in the lifecycle, where problems are cheaper to fix: a design flaw caught in a threat model costs far less than a vulnerability found in production.
Security practices by stage
| Stage | Practice |
|---|---|
| Plan | Threat modeling and security requirements |
| Code | Secure coding standards and peer review |
| Build | Static analysis (SAST) and dependency scanning (SCA) |
| Test | Dynamic testing (DAST) and security test cases |
| Release | A gate that checks security results and accepted risks |
| Operate | Monitoring, vulnerability management and incident response |
Who does what
- Developers fix what scanners find in their own code.
- Security engineers define the policies and tune the tools.
- Operations hardens the environments and watches production.
- A risk owner accepts, with a record, what cannot be fixed now.
How to measure it
- Time to fix critical vulnerabilities.
- Share of pull requests that are scanned.
- Vulnerabilities found before release versus after.
- Accepted exceptions and when they expire.
How DevGob helps
DevGob records the security evidence and the risk decisions of each change, next to its approvals.
Read it in the documentationFrequently asked questions
Does DevSecOps slow delivery down?
Not when the checks are automated and fast. Manual reviews are kept for high-risk changes.
Where should I start?
Add dependency scanning and secret detection to the pipeline, then static analysis, then a release gate.
Is DevSecOps only for large companies?
No. Small teams benefit most from automated checks because they have no dedicated security staff.
Keep reading
DevOps with governance, on one record
DevGob plans the work and governs every change on its way to production: backlog, sprints, committee authorizations, install evidence and an audit trail.