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10 steps
DevSecOps is the practice of integrating security into every stage of the software development lifecycle - automatically and continuously. Instead of a gate at the end of the pipeline, security becomes a shared responsibility enforced by tooling that runs on every commit, every build, and every deployment.
Run static application security testing (Semgrep, SonarQube, CodeQL) on every PR. Fail the build on high-severity findings. Invest time tuning rules to reduce false positives - developer trust in the tooling is critical for adoption.
Schedule dynamic application scanning (OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite Enterprise, Nuclei) against a staging environment on every deployment. DAST catches runtime vulnerabilities - authentication bypasses, injections, misconfigurations - that static analysis cannot see.
Use Software Composition Analysis tools (Snyk, OWASP Dependency-Check, GitHub Dependabot, Mend) to continuously audit your OSS dependencies for known CVEs. 70-90% of modern application code is open-source - this surface matters.
Produce a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) in CycloneDX or SPDX format as part of your release pipeline. An SBOM enables rapid impact assessment when new CVEs are disclosed and is increasingly required by regulation and enterprise customers.
Use pre-commit hooks with secret detection tools (Gitleaks, truffleHog, detect-secrets) to block API keys, tokens, and passwords from ever entering source control. Complement with server-side push protection in GitHub or GitLab.
Establish clear pass/fail thresholds across SAST, DAST, and SCA. Block merges and deployments when critical vulnerabilities are detected. Make security a non-negotiable condition of shipping, not an optional post-deployment checklist.
Apply static analysis to Terraform, CloudFormation, Helm charts, Kubernetes manifests, and Dockerfiles using tools like Checkov, tfsec, or Trivy misconfiguration mode. Catch open S3 buckets and permissive IAM policies before they reach production.
Use Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) platforms to aggregate and correlate findings from SAST, DAST, SCA, and cloud security scanners into a single risk view. ASPM helps prioritize what to fix first based on reachability and business context.
Include lightweight threat modeling sessions when designing new features or integrations. Use a structured methodology like STRIDE to identify threats early - when they are cheapest to address - rather than discovering them in production.
Enable branch protection on main and release branches: require pull request reviews including CODEOWNERS, passing status checks, and signed commits. Block force pushes and branch deletion, restrict who can bypass rules, and enforce MFA for every organization member.