Continuous Security

Continuous security is the practice of baking security into every stage of the software development lifecycle. It involves constantly monitoring, testing, and securing applications to find and fix vulnerabilities rapidly.

The goal of continuous security is to shift security left, addressing vulnerabilities early in the development process before they can be exploited. This is done by integrating automated security tools and processes into the CI/CD pipeline. For example, static application security testing (SAST) and dynamic application security testing (DAST) can scan code and running applications for vulnerabilities. Infrastructure as code can be analyzed before deployment. Penetration testing can occur throughout the development lifecycle. Security monitoring tools watch for anomalies and threats. The results from all these processes are used to provide fast feedback to developers to remediate issues.

The main benefit of continuous security is finding and fixing bugs quicker and cheaper than traditional periodic security reviews. By testing and securing iteratively, vulnerabilities can be detected and remediated rapidly without slowing down release cycles. This reduces risk and leads to more secure software.