Code review is considered a fundamental aspect of an application’s security approach: source code verification ensures fewer vulnerabilities and more secure software. Yet, it is a process that is also seen as slow and often disorganized, slowing the software development cycle and effectively blocking the work of many people as the review is conducted.
We therefore find ourselves in a situation in which it is recognized that code review is fundamental to increasing software security, but it is also underlined that the system is fallacious: we work on security rather than making an evaluation intertwined with development and planning. Furthermore, at a time when secure applications are expected to be launched as soon as possible, the code review system is increasingly less sustainable.
Therefore, organizations that embrace the DevSecOps approach gain a competitive advantage: when security becomes part of the development cycle from the first moment and all the teams involved are aligned on the aspects to consider, the company gains in quality, safety and costs.
Code review: why it’s no longer enough
The code review process, moreover, is not standardized and is often inefficient. This happens because code review is considered an important aspect, but also forced. Therefore, some organizations include the evaluation of additional elements, such as tickets or pulls; in other cases employees are not aware of the policies required for code review or companies skip it altogether because they need to accelerate development.
The latter situation is the most negative: in fact, the company has not carried out the necessary security checks on its application and will run the risk of exposing its customers to vulnerabilities that could (and indeed: should) have been intercepted and corrected.
In essence, code review is a way of understanding application security that is no longer suitable for the current scenario in which cybersecurity must be an integral part of the software development cycle and cannot just be one “more” before deployment. In other words: a paradigm shift is needed.
DevSecOps: this overcomes the code review
The DevSecOps approach (which stands for Development, Security, Operations) represents a decisive change of pace for organizations.
Where for years security has represented an added value that could also be avoided to save time and money, nowadays market expectations require not only that the security of an application be high, but that the software development cycle not be delayed. In practice, you have to work better and with the same speed as before, if not faster.
For this reason, the DevSecOps paradigm is fundamental: from the moment of planning and development, security is integrated and choices are shared between all the actors involved. This leads to better results, fewer errors and better information sharing.
Furthermore, sharing responsibilities guarantees that those who are working on the software are aware of what they must do and how they must operate so that security never fails or those frequent situations of vulnerability that can represent a problem when the software has been published.
Through DevSecOps, in other words, the code review process no longer occurs, but is part of the development cycle and therefore guarantees better results: any vulnerabilities are identified earlier and therefore require less time to resolve. Thus, the enterprise can reduce the time-to-market of the application and increase the quality of the software.
Pass code review with DevSecOps
The traditional code review has been the reference for application security for years: today it is no longer sufficient. Organizations are asked to give top priority to security; the DevSecOps methodology therefore represents the ideal response to a scenario of competitiveness and redefinition of software security.
An integrated and shared approach, which guarantees better results and allows you to unify development and security workflows in a coherent, reliable and seamless process. DevSecOps feeds code review at every stage of the software development cycle: in this way security becomes a pivot of the application.
Organizations today suffer from security because they interpret it as a cost: with DevSecOps it becomes an integral part of development and the best results are immediately recognisable.