Feb 09 2022

Adding Data Privacy to DevSecOps

Category: Information PrivacyDISC @ 1:44 pm

Colorado and Virginia passed new data privacy laws in 2021. Connecticut and Oklahoma are among the states that could enact new legislation around data privacy protections in 2022. California, which kicked off the conversation around data privacy at the state level, is updating its laws. Couple that with the EU’s GDPR and other data privacy laws enacted worldwide, and it is clear that data privacy has become incredibly important within cybersecurity. And that includes within the DevSecOps process.

It’s been enough of a challenge to integrate security into the DevOps process at all, even though it is now recognized that adding security early in the SDLC can eliminate issues further along in app development and deployment. But adding data privacy? Is it really necessary? Yes, it is necessary, said Casey Bisson, head of product growth at BluBracket, in email commentary. Applications now include more and more personal data that needs protection, such as apps that rely on medical PII. Those apps must have security and privacy baked into each phase of the SLDC via DevSecOps.

“There have been far too many examples of leaks of PII within code, for instance, because many companies don’t secure their Git repositories,” said Bisson. “As more sensitive information has made its way into code, it’s natural that hackers will target code. True DevSecOps will bake privacy concerns into every stage and will make these checks automated.”

Data in the Test Process

In DevSecOps, applications are developed often by using test data. “If that data is not properly sanitized, it can be lost,” said John Bambenek, principal threat hunter at Netenrich, in an email interview. “There is also the special case of secrets management and ensuring that development processes properly secure and don’t accidentally disclose those secrets. The speed of development nowadays means that special controls need to be in place to ensure production data isn’t compromised from agile development.” Beyond test data, real consumer data has to be considered. Ultimately, every organization has information they need to protect so it’s important to focus on data privacy early in development so the team working on the platform can build the controls necessary into the platform to support the privacy requirements the data has, explained Shawn Smith, director of infrastructure at nVisium, via email. “The longer you wait to define the data relationships, the harder it is to ensure proper controls are developed to support them.”

Bringing Privacy into DevSecOps

Putting a greater emphasis on privacy within DevSecOps requires two things—data privacy protocols already in place within the organization and a strong commitment to the integration of cybersecurity with data privacy. “An organization needs to start with a strong privacy program and an executive in charge of its implementation,” said Bambenek. “Especially if the data involves private information from consumers, a data protection expect should be embedded in the development process to ensure that data is used safely and that the entire development pipeline is informed with strong privacy principles.” The DevSecOps team and leadership should have a strong understanding of the privacy laws and regulations—both set by overarching government rules and by industry requirements. Knowing the compliance requirements that must be met offers a baseline to measure how data must be handled throughout the entire app development process, Smith pointed out, adding that once you have the base to build upon, the controls and steps to actually achieve the privacy levels you want will fall into place pretty easily. Finally, Bisson advised DevSecOps professionals to shift security left and empower developers to prevent any credentials or PII from being inadvertently accessible through their code before it makes it to the cloud. “DevSecOps teams should scan code both within company repositories and outside in public repos; on GitHub, for instance. It’s so easy to clone code that these details and secrets can easily be leaked,” said Bisson.

Consumers don’t understand how or where in the development process security is added, and it’s not entirely necessary for them to understand how the sausage is made. The most important concern for them is that their sensitive data is protected at all times. For that to happen most efficiently, data privacy has to be an integral part of DevSecOps.

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Tags: DevSecOps

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