Ending the dispute between developers and security teams
Consumers crave seamless digital experiences in mobile applications. An application that doesn’t have the latest market features, feels clunky, runs slow, and doesn’t secure their data will quickly push consumers to switch to a competing app.
The business case for a strong range of mobile apps is therefore a no-brainer. According to eMarketer, mobile app users spend about four hours online every day, with a whopping 88% of that time spent using apps rather than websites. Nevertheless, a constant and rapid app development process is necessary to meet consumer demands, stay competitive in the market and keep pace with the competition. But for developers, this race is a hurdle. And implementing security often comes with significant challenges.
Incompatible priorities
Security is a necessary part of acquiring and retaining customers. However, there is often incompatibility between developers and cybersecurity teams.
Developers want to ship as quickly and as often as possible, but see security requirements and cyber teams as blockers. For cyber teams, their priority is to keep consumers and the business safe. At the same time, customers are becoming increasingly aware of cybersecurity. Appdome’s own UK Consumer Expectations of Mobile Security Survey found that almost six in ten (59%) of UK consumers considered mobile app security to be equivalent to new features in Android and iOS apps, with a quarter of respondents saying that mobile app security is more important than mobile app security. functions. Consumers no longer just want seamless experiences with a modern mobile app, they also want a secure one.
This underlines the imperative need for companies to resolve the conflicting priorities and processes between developer and cyber teams.
VP Security Products at Appdome.
DevSecOps 2.0 – Automate mobile app protection and threat detection
Development, security and operations (DevSecOps), a process that integrates security initiatives into every phase of software development, is the answer. Today’s mobile app release process is rife with conflict between mobile developer teams and cyber teams. The development teams have invested time and resources in automating the release process as much as possible. In fact, they aim to increase the agility and speed of their releases as much as possible. Cybersecurity teams, on the other hand, are seen as blockers of this agile process. Especially if security findings are reported during the release meeting. This leads to development teams escalating to management and requesting approval of risk exceptions. It’s critical to recognize that such risk exceptions increase the chance of potential attacks or breaches because the app is unprotected during production. Even if there is a commitment to fix the security issue in a subsequent release, this opens up an opportunity for hackers. But far too often, organizations are forced to release apps with known security weaknesses, as delays can lead to significant loss of revenue or simply make the app uncompetitive. The consequences of an attack can be extremely costly and devastating to the company or brand. With discerning consumers looking for both speed and security, it’s clear that a solution is imperative to the continued success of the mobile app industry.
The traditional DevSecOps process aims to incorporate automated security testing into the development and deployment pipeline, with the intention of streamlining the security assessment process using the pipeline. The problem with this approach is that development teams often do not have the resources, skills or knowledge to resolve the findings in the pipeline and may place a low priority on security because functionality, appearance and ease of use are the main drivers for them. In addition to the above, automated security and vulnerability scans are certainly a welcome addition to the DevSecOps model, but it is important to remember that security scans only address part of the problem β as they cannot be used to βfixβ the problem or to recover”. problem. This is where no-code cyber defense automation is required. Cyber ββdefense automation can be used to build protections into Android and iOS apps to prevent exploits/attacks or remediate security threats or app weaknesses identified by security scanning or pen testing.
Using a DevSecOps 2.0 approach, app makers can use mobile application defense automation in the CI/CD pipeline to shift the burden and responsibility for delivering needed protection from the development team to the cyber team. This way, the cybersecurity team can use the same developer best practices to independently build, test, release, and monitor the security model in the mobile apps, as an equal and independent part of the DevSecOps process.
This allows app makers to maintain a fast and flexible release process for their mobile apps, while ensuring their apps are fully protected and easily upgradeable to protect against new threats and attacks. And all without the development team having to do any extra work.
Traditional DevSecOps is not the answer
When it comes to mobile apps, the current approach to DevSecOps isn’t working. The requirement for the traditional DevSecOps process includes automated security testing in the development and deployment pipeline. The idea is that this simplifies the security assessment process. While this speeds the discovery of exploitable vulnerabilities, it does not help implement necessary protections in the mobile app, leading to cyber and developer teams clashing over protections and risk exceptions.
The traditional DevSecOps model limits the cyber team’s ability to enforce protection. All the team can do is review, report, and recommend to the development team the security features that need to be added. Therefore, the cyber team is completely dependent on the developers to make updates, changes or upgrades.
To complicate matters further, developers may not be fully familiar with the company’s security policies or specific cyber threats. Developers may overestimate the security measures of app stores or device manufacturers.
Fortunately, innovative technology can solve this dilemma. Using a cyber defense automation tool, development teams can implement all the protections required by the security team. Additionally, it allows them to address weaknesses identified through security scanning or penetration testing β without any manual effort or impact on release schedules or workflows.
Defense automation comes to the rescue
Automating mobile app defenses allows cybersecurity teams to take greater control of the mobile application security model without requiring significant work from resources beyond their control (i.e., mobile developers). Mobile application defense automation enables the developer and cybersecurity teams to work together by leveraging the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, using automation to take the deployment burden completely off the development team’s plate to get. Using cyber defense automation, cybersecurity teams can build, test, release, and monitor the mobile app security model themselves or enable the development team to implement the security model they prescribe β all from the automated workflows that developers already use to build and deliver today still mobile apps. This approach ensures that the app security assessment functions as an integral part outside the conventional software development lifecycle.
By implementing cyber defense automation in this way, the cyber team takes direct control within the CI/CD pipeline, relieving the development team of any additional workload or need to navigate the complex cybersecurity requirements. As a result, the pipeline runs smoothly, automating the mobile app development process, with built-in security, anti-fraud and other protective measures. This approach enables both the development and cybersecurity teams to effectively meet consumer demands and fulfill their respective responsibilities. No one has to make the painful compromises that plague traditional mobile app security solutions.
For a developer or cyber team, this is a great position. It clears a backlog of security findings and accelerates the release of new protections resulting from new testing or assessments, eliminating new and old tensions between the organizations.
Game changer
One of life’s natural disputes is between people who build things and people who protect things, but cyber defense automation for mobile apps is a revolutionary game changer. For too long, companies have been using a traditional DevSecOps approach, which contributes to significant friction.
To stay in tune with consumer expectations and the dynamic marketplace, modern organizations must eliminate this major source of tension with mobile apps. However, before this can be achieved, seamless internal operations are essential. With the adoption of an innovative automated approach to implementing security features, collaboration replaces disputes, allowing the development team to focus on its core strengths without having to overcome obstacles.
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