Security as Code

Reinforcing the Foundations of Digital Fortresses

Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash

While cloud technology has lead to increased adoption of shift-left approaches, security measures have often lagged behind. To address this concern, a noteworthy and effective strategy has emerged known as "Security as Code." This approach entails integrating security practices into the entire software application development lifecycle, rather than treating security as an add-on at a later stage. By incorporating security from the outset, organizations can proactively identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities, bolstering the overall security posture of their systems and applications. This article will delve into the concept of Security as Code, elucidating its workings, benefits, and why it’s becoming an integral part of the software development culture.

Understanding Security as Code

To fully grasp the concept of Security as Code, we start with understanding the principles of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and DevOps practices. IaC is a process that involves managing and provisioning computer data centres through machine-readable definition files (or, code), rather than manual hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. Meanwhile, DevOps is a combination of software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops), with the goal of shortening the…