Introduction:

In today’s cloud-based world, security is more important than ever. But with so many different tools and teams involved in the development process, it can be difficult to ensure that security is being implemented early on.

Shift-left security is an approach that integrates security into the development process from the very beginning. This helps to prevent security vulnerabilities from being introduced into the code in the first place.

There are four key practices that organizations need to implement in order to build cloud security programs that can actually shift left:

1. Align and communicate. Top-down buy-in is critical for success, as it requires a significant cultural shift within the organization. The leadership of each team needs to be aligned on the importance of shift-left security, and they need to communicate this to their team members.
2. Measure. It’s important to measure the effectiveness of your shift-left security program. This will help you to identify areas where you need to improve.
3. Enforce and automate. You need to have guardrails in place to enforce security best practices. These guardrails should be automated so that they can be applied consistently throughout the development process.
4. Share and improve. You need to share security knowledge with your developers so that they can build secure applications. You should also create a feedback loop so that you can improve your shift-left security program over time.

Case studies:

Here are two case studies that illustrate how organizations have successfully implemented shift-left security:

1. United Airlines. United Airlines was able to shift security left by providing security with centralized visibility into the development environment. This allowed them to identify real-world security implications of previous containerization choices.
2. Fox. Fox was able to embed security in the day-to-day processes of over 150 team members by fully committing to the four key practices outlined above.

Conclusion:

Shift-left security is essential for organizations that want to protect their cloud applications from security vulnerabilities. By following the four key practices outlined in this blog post, you can build a cloud security program that can actually shift left.