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How to effectively implement security left shift in agile development?

To effectively implement security left shift in agile development, integrate security practices early and continuously throughout the development lifecycle instead of treating it as a final phase. This approach ensures vulnerabilities are identified and addressed sooner, reducing costs and delays.

Key Strategies:

  1. Security Requirements in User Stories: Embed security considerations into user stories and acceptance criteria from the start. For example, if a feature involves user authentication, specify requirements like password complexity or multi-factor authentication upfront.

  2. Threat Modeling in Sprint Planning: Conduct threat modeling sessions during sprint planning to identify potential risks in new features. For instance, if developing a payment gateway, analyze risks like data breaches or injection attacks.

  3. Developer Security Training: Equip teams with security knowledge through regular training on secure coding practices, such as avoiding SQL injection or XSS vulnerabilities.

  4. Static and Dynamic Analysis Tools: Integrate automated security tools into CI/CD pipelines. For example, use static application security testing (SAST) tools to scan code for vulnerabilities during development and dynamic analysis (DAST) tools to test running applications.

  5. Security Champions: Appoint security champions within each agile team to advocate for best practices and collaborate with security experts.

Example:

In a fintech app development, the team includes security requirements like OAuth 2.0 for API access in user stories. During sprint planning, they perform threat modeling to address risks like session hijacking. Automated SAST tools scan code daily, and the security champion reviews findings with developers to fix issues immediately.

For cloud-based applications, Tencent Cloud offers services like Web Application Firewall (WAF) to block common attacks and Host Security to detect vulnerabilities in servers, aligning with security left shift principles.