The rapid adoption of DevOps tools has transformed how organizations deploy and manage cloud infrastructure, enabling developers to spin up cloud resources faster than ever. However, with speed comes risks (e.g. misconfigurations and vulnerabilities introduced at the code stage). Remediating these risks requires close collaboration between security and DevOps teams, but the shared responsibility creates bottlenecks, resulting in significant delays.
While DevOps has vast knowledge of cloud infrastructure and system engineering, they are not security experts, and we can’t expect them to be. Conversely, security teams often lack the technical fluency to provide precise guidance on what exactly to fix and where.
To bridge this gap, security teams require remediation solutions that seamlessly integrate into the tools and workflows developers already use. This is where the concept of Security as Code (SaC) comes in — leveraging the same Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools that introduced the problem to efficiently remediate it.
Today, we’re excited to announce expanded support for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, now including CloudFormation, Terraform, Pulumi and ARM. This enhancement enables security and DevOps teams to collaborate more efficiently, drastically increasing the speed at which vulnerabilities and other cloud risks are remediated.
The Benefits
Seamless integration into DevOps workflows
DevOps teams use a variety of IaC tools to manage cloud infrastructure. By expanding our IaC support to include the most popular platforms, security teams can seamlessly integrate with DevOps workflows to gain visibility into what DevOps actually manages, where and how, streamlining the remediation process.
Greater context & fix precision
With expanded IaC support, security teams can more accurately pinpoint the root causes of issues down to the exact lines of code, regardless of which tool was used. This provides security and DevOps teams with clear remediation guidance on where exactly the problem needs to be fixed.
Accelerated remediation
The ZEST platform doesn’t stop at identifying problematic code. By leveraging Generative AI, the platform automatically generates replacement code, empowering security and DevOps teams with ready-to-implement fixes, drastically reducing manual effort and time to remediation.
Security as Code (SaC) Explained
Fixing an issue requires understanding how it was introduced—identifying the problematic code and the platform that was used. However, this can be extremely time consuming, and as a result, remediation efforts often involve making quick fixes directly in production, with developers making changes in the cloud console. While this approach may be fast, it increases the risk of human error, unintended overrides, and recurring vulnerabilities.
Security as Code (SaC) takes a different approach, enabling security teams to take advantage of the power and speed of DevOps systems to remediate issues at scale within secure deployment workflows. By integrating security directly into the development process, SaC ensures more precise and efficient remediation, minimizing risks and reducing the potential for future issues.
How it Works
- Automatically pinpoint root cause: Identify the origin of the issue down to the exact lines of code that introduced the problem.
- Generate replacement code: Leverage Generative AI to produce ready-to-implement fixes directly within the same IaC tool that introduced the risk.
- Empower DevOps: Deliver clear, actionable guidance with the necessary context so that DevOps can implement fixes quickly.
The Bigger Picture
Implementing Security as Code (SaC) enables organizations to:
Reduce MTTR: Reduce the gap between risk identification and resolution, enabling security teams to address vulnerabilities way before they are exploited by attackers.
Maximize DevOps efficiency: Faster remediation means DevOps teams can spend more time on strategic initiatives that drive business growth, rather than being bogged down by security tickets.
Minimize operational costs: Eliminate manual remediation efforts and empower security teams to fix open security issues fast, reducing the costs associated with remediation.
Ready to see more?
Looking for a more efficient way to remediate cloud vulnerabilities and other risks? Contact our team to learn how our expanded IaC tool support is helping security and DevOps teams fix issues with greater speed and precision.
