Modernization invites some challenges!
The Devops in banking sector is one of the major contributors in the total economy worldwide. Banking institutes are the backbone of the industrial ecosystem that maintains the flow of funds. In India, banking was introduced in the 18th century i.e. in the British rule. As technology evolved so as the banking has become modern. Most of the banking transactions are possible in online now. Though modernization and online availability has given advantages like ease of use and high availability, it also has given rise to a few DevSecOps Challenges.
- 24 *7 availability .
- Speedy Services.
- Security is the Priority.
- Customer experience and satisfaction.
- Regulatory bodies and Complianaces.
Can we achieve all these from the banking application itself ? The answer is yes. DevSecOps practices can help achieve these targets with a few changes in processes and tools.
Let’s dip dive into how DevSecOps practices can help baking organizations to smooth out the baking process and maintain an equilibrium between customer satisfaction and compliances.
What is DevSecOps ?
It is superset of devsecops definition which stands for development, security, and operations working hand in hand . It is a framework that integrates security into all phases of the software development Devops lifecycle. Organizations adopt this approach to reduce the risk of releasing code with security vulnerabilities. Through collaboration, automation, and clear processes, teams share responsibility for security, rather than leaving it to the end when issues can be much more difficult and costly to address, benefits of devsecops.
Challenges in Banking Sector And DevSecOps as a Solution
1.Achieving Near to Zero Downtime
Banking has changed its face since last few years, the digital payment ecosystem grew exponentially. Since Covid pandemic, the digital payment system has become a need rather than luxury. In the financial year 2023, almost 114 billion digital transactions were recorded across the country. With such a high demand bank cannot afford to have even a few minutes downtime as a few minutes of downtime is equivalent to huge financial losses.
Can Downtime be minimized?
DevSecOps practices promote use of CICD. CICD makes sure that the code is well tested. DevOps Solution also promotes Application Security Testing as integral part of the process. This helps in finding the vulnerabilities from the coding phase. DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing), Dependency Scanning, Software Composition Analysis , Container and Cloud security are the part and parcel of Application security and makes sure that the vulnerability is addressed in every phase of the development lifecycle. This makes applications roust and in turn reduces the downtime.
Another key aspect of DevSecOps is Observability and Monitoring. It continuously combs through the logs, traces and metrics and gives proactive alerts when something goes wrong. AI ML driven insights also help to remediate the cause. This helps in ensuring near to zero downtime.
- Compliance to Governing body
The banking system in India is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), through the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. There are various rules and regulations that are to be followed by the banking institutions in order to remain compliant.
Can my Application Stay Compliant Throughout?
Policy-as-code and Compliance-as-code can help achieve compliance. Imbibing the policy adherence and compliances in the code can help organizations to remain compliant throughout. Defining policies using code provides organizations with the ability to ensure policies are consistently enforced across different systems and environments with consistency. This can help prevent policy violations and reduce the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data or systems.
- Fraud Detection & Prevention
No organization is immune from fraud in today’s world. Data breaches become more common at large enterprises, stolen credentials are sold on the dark web and hackers target everything from critical infrastructure to customer data with ransomware. The data needed to be safeguarded from the malicious use.
Can I safeguard my Data?
Application security implemented right from the application development, Continuous Runtime Vulnerability Analytics, AI-powered risk assessment (Observability), and Runtime Application Protection help customers intelligently thwart these risks and adopt proactive mitigation strategies.
- Security
According to research by Kaspersky, financial services organisation spend around three times more than non-banking companies. Even after such a huge investment, malicious attacks are not uncommon for the banking sector. Though the digital transactions have simplified the end user experience, at the same time it has paved the way for rising the number of attack vectors within the digital channel. This makes security even more complex.
Can I fortify the organization’s Security Posture?
Application security in the form of SAST , DAST, Dependency Scanning, SCA Container Security and Cloud Security can help to keep the application code away from the vulnerabilities in all the lifecycle phases.
- Application Scaling Up
As online mode of transaction has become preferred mode of transaction, the scalability becomes challenge.With the increasing demand of the online transactions, the banking application and associated hardware needs to scale up accordingly.
Can Application Scalability be achieved smoothly?
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a key concept in DevOps Evolution practice. It allows the infrastructure requirements to be specified in the form of code. It makes infrastructure changes more flexible. IaC allows teams to develop and release changes faster and with greater confidence. This also helps in managing multiple deployment environments with ease.
- Backup and Disaster Recovery
Data is very crucial to all the organization including banking. Data may be lost due to unexpected events, such as hardware failures, cyberattacks, natural disasters, human errors or ransomware attack. Data Backup and recovery mechanism can substantially help in mitigating data loss due to these scenarios.
How can I backup my Data?
DevSecOps practises include Server backup and disaster recovery mechanism as essential aspects of server security and compliance. DevSecOps also suggest some best practices to be followed to have Disaster Recovery mechanism in place. There are variety of tools in Disaster Recovery segment that help organizations to secure their data in case of such scenario.
- Need for apt Guidance
DevSecOps makes sure that security is implemented in every phase of lifecycle right from the development to the deployment and operation. Use of apt tools and knowledge of best practices to implement the DevSecOps is the keystone for the DevSecOps success.
How to adopt DevSecOps in the organization?
Fineshift has helped many banking organizations in complete and smooth DevSecOps adoption. The banks have gained a potential edge over the competitors with better security faster delivery, and reliability. DevSecOps is not only a technology shift but also a cultural shift. Fineshift also imparts training services for the staff enablement for smooth DevSecOps adoption in the organization .
Conclusion
As the banking is reshaping itself in the form of online service , downtime of even a few minutes is equivalent to huge financial losses. Ever changing business needs and need for quick deployments paves way to security breaches. With the increasing threats in the cyber world, organizations have to be proactive to mitigate the threats before they intrude the system rather than being reactive and solving the issues after the attack. To address these challenges, banking organizations are opting for DevSecOps practices to be implemented so that security and compliance become part of the development process. This not only makes risk mitigation proactive but also saves a pretty penny. Apt guidance and perfect tool choice makes devops solutions journey hassle free for the organizations.
By Sonal Kakar.