SecOps vs DevSecOps: Understanding the Modern Security Framework

What is SecOps?

Security operations (SecOps) refer to the integration of security teams with IT operations (IT Ops) to monitor, detect, investigate, and respond to cybersecurity threats. According to the High-Tech Crime Trends 2025 report, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)-attributed attacks increased by 58% in 2024. SecOps helps these teams collaborate to strengthen your organization’s overall security posture and prevent costly breaches.

Objectives of SecOps

SecOps exists to reduce attacker dwell time and maintain system availability by detecting, containing, and learning from threats in production. The core objectives include:

• Rapid threat detection and response: SecOps monitors and identifies security incidents swiftly before breaches occur, performs forensics, and implements containment measures to minimize damage.
• Risk mitigation and vulnerability management: SecOps conducts regular assessments, coordinates patches, and testing to identify weaknesses in systems before malicious actors can act on them.
• Operational compliance and evidence: SecOps enforces and documents security controls, including logging, access management, backup, and change management. They also maintain audit-ready evidence for frameworks like ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS.

Key Components of SecOps

SecOps relies on interconnected tools, teams, and processes that work together to detect threats, investigate incidents, and maintain your security posture across the organization.

• Security Operations Center (SOC) provides continuous security coverage to escalate critical issues. However, according to the SANS SOC Survey 2023 cited in Group-IB The Art of SOC, the lack of skilled staff affects 14.1% of organizations, ranking as one of the top challenges facing SOCs today.
• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems collect and analyze security log data from your network, applications, and endpoints. These systems turn raw data logs into actionable alerts for further investigation.
• Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms automate routine tasks, such as alert enrichment and initial triage, to orchestrate responses across various tools.
• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) monitors devices for signs of compromise and provides forensic data when threats are detected.
• Tailored threat intelligence enriches detections with actor Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), Dedicated Leak Site (DLS) exposure alerts, and MITRE ATT&CK mapping, providing context about adversary tactics to enhance internal security event analysis.

Benefits and Limitations of SecOps

SecOps delivers faster threat detection and coordinated incident response, but operates reactively and remains separated from development teams.

Benefits of SecOps

The main benefit of SecOps is that it breaks down silos between your security teams and IT Ops. SecOps also allows for the following benefits:

• Faster threat detection: Centralized monitoring across endpoint, identity, network, and cloud exposes cross-domain attacks that siloed teams miss.
• Coordinated incident response: Establishing clear communication channels and responsibilities enables security and operations teams to respond quickly when incidents occur.
• Alert fidelity: SecOps reduces alert noise through correlation and enrichment, then automates enrichment and containment for known patterns. Analysts spend less time investigating false positives or duplicates.
• Limit exposures: External attack surface visibility and prioritized fixes remove easy entry points before adversaries can exploit them.

Limitations of SecOps

However, the structural issues below become particularly apparent when security operates separately from development:

• Reactive nature: SecOps teams respond to threats after they emerge in production environments, rather than preventing vulnerabilities during the design and development phases when fixes are less costly and disruptive.
• Development gap: Security operates as a separate function from engineering teams, which means vulnerabilities introduced during coding or deployment only surface after applications go live.
• Tool sprawl and integration overhead: Organizations often deploy multiple security tools that fail to communicate effectively. This forces analysts to move between dashboards to correlate alerts across platforms manually. They also have to maintain custom integrations that may break with each vendor update.

What is DevSecOps?

DevSecOps integrates security practices directly into every stage of the software development lifecycle, shifting responsibility left so vulnerabilities are identified and fixed during coding rather than after deployment.

This “shift-left” approach treats security as a continuous practice where developers, security teams, and operations teams collaborate from day one, catching vulnerabilities when they’re cheapest to fix.

Core principles of DevSecOps

DevSecOps embeds security as a shared responsibility across development, operations, and security teams, using automation and continuous testing to catch vulnerabilities early in the software lifecycle. It works based on these principles below:

Shift-left security

Security testing begins at the earliest stages of development, with automated scans running during code commits and pull requests to catch vulnerabilities before they reach production environments.

Shared responsibilities

Security becomes everyone’s job rather than a siloed function. For example, Developers write secure code, operations teams harden infrastructure, and security specialists provide guidance and oversight throughout the pipeline.

Automated controls with runtime feedback

Automated security tools integrate into CI/CD pipelines to scan code, dependencies, containers, and infrastructure configurations with each build, providing immediate feedback. Runtime monitoring detects anomalies in production, while feedback loops ensure teams learn from incidents to improve future development.

Compliance as code

Security policies, compliance requirements, and governance rules are codified and enforced automatically through pipeline checks, ensuring consistent adherence without the need for manual audits or bottlenecks.

Lifecycle touchpoints

Security integration occurs at every commit, with each build undergoing Software Composition Analysis (SCA) and container scanning, as well as staging environments, infrastructure changes, releases, and production monitoring for comprehensive coverage.

Rugged DevOps: Integrating security across the SDLC

Rugged DevOps is a developer mindset that prioritizes building secure, resilient systems from the ground up. It requires developers to design for failure, assume hostile inputs, and handle sensitive data with care.

DevSecOps is how teams institutionalize these habits with shared ownership and automated checks in the pipeline, then learn from incidents in production.

Rugged practices include input validation by default, least privilege for application services, defense in depth for sensitive flows, and conscious handling of personally identifiable information.

Here’s how rugged DevOps practices integrate across the SDLC:

• Planning and design begin with threat modeling to identify security risks in proposed features.
• Development incorporates secure coding standards and pre-commit hooks that scan for vulnerabilities as developers code. Over 50% of DevOps teams now run static application security testing (SAST) during development, catching issues before code is even committed.
• Build and integration stages verify that dependencies do not contain known vulnerabilities and that containers are following security practices. Automated security gates check each build, with 44% of teams running dynamic application security testing (DAST) and approximately 50% scanning containers and dependencies.
• Testing expands beyond functional validation to include API security testing and penetration testing for critical components. 80% of organizations use at least one Infrastructure as Code tool, enabling security scanning of infrastructure configurations before provisioning.
• Runtime protection continues through continuous monitoring, anomaly detection, and automated threat response after deployment.

Benefits and Challenges of DevSecOps

DevSecOps accelerates software delivery and detects vulnerabilities early, but requires significant organizational change and upfront investment.

Benefits of DevSecOps

DevSecOps benefits include reduced vulnerability exposure and compliance efficiency, along with other benefits below:

• Fewer escaped defects: Finding and fixing vulnerabilities during development reduces the need for emergency patching and out-of-band changes in production.
• Faster releases: Security checks run automatically and localize to each change, eliminating bottlenecks from manual security reviews at release time.
• Better audit evidence: Gates and exceptions are logged automatically, providing continuous compliance evidence for auditors.

Challenges DevSecOps face

One of the biggest DevSecOps challenges is critical skill gaps. 37% of IT leaders cite DevOps/DevSecOps as their most significant skills shortage, reflecting the difficulty of finding professionals who understand both development and security. Other challenges include:

• Tuning noise: Automated scanning generates alerts. This requires careful tuning to avoid overwhelming developers with false positives and ensure that real vulnerabilities aren’t missed.
• Cultural shift: Development teams focused on feature velocity may view security requirements as barriers or burdens, while security teams accustomed to gate-keeping may struggle to adopt enabling roles.
• Integration complexity: Security tools should integrate with development pipelines, monitoring platforms, and ticketing systems. It also needs to apply the same security policies across your organization’s technology stacks.

SecOps vs DevSecOps: Key Differences

SecOps and DevSecOps differ in timing, scope, and philosophy. They operate at different points in the software lifecycle and involve different teams.

Approach to security

SecOps addresses security after deployment, while DevSecOps prevents vulnerabilities during development.

SecOps secures infrastructure after deployment through production monitoring, incident response, and vulnerability management. DevSecOps prevents vulnerabilities by integrating security from the planning phase. Security requirements inform architecture decisions, and automated testing runs continuously as developers write code.

A flaw caught during code review takes an hour to fix. The same flaw discovered in production triggers emergency patches, regulatory notifications, and potential breach disclosure.

Tools and automation

SecOps and DevSecOps utilize toolsets that operate at distinct points in the software development lifecycle. While SecOps monitors what’s running, DevSecOps prevents issues from reaching production.

SecOps relies on runtime tools. SIEM aggregates security events, SOAR automates incident response, EDR monitors endpoints, and threat intelligence provides adversary context.

On the other hand, DevSecOps uses pre-production tools. SAST analyzes source code before compilation, DAST tests applications in staging, and Software Composition Analysis scans dependencies for vulnerabilities.

86% of codebases contain open source vulnerabilities, with 81% containing high- or critical-risk vulnerabilities. Container security validates images, while infrastructure-as-code scanners check cloud configurations before deployment.

Team collaboration and culture

SecOps unites security and operations, while DevSecOps includes developers as equal partners. Other differences are outlined below:

SecOps unites security and operations teams to enhance incident response, but developers may only become aware of vulnerabilities during reviews or after deployment. This creates friction, where developers view security as a roadblock, while security teams see developers as introducing risk.

DevSecOps incorporates security into the development cycle from the outset. Your teams share tools, dashboards, and objectives rather than working in silos.

Organizations achieve this through the use of security champions in development teams, joint training, blameless post-mortems, and unified metrics that measure both delivery speed and security outcomes.

Speed and agility in response

SecOps fixes take weeks while DevSecOps enables fixes in hours or minutes through immediate feedback. Other differences between SecOps and DevSecOps include:

SecOps end-stage reviews create bottlenecks when discovered vulnerabilities require extensive rework, which delays releases. Emergency patches need coordination to prevent downtime, while alert fatigue overwhelms teams with constant notifications that bury critical threats.

DevSecOps accelerates delivery by embedding automated security checks throughout the pipeline. Developers get immediate feedback when they introduce issues, enabling fixes while the code is still fresh in their minds rather than weeks later during a pre-release security review.

How to Transition from SecOps to DevSecOps

Transitioning from SecOps to DevSecOps requires building cross-functional teams, automating security controls throughout CI/CD pipelines, and consolidating security tools. Rather than choosing between these two approaches, strengthen your existing Security Operations (SecOps) capabilities while integrating development teams into your security operations.

Build a cross-functional operating model

Cross-functional collaboration begins with shared objectives that align your teams toward a common goal. Replace isolated metrics with shared outcomes such as secure features deployed per sprint and vulnerabilities remediated before production.

You can also embed security champions within development teams to provide immediate guidance and review code for security issues. Their role will be to bridge the gap between specialized security knowledge and daily development work. When security issues occur, implement blameless postmortems that examine systemic improvements rather than individual blame.

Lastly, invest in cross-training so your developers learn secure coding, security professionals understand development constraints, and operations teams master both disciplines.

Automate controls in CI/CD and runtime

Automation enables security at development speed. You can start by implementing automated scanning in your build pipelines: SAST analyzes source code, SCA checks dependencies, and container scanning validates images. Configure these tools to run on every commit, providing your developers with immediate feedback.

You’ll also need to integrate security gates that fail builds containing critical vulnerabilities, but tune them carefully to avoid drowning teams in false positives. Add DAST for staging environments and infrastructure-as-code security scanning for cloud templates. For runtime protection, implement continuous monitoring with anomaly detection and automated response capabilities.

Platform and tooling consolidation

Tool sprawl complicates security operations, with 35% of respondents prioritizing reduced testing complexity. Begin by auditing your current tooling to identify overlaps and integration gaps.

You can also prioritize platforms that integrate with your development workflows, rather than requiring context switching. Consider unified platforms combining SAST, DAST, and SCA. Alternatively, consider evaluating cloud-native application protection platforms that integrate code security, posture management, and runtime protection into a single solution. Standardize your core tools across teams for consistency and reduced training overhead.

Best Practices for DevSecOps Implementation

Successful DevSecOps requires practices that naturally embed security into workflows, ensure continuous visibility, and foster team collaboration. Some of the best practices to implement DevSecOps are discussed below:

1. Continuous monitoring and automated remediation

Continuous monitoring focuses on real deviations—application behavior anomalies, infrastructure changes, and user activity patterns. Enrich alerts with real-time threat actor tactics and context via a Threat Intelligence platform, so analysts can judge intent. Automate first actions like host isolation, token revocation, and IOC blocking. The goal is to tune thresholds that improve mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) rather than simply generating more alerts.

Use Attack Surface Management to map internet-facing assets, uncover shadow IT, and rank exposures with threat intelligence so fixes enter the backlog early. Protect your brand and customers from external threats with Digital Risk Protection, which automatically detects and initiates takedown of look-alike domains, phishing sites, and credential leaks.

2. Secure code review and testing

Building security into development requires multiple testing layers that identify vulnerabilities at different lifecycle stages. You can do this by:

• Starting with SAST to analyze source code before compilation, catching flaws like SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
• Add DAST to test running applications in staging environments, identifying vulnerabilities that only appear during execution.
• Include API security testing for interfaces that often expose sensitive functionality.

Use fuzzing where inputs are complex and reserve targeted penetration tests for major releases. For AI-enabled features, add adversarial evaluations for prompt injection, data leakage, model override, and unsafe tool execution. Validate them through an AI red teaming service.

Group-IB investigations into the ClickFix social engineering campaign and the GoldPickaxe mobile data-theft trojan demonstrate how our experts transform attacker techniques into proactive defenses, directly mapping them to real attacker behavior.

3. Collaboration between security and development

Strong collaboration requires embedded partnership and shared ownership, not occasional meetings. Three ways that you can encourage this collaboration are:

• Embed security representation directly in your development teams rather than maintaining separation. Security champions within these teams provide immediate guidance, review code from a security perspective, and serve as liaisons to central security specialists.
• Establish regular touchpoints beyond traditional security reviews. Include security team members in sprint planning where they provide input on security requirements for upcoming features. You can also invite developers to security team meetings where they learn about emerging threats.
• Create joint working groups that tackle specific security challenges requiring expertise from both disciplines. Implement shared tooling and dashboards that give both teams visibility into security status. This develops a common understanding and eliminates finger-pointing by creating a single source of truth.

How Group-IB Strengthens SecOps and DevSecOps Frameworks

Group-IB provides a unified suite of intelligence-driven solutions to optimize SecOps and DevSecOps frameworks, supporting faster response times and complete visibility across your digital ecosystem. Our Threat Intelligence Platform delivers real-time threat actor visibility through industry-leading dark web data, graph-based visualization, and MITRE ATT&CK integration. It enables proactive response by continuously monitoring breach databases for compromised credentials.

Attack Surface Management continuously discovers and indexes all external assets by scanning the entire IPv4 space. It identifies shadow IT and misconfigurations, enriches discovered assets with threat intelligence, and uses automated vulnerability assessment to prioritize remediation. An interactive graph visualizes the attack paths from an adversary’s viewpoint.

Talk to our experts to design an intelligence-driven SecOps or DevSecOps framework.