Certified: The CISSP Prepcast

Welcome to The Bare Metal Cyber CISSP Prepcast. This series helps you prepare for the ISC squared CISSP exam with focused explanations and practical context.
Today's episode covers DevSecOps Culture and Continuous Assurance—two vital approaches for securing modern software development and deployment. DevSecOps is not just a buzzword. It represents a cultural and technical shift in how organizations build software and integrate security into every phase of the lifecycle. Continuous assurance goes hand in hand with this mindset by providing ongoing verification that security controls and compliance measures are in place, functioning, and effective. Together, they support a secure, agile, and resilient development process that keeps pace with today’s demanding software release cycles.
Let’s begin by understanding what DevSecOps culture really means. The concept of DevSecOps builds on the foundational principles of DevOps, which emphasizes collaboration between development and operations. DevSecOps takes it a step further by embedding security into that collaborative model.
In traditional models, security was often treated as a final checkpoint before deployment. This delayed feedback, created friction, and introduced risk. DevSecOps shifts security left—embedding it earlier in the development process and integrating it throughout the pipeline. This ensures that issues are identified and addressed as early and as automatically as possible.
DevSecOps fosters a culture of shared responsibility. Developers are not just focused on code quality. They are also trained in secure coding practices. Operations teams don’t just manage infrastructure—they ensure systems are hardened and monitored. And security professionals are not gatekeepers—they are enablers who build tools, automate checks, and collaborate daily with other teams.
The result of a strong DevSecOps culture is faster delivery of more secure code. Security is no longer seen as a bottleneck but as a shared goal. This leads to improved trust, resilience, and compliance.
Now let’s talk about continuous assurance. Continuous assurance refers to the ongoing validation of your security posture. Instead of performing periodic audits or one-time tests, continuous assurance means that checks are performed all the time—throughout development, testing, deployment, and runtime.
With continuous assurance, security controls are monitored in real-time. Vulnerability scans are embedded into code repositories and deployment pipelines. Configuration management tools enforce secure baselines automatically. Compliance requirements are checked against every code change and infrastructure update.
This continuous feedback loop improves visibility and reduces risk. Developers receive alerts immediately when they introduce a flaw. Compliance officers can verify that systems are aligned with frameworks like N I S T, GDPR, or P C I without waiting for quarterly reviews. Security teams can identify trends and respond faster to anomalies.
The benefits are clear. Organizations can reduce remediation costs by catching issues early. They can improve their audit readiness by maintaining real-time evidence of compliance. And they can build more secure software faster, without slowing innovation.
Let’s now explore how to implement a robust DevSecOps culture. Begin by defining roles and responsibilities. Every team member should understand their part in the secure development lifecycle. Developers need training in secure coding, input validation, and threat modeling. Operations teams should manage patching, configuration hardening, and incident response. Security professionals must focus on building integrations, guiding teams, and supporting risk decisions.
Integrate security into the development pipeline. Use tools like static application security testing—also known as S A S T—to catch vulnerabilities in code. Use dynamic analysis—known as D A S T—to test running applications. Use container scanning tools, secret detection tools, and policy enforcement engines to monitor all stages of development.
Foster communication between teams. Encourage developers to ask security questions. Create shared dashboards that track vulnerabilities, testing status, and incident response. Host regular meetings to review security findings and improve collaboration.
Train regularly. Security is not just a technical challenge—it’s a mindset. Provide training on the latest threats, secure coding practices, and defensive programming. Tailor sessions to specific roles so everyone understands how they contribute to the DevSecOps mission.
Finally, evaluate your DevSecOps culture. Gather feedback. Measure success using metrics such as time to remediate vulnerabilities, number of blocked builds, and code quality trends. Refine your tools, workflows, and communication channels based on these insights.
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Now let’s shift to achieving continuous assurance. Continuous assurance requires technical infrastructure, clear processes, and team commitment. It starts with continuous security monitoring. Use tools that track system health, configuration drift, code changes, and vulnerability status in real-time.
Embed security checks into every stage of your continuous integration and continuous deployment process. Use S A S T to analyze code during commits. Use D A S T to test staging environments before deployment. Use interactive testing tools and runtime protection to monitor behavior during execution.
Employ vulnerability management platforms to track findings, prioritize risks, and assign remediation tasks. Tie these tools into ticketing systems or dashboards so that issues are tracked transparently and resolved efficiently.
Regularly validate the effectiveness of your security controls. This includes automated policy checks, test case coverage, and penetration testing of live environments. Don’t assume that a control is effective just because it’s present—test it regularly.
Document your continuous assurance practices clearly. Create policies that outline what tools are used, what reports are generated, and how issues are handled. Define escalation paths and remediation timelines. This documentation supports audits and strengthens your overall security posture.
And just like with DevSecOps, training is essential. Everyone who participates in the development lifecycle needs to understand how assurance works, what their responsibilities are, and how to act when a control fails or a test fails.
Let’s now examine some of the security controls that support both DevSecOps and continuous assurance. Begin with integrated security platforms. These platforms allow you to run scans, enforce policies, and visualize results across the entire toolchain.
Secure your code repositories with access control, multi-factor authentication, and code review policies. Use automated scanners to detect secrets, insecure dependencies, and licensing issues.
Use secure build environments. Build servers should be isolated, monitored, and protected with strong authentication. Artifacts should be signed, verified, and stored in secure repositories.
Perform vulnerability assessments and penetration tests regularly—not just for the applications, but for the DevOps infrastructure itself. If your pipeline is compromised, attackers can inject malicious code or disable protections silently.
Implement strong logging and monitoring across all stages. Record build activities, scan results, deployment logs, and runtime behavior. Use alerting systems to detect anomalies, unauthorized changes, and policy violations.
Maintain secure incident documentation. If a breach occurs or a control fails, you must be able to investigate, respond, and recover quickly. Keep backup copies of logs, artifacts, and system states.
Let’s wrap up today’s episode by looking at continuous improvement in DevSecOps and assurance practices. Threats evolve. Technologies change. Regulatory frameworks are updated. Your security strategies must keep pace.
Review your policies and tools regularly. Replace outdated tools with modern solutions that integrate more effectively or offer better detection. Update your processes to reflect lessons learned from incidents and audits.
Gather feedback from across the organization. Developers may have insights into friction points. Operations teams can highlight availability risks. Security teams can suggest better automation or visibility.
Analyze incidents and test results. What failed? Why did it fail? What could have caught it earlier? Use this information to close gaps and increase maturity.
Train consistently. Provide on-demand courses, hands-on labs, lunch-and-learn sessions, and attack simulation exercises. Training not only improves skills—it builds a culture of security awareness and shared responsibility.
Thank you for joining the CISSP Prepcast by Bare Metal Cyber. Visit baremetalcyber.com for additional episodes, comprehensive CISSP study resources, and personalized certification support. Deepen your understanding of DevSecOps Culture and Continuous Assurance, and we'll consistently support your journey toward CISSP certification success.