Use Case

Why do retail companies need to invest in a complete DevSecOps solution?

Reliability depends on security

The retail industry faces particular challenges when it comes to application security. The lack of a security culture, large development teams, and seasonality are some of them.

When we talk about retail, it's essential to create a bond of trust between the institution and its customers. After all, many of these companies focus on e-commerce, and customer data, as well as their trust, need to be maintained with care and attention.

That is why AppSec programs are necessary. They enable companies to gain maturity on the following fronts:

Secure software from the design stage

To reduce the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited

Constant monitoring

To identify vulnerabilities all year round, not just during peak traffic periods

Dev Awareness

For AppSec to become a culture among the security and development teams

At Conviso, we know well the sector's main security problems - and how to solve them
Uncentralized and excessive tools and technologies

In the search for a process that fits the institution's routine, it is not uncommon to come across retail companies that report that they have acquired a high number of tools for the development and security teams.  

The excess of tools, spreadsheets, and processes without effective management of all these technologies causes rework and unnecessary expenses.

See how Conviso Platform works on these fronts:

It covers the entire secure development lifecycle - Conviso Platform is a complete DevSecOps platform, composed of five products - each of which plays an indispensable and complementary role in addressing the entire secure development lifecycle and accelerating enterprise AppSec maturity. More than preventive and corrective actions, it also helps to promote cultural change in companies.

It centralizes, enhances, and coexists with other tools - Your team won't need to abandon all the tools you've already acquired. On the contrary - the Conviso Platform supports the main solutions in Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery tools, in addition to other solutions on the market. Our integrations are constantly updated to offer more autonomy to devs.

It orchestrates security analyzes - One of the five products that compose our platform is Secure Pipeline, an ASTO solution that integrates with code analysis tools, allowing proactive management of each new deployment carried out by development teams. In addition, it unifies the results, enabling an overview of vulnerabilities. It also centralizes the communication of the security and development teams, enabling unified management of the security and development teams.

Lots of devs but
lack of AppSec focus

At Conviso, it is not uncommon to come across retail companies with large development teams that often hire outsourced teams or even report excess squads. Such factors would not be a problem if the security culture was already widespread in the sector - which is not yet the case. 

In 2022, when we conducted our survey on the Brazilian application security market, we asked: “does the company you work for present sufficient or satisfactory knowledge of AppSec?”. 54.5% reported that the company they work for is investing in improvements. Another 21.2% answered "no". Only 18.2% answered "yes". The challenge is to bring the issue of security to everyone involved and fight against the unfortunately widely spread misconception that security is an obstacle to development.

Here is how Conviso Platform works to develop the mindset of developers for the importance of security, Conviso Platform:

A dev-first platform - our platform was created based on the developer's routine, challenges, and obstacles, so they can gain more protagonism and autonomy. It fully integrates with the tools used by developers, such as, for example, Jira.

Continuous training - Through People & Culture, Conviso Platform offers an AppSec training solution with secure code challenges based on the day-to-day development of each institution.

Gamification to engage and raise awareness - People & Culture gamification challenges promote team engagement with active learning. The result is more awareness about the importance of security.

Dos entrevistados, 54,5% relataram que a empresa em que trabalham está investindo em melhorias neste sentido. Já outros 21,2% responderam que não. Apenas 18,2% responderam que sim.
O desafio, então, é levar o tema de segurança para todos os envolvidos e lutar contra a ideia errada, porém infelizmente amplamente difundida, de que a segurança é um empecilho para o desenvolvimento.
Seasonality versus lack of a security culture

Seasonality causes retailers to face periods of commercial highs, such as Black Friday, Christmas, or Mother's Day. However, during periods of high sales the probability of an invasion also increases. And this is often approached incorrectly by the development teams, who often choose to perform only one or two pentests a year, in the imminence of these periods. These casual pentests might point out problems, but do not solve the cause, causing new vulnerabilities to appear with each version.

However, this can cause great harm and consequences since a lot of time passes between one test and another. In addition, due to the e-commerce focus, they also need to ensure that the environment and the code support the increasing traffic. It's through security awareness and training that the security mindset develops.

Here's how Conviso Platform makes sure security is an ongoing priority for businesses:

Security positioned early in the development process - Including security early in the software architecture stages is essential to building quality software. Conviso Platform does this through Secure by Design, a product that helps implement a shift-left approach to the development process, with features such as threat modeling, risk definitions, and much more. A true ally in optimizing the time and budget of security and development teams.

It anticipates possible attacks - Through threat modeling, Secure by Design seeks to identify possible threats that an application may be exposed to. With the vision of this scenario, the security requirements to mitigate or eliminate these scenarios are identified. Also, through Secure Pipeline, Conviso Platform integrates with code analysis tools, allowing proactive management of each new deployment carried out by development teams of retail companies.

Constant Testing and Monitoring - Through Attack Surface, Conviso Platform helps you identify, test, and monitor your attack surface constantly and throughout the year - not just during peak traffic periods. Thus, security incidents are prevented with a proactive approach - constantly prioritizing security.

Monitore constantemente por meio do Attack Surface, identifique, teste e monitore constantemente sua superfície de ataque, evitando incidentes de segurança com uma abordagem proativa - priorizando a segurança constantemente.

Find out how Conviso Platform can transform your company's results

With the mission of supporting the entire secure development cycle and accelerating AppSec maturity in companies, Conviso Platform is a SaaS solution that empowers developers to build more secure applications. It uses OWASP SAMM, the maturity model that defines security practices that address the entire software lifecycle, as a base.

Reach out to our AppSec Experts