"You can't threat model in a CI/CD DevOps environment!!" This is a common belief among developers and security professionals alike. With frameworks like STRIDE, DREAD, PASTA, etc. threat modeling is typically viewed as a heavy-weight, time-consuming exercise that is simply not compatible with high-paced development paradigms. As a result, organizations that employ these paradigms commonly scratch threat modeling off their Secure SDLC checklist as simply impossible to implement without breaking their DevOps model. They lose sight of the core purpose of threat modeling and as a result are unable to tailor an approach that fits their development lifecycle.

In this session, we’ll turn those misconceptions about Threat Modeling upside down. We’ll go back to the core purpose of threat modeling. We’ll discuss what components of threat modeling are most crucial, what questions we should be asking and who should be answering them. Ultimately, this will all culminate into presentation of an alternative approach to Threat Modeling. We’ll walk through the details of how to implement this backlog-based approach in any development paradigm and demonstrate that it can be done without affecting our development timelines.