How can cybersecurity teams adopt Scrum for agile and responsive best practices?
Staying ahead of cybersecurity threats requires cutting-edge technology and agile and effective management practices. Enter Scrum, a framework initially designed for software development projects that has found a well-justified home across many business functions, from marketing to product development, including cybersecurity.
“Mutation: it is the key to our evolution.” – Prof. Charles Francis Xavier.
We spoke to some of our lateral movement attack protection, zero day attacks mitigation, and ransomware protection software customers about how they use Scrum within their in-house cybersecurity teams to better understand how we could create customization options (like reporting) that fit their working practices. We got some great insights worth documenting about their execution of Scrum cybersecurity working practices, including their implementation, benefits, and the common pitfalls of adoption.
Introduction to Scrum
Scrum is an agile project management framework that emphasizes teamwork, accountability, and iterative progress toward well-defined goals. It’s designed to be flexible and adaptive to changing project requirements, making it ideal for environments where complexity and unpredictability are the norms. Scrum’s core principles involve dividing work into short sprints, regular review and adaptation of strategies, and close collaboration within the team and with stakeholders.
Understanding Scrum in the Context of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity teams face “unique” challenges, which is an understatement, as we all know, including constantly evolving threats, urgent response times, and the need for continuous improvement in defenses. Implementing Scrum in cyber defense means adapting its principles to these specific needs. It involves organizing work into sprints focused on security enhancements, threat assessments, or incident responses, and using Scrum events (like daily stand-up meetings and sprint reviews) to ensure agility and responsiveness.
Benefits of Implementing Scrum for Cybersecurity Teams
From speaking to our clients at the frontline of daily data and network protection, many in Forbes Top 50 organizations ranging from financial services to healthcare providers, they talked about the following benefits of agile working practices for their SOC:
- Enhanced Team Collaboration: Scrum fosters a collaborative environment where every team member contributes to decision-making and problem-solving, leading to more innovative solutions to security challenges.
- Increased Flexibility: By working in sprints, security teams can quickly adapt to emerging threats or changes in organizational priorities, ensuring that their efforts are always aligned with current needs.
- Improved Visibility and Accountability: Regular Scrum ceremonies and artifacts, like sprint reviews and backlogs, provide clear visibility into the team’s activities and progress, making it easier to track and report on cybersecurity efforts.
- Efficiency in Prioritization: The Scrum framework helps teams focus on the most critical security tasks first, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to mitigate the highest risks.
Practical Steps to Implement Scrum for Cybersecurity Teams
When asked, “How did you implement Scrum?” and “What might you have differently with hindsight,” multiple CISOs and CIOs highlighted the following first steps in realizing cybersecurity Scrum working practices:
- Define Roles and Responsibilities: Establish roles within your cybersecurity Scrum team, including the Scrum Master (facilitator), Product Owner (who prioritizes tasks), and team members (who execute tasks).
- Develop a Product Backlog: Create a prioritized list of security tasks, enhancements, and other work items that the team needs to address. Plan Sprints: Organize work into sprints, usually lasting two to four weeks, focusing on the most critical tasks identified in the backlog.
- Conduct Daily Stand-ups: Hold brief daily meetings to discuss progress, identify any obstacles, and plan for the day.
- Host Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives: At the end of each sprint, review completed work and discuss improvements for the next sprint.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
- Overcommitment: Everyone we spoke to said, “Avoid taking on too much work in a single sprint.” It’s essential to ensure tasks are realistic and achievable, especially early on when SOC teams are finding their feet with new working practices.
- Neglecting Backlog Grooming: Regularly review and update the backlog (especially patching) to ensure it reflects current priorities and challenges.
- Insufficient Stakeholder Engagement: Engage relevant stakeholders frequently to ensure their needs are understood and met.
- Lack of Flexibility: Be prepared to adapt your sprint plans as new information or threats emerge. One might say this is the core of Scrum practices, and resistance to “stimulus” is a common stumbling block. Agile is key.
Examples of Scrum Implementation in Cybersecurity
Many organizations have successfully adopted Scrum to enhance their cybersecurity posture. For example, one financial services company we spoke to used Scrum to rapidly develop and deploy security patches in response to a critical vulnerability, significantly reducing potential exposure. Another organization implemented Scrum to streamline its incident response process, enabling it to address and mitigate security incidents efficiently.
Questions Before Commitment
One of our customers, a small (but particularly vulnerable) US government agency, said these were the questions that concerned them prior to adoption:
How does Scrum fit into existing security operations?
Scrum can complement traditional security operations by adding a layer of agility and responsiveness. It’s especially effective for managing security projects, such as developing or customizing security tools or enhancing incident response capabilities.
Can Scrum work for smaller cybersecurity teams?
Absolutely. Scrum is scalable and can be adapted to teams of any size. For small teams, roles can be combined or shared if the principles of collaboration and iterative progress are maintained. Scrum actually recommends small teams of (no more than) nine people; however, if organizations are more extensive, the cybersecurity team is divided into smaller units that sporadically meet to discuss their current status.
How do we measure the success of Scrum cybersecurity?
Success can be measured through key performance indicators (KPIs), such as reduced incident response times, the number of vulnerabilities patched within a sprint, or improvements in security posture assessments.
What cybersecurity tools support Scrum’s working practices?
Incorporating Scrum methodologies into cybersecurity operations can be significantly enhanced by utilizing specialized tools and platforms designed for agile project management and security enhancement. Our clients recommended tools like Jira, Trello, and Azure DevOps, which are helpful in facilitating the core aspects, including backlog management, sprint planning, and progress tracking. These platforms offer the flexibility and visibility necessary for cybersecurity teams to adapt quickly to evolving threats and priorities.
Furthermore, integrating a platform like TrueFort into Scrum practices elevates the implementation by providing a focused approach to security management. Microsegmentation tools with identity threat detection and response capabilities, real-time behavior analytics, workload protection, and policy enforcement align seamlessly with Scrums’ iterative and responsive nature. By leveraging our platform, our clients say they can more efficiently identify and respond to security threats, ensuring that sprint tasks focus on development and operational goals incorporate critical security objectives.
We support Scrum working practices by:
- Enhancing Visibility: Offering comprehensive insights into application behavior and security posture, enabling teams to prioritize security tasks within their sprints effectively.
- Facilitating Rapid Response: Automating the detection and mitigation of threats with real-time behavior analytics supports the Scrum principle of fast-paced, iterative improvement.
- Improving Collaboration: Providing a shared platform for security and development teams to collaborate on identifying, tracking, and resolving security vulnerabilities.
- Supporting Continuous Improvement: Delivering actionable intelligence and feedback on security measures, allowing teams to refine their strategies in each sprint for ongoing enhancement.
By integrating tools like Jira, Trello, or Azure DevOps with the advanced security capabilities of the TrueFort Platform, cybersecurity teams can achieve a more agile, efficient, and secure implementation of Scrum methodologies. This combination ensures that security considerations are woven into the fabric of every sprint, enabling teams to deliver secure products and services swiftly.
An Agile and Responsive Future
Implementing Scrum within cybersecurity teams offers a pathway to more agile, responsive, and effective security operations. By fostering collaboration, enabling flexibility, and ensuring continuous improvement, Scrum has helped some of the organizations we work with to better protect against the current slew of ever-changing cyber threats. However, all the teams we spoke to emphasized that success requires a thoughtful adaptation of Scrum principles to the unique challenges of cybersecurity, along with an awareness of common pitfalls and a commitment to ongoing learning and adaptation.
As cybersecurity threats evolve, so must our strategies for combating them. Adopting Scrum for cybersecurity teams represents a proactive and increasingly popular approach and one more way to stay one step ahead in the current cyber arms race.
