# Secure Deployment



Software development teams require secure processes for deploying code changes and managing infrastructure to protect software systems from security threats.
Secure deployment encompasses a wide range of topics, including [authentication](/features/security/authentication), vulnerability scanning, [encryption](/features/security/encryption), configuration management, and networking.

This guide provides a high-level overview of the most important secure deployment practices we follow here at Socotra, and we highly recommend our customers follow these same guidelines.

Automation [#automation]

* Automate code deployments using CI/CD tools like GitHub or Jenkins.
* Automate infrastructure deployments using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform and AWS CloudFormation.
* Automate vulnerability scanning in build pipelines, including DAST, SAST, IAST, and SCA scans. Automatically block deployments if vulnerabilities are detected.

Authentication [#authentication]

* Require [authentication](/features/security/authentication) and [authorization](/features/security/roles-and-permissions) to access your application code, infrastructure, and CI/CD tools.
* Enforce [password](/features/security/password-policies) best practices.
* Enforce the [principle of least privilege ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_privilege).
* Implement [Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)](/features/security/roles-and-permissions).
* Store credentials, API keys, and encryption keys within a secure secrets management system like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager. Never store credentials in your GitHub repositories.

Administration [#administration]

* Identify and uphold [security standards](/features/security/regulations) relevant to your organization.
* Establish a Secure Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
* Perform continuous security testing using penetration testing, threat detection, threat modeling, IDS, IPS, and SIEM tools.
* Review deployment configurations on a regular basis.

Development [#development]

* Implement secure development best practices.
* Maintain separate development, QA, UAT, and production environments.
* Implement network security safeguards like firewalls, rate limiting, and DDoS protection.
* Implement [encryption](/features/security/encryption) best practices.
* Implement [cloud security best practices ](https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/security-identity-compliance/) for your cloud platform.
* Maintain a monitoring and alerting system using tools like Grafana and our [audit log](/features/security/audit-logging).

Next Steps [#next-steps]

* [Encryption](/features/security/encryption)

See Also [#see-also]

* [Security Overview](/features/security/security-overview)