Managed DevSecOps Methodology

Release: Version 1.0

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Document

Field	Description
Name	Managed DevSecOps Methodology
Creators	Hacken OU
Subject	managed DevSecOps; secure cloud infrastructure; CI/CD security; AWS; GCP; smart contracts; dApp security; blockchain protocol; DeFi; Traditional Finance; key management; compliance enablement; risk management; threat modeling; SDLC
Description	This methodology defines the process for managing secure cloud infrastructure and CI/CD operations, organised around customer releases and ongoing production operations. It covers AWS and GCP environments, delivery pipelines, smart contracts, dApps/APIs, backend services, and supporting infrastructure of DeFi and Traditional Finance systems through dedicated service ownership, release-aligned security gates, and evidence-based operational practices. It also describes how the service supports compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, PCI DSS, and CCSS (key management).
Author	Grzegorz Trawiński | Offensive Security Services Director, Hacken OU
Date	November 4, 2026
Rights	Hacken OU

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Part 1. Purpose & Positioning

The Managed DevSecOps service provides ongoing management of secure cloud infrastructure and CI/CD operations, organised around the customer’s releases and ongoing production operations.

The service combines dedicated operational ownership, hands-on infrastructure management, secure release execution, and continuous security maintenance. Security controls advance in parallel with delivery rather than operating as a separate, point-in-time activity.

The methodology supports AWS and GCP cloud infrastructures and applies to:

• DeFi and Web3 systems — Protocols, smart contracts, decentralized applications, backend services, and supporting blockchain infrastructure.
• Traditional Finance systems — Financial applications, APIs, transaction-processing services, and supporting cloud environments.

The engagement follows two interconnected workstreams:

Workstream	Objective
Release-Aligned Delivery	Prepare, validate, approve, and execute customer releases through secure, controlled, and traceable workflows.
Ongoing Production Operations	Maintain infrastructure security, access controls, monitoring, resilience, and operational readiness between releases.

Managed DevSecOps is an ongoing operational service, not a one-time security audit. Independent assessments complement the service where required.

Expected Outcomes

Organizations engaging the service receive:

• Managed Cloud Security — Secure configuration and ongoing maintenance of agreed AWS and GCP environments.
• Secure Delivery Workflows — CI/CD pipelines with risk-based security checks, approval gates, and traceable execution.
• Release Readiness — Documented validation of infrastructure, configuration, artifacts, and recovery procedures before production changes.
• Operational Continuity — Ongoing management of configuration drift, vulnerabilities, access, secrets, and production changes.
• Incident and Recovery Preparedness — Maintained runbooks, escalation procedures, and tested recovery arrangements.
• Compliance Enablement — Technical controls and operational evidence supporting applicable compliance requirements.
• Clear Accountability — Defined ownership, decision-making authority, and escalation paths across customer and provider teams.

Part 2. Service Model & Accountability

Each engagement assigns a dedicated DevSecOps service owner, supported by engineers and security specialists according to the agreed scope.

The service owner maintains continuity across onboarding, implementation, releases, production operations, incidents, and compliance-support activities.

Provider Responsibilities

Within the agreed scope, the provider:

• Implements and maintains cloud infrastructure and CI/CD controls.
• Maintains infrastructure-as-code and operational documentation.
• Operates agreed monitoring, maintenance, and remediation workflows.
• Prepares and executes authorised release activities.
• Maintains security requirements, risk registers, and operational evidence.
• Coordinates specialist assessments and remediation where required.
• Escalates risks, incidents, and changes requiring customer decisions.

Customer Responsibilities

The customer retains ownership of:

• Business requirements, application functionality, and protocol economics.
• Business-logic risks and acceptance of residual risks.
• Release authorisation and material business decisions.
• Regulatory applicability, legal obligations, and regulatory filings.
• Designated governance, transaction-signing, and custody approvals.
• Systems and activities outside the managed scope.

Single Customer Decision Maker — The customer must appoint one accountable decision maker and approver for task priorities, task execution order, and the overall direction of DevSecOps support. This person consolidates customer-side requirements, resolves conflicting priorities, and provides approvals required to keep delivery aligned with customer objectives.

Operational access does not automatically grant authority over customer funds, production transactions, or protocol governance. These permissions must be explicitly defined and approved.

Engagement Parameters

The engagement charter defines:

• Managed accounts, projects, environments, repositories, and pipelines.
• Service hours and any agreed on-call coverage.
• Response targets and escalation procedures.
• Release cadence and maintenance windows.
• Change approval and emergency-change authority.
• Responsibility allocation for monitoring, patching, backups, and recovery.
• Access boundaries, key-management responsibilities, and evidence retention.
• The designated customer decision maker and approval workflow.

Part 3. Scope of Work

The service scope is tailored to the customer’s architecture, delivery cadence, operational needs, and dominant risk surfaces.

Managed AWS & GCP Infrastructure

The service covers secure configuration and ongoing maintenance of agreed AWS and GCP environments.

Activities include:

• Account and project organisation, with separation of development, testing, and production.
• Identity and access management, least privilege, privileged access, and periodic access reviews.
• Network segmentation, exposure controls, and secure connectivity.
• Secure configuration of compute, containers, storage, databases, and supporting services.
• Infrastructure-as-code implementation, review, and controlled deployment.
• Encryption configuration and cloud key-management controls.
• Centralised logging, security telemetry, and alerting.
• Configuration-drift detection and remediation.
• Vulnerability management and patching within agreed ownership boundaries.
• Backup configuration, restoration testing, and disaster recovery preparation.

Infrastructure changes follow the same approval and evidence principles as application releases.

Managed CI/CD Operations

The service implements and maintains delivery pipelines that integrate security checks into the normal release process.

Activities include:

• Repository access controls and branch protection.
• Change review and separation of duties.
• Build-runner security and isolation.
• Short-lived pipeline credentials where supported.
• Secrets scanning and secure secret injection.
• Static application security testing and dependency analysis.
• Infrastructure-as-code and container-image scanning, where applicable.
• Software bill of materials generation.
• Artifact integrity, provenance, and signing where appropriate.
• Controlled promotion between environments.
• Deployment approval gates and traceable execution.
• Post-deployment checks and recovery procedures.

Security gates are risk-based and agreed with the customer. Blocking conditions, exceptions, and risk-acceptance authority are documented before production use.

Ongoing Production Operations

Production operations form a core part of the engagement rather than an optional post-launch extension.

Activities include:

• Monitoring agreed infrastructure and security signals.
• Triage and escalation of operational alerts.
• Remediation of security-relevant configuration drift.
• Scheduled maintenance and vulnerability remediation.
• Access reviews, credential rotation, and removal of obsolete permissions.
• Backup and recovery validation.
• Capacity and availability management within scope.
• Review of production changes and emerging risks.
• Maintenance of incident response and disaster recovery runbooks.
• Operational reviews and improvement tracking.

Monitoring coverage, response hours, and incident-handling responsibilities are explicitly agreed. Continuous engagement does not, by itself, imply round-the-clock coverage.

Part 4. DeFi & Traditional Finance Application

The methodology uses a common cloud and delivery foundation, with controls adapted to each customer’s risk surface.

Area	DeFi / Web3	Traditional Finance
Managed Infrastructure	dApp backends, APIs, indexers, RPC services, nodes, and agreed protocol dependencies.	Financial applications, APIs, databases, integrations, and transaction-processing infrastructure.
Release Scope	Protocol or contract deployments, upgrades, governance-related changes, and associated off-chain releases.	Application releases, infrastructure changes, integration updates, and database migrations.
Release Validation	Contract artifacts, deployment parameters, privileged roles, upgrade authority, and post-deployment state.	Application configuration, access controls, data protection, migration integrity, and service health.
Sensitive Authority	Deployment keys, administrator roles, multisig signers, and protocol governance permissions.	Production administration, service identities, sensitive-data access, and privileged operational actions.
Recovery Planning	Off-chain rollback and protocol-specific pause, upgrade, or recovery mechanisms where available.	Application rollback, restoration, failover, and migration recovery.
Compliance Support	Applicable organisational controls and CCSS-aligned key-management practices.	Applicable ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and PCI DSS controls and evidence.

DeFi & Protocol Release Controls

For protocols and smart contracts, the methodology additionally addresses:

• Traceability between reviewed source code, build artifacts, and deployment transactions.
• Validation of deployment scripts, network selection, and configuration parameters.
• Verification of initialisation, ownership, permissions, and upgrade controls.
• Deployment rehearsals in suitable non-production environments.
• Defined signing and transaction-approval procedures.
• Post-deployment verification of contract addresses, deployed code, and critical state.
• Monitoring of agreed privileged-role changes and security-relevant on-chain events.
• Coordination with smart contract audits and other independent assessments.

On-chain changes are not assumed to be reversible. Recovery planning distinguishes off-chain rollback from contract upgrades, pause mechanisms, and other explicitly available protocol controls.

Traditional Finance Controls

For Traditional Finance customers, the methodology additionally emphasises:

• Separation of development, approval, and production execution duties.
• Traceable changes and documented production authorisation.
• Protection of personal and payment-related data where applicable.
• Controlled service identities and privileged access.
• Evidence retention and access restrictions.
• Tested restoration and continuity procedures.
• Mapping operational controls to the customer’s applicable compliance scope.

Part 5. Engagement Flow

The engagement follows a structured lifecycle aligned with customer releases and continuous production operations.

Phase 1: Scoping & Service Definition

Objective: Establish the managed boundary, responsibilities, operating model, and success criteria.

Activities:

• Environment Discovery — Identify AWS and GCP environments, applications, pipelines, and production dependencies.
• Delivery Requirements Review — Review customer release practices, maintenance needs, and operational requirements.
• Compliance Scope Alignment — Identify applicable compliance objectives and sensitive-data boundaries.
• Accountability Definition — Confirm the customer’s single decision maker and define access, signing authority, approval responsibilities, service hours, and escalation.
• Operational Framework — Agree on release gates, reporting cadence, and evidence requirements.
• Long-Term Work Estimation — Prepare a ballpark estimate of the planned longer-term work, including initial implementation, expected release support, recurring maintenance, and ongoing production operations. Document assumptions, dependencies, and uncertainties for refinement after the initial assessment.

Deliverables:

• Engagement charter.
• Managed asset and environment inventory.
• Responsibility matrix.
• Initial service objectives and operational targets.
• Ballpark estimate and initial roadmap for planned longer-term work.

Phase 2: Initial Security & Operational Posture Assessment

Objective: Establish a baseline for secure delivery and production operations.

Activities:

• Architecture & Configuration Review — Review cloud configurations, repositories, pipelines, and supporting systems.
• Threat Modeling & Attack Surface Mapping — Identify trust boundaries, privileged roles, external interfaces, and sensitive dependencies.
• Operational Readiness Review — Assess secrets, key-management practices, logging, backups, and recovery arrangements.
• Gap Analysis — Identify operational weaknesses and applicable compliance-control gaps.
• Remediation Prioritisation — Prioritise improvements according to risk and delivery dependencies.

Deliverables:

• Initial threat model and risk register.
• Cloud and CI/CD baseline assessment.
• Prioritised remediation backlog.
• Initial compliance-control mapping.

Phase 3: Managed Baseline Implementation

Objective: Establish the controls required to operate the service safely.

Activities:

• Infrastructure & Pipeline Improvements — Implement agreed security and operational changes.
• Controlled Change Workflows — Establish infrastructure-as-code, review, approval, and deployment practices.
• Monitoring & Evidence Collection — Configure agreed security checks, alerting, and evidence sources.
• Access & Secrets Management — Implement approved access restrictions and secrets-management controls.
• Runbook Preparation — Prepare release, incident, and recovery procedures.
• Operational Validation — Validate service access, escalation paths, and baseline controls.
• Continuous Task Estimation — Continuously estimate upcoming tasks as technical details, dependencies, and customer priorities become clearer. Review estimates with the customer’s designated decision maker and update the backlog, task order, and delivery plan accordingly. Continue this practice throughout release support and ongoing operations.

Deliverables:

• Managed infrastructure and pipeline configurations.
• Documented security baseline.
• Operational runbooks.
• Baseline validation results and recorded exceptions.
• Updated task estimates and prioritised implementation plan.

Phase 4: Release-Aligned DevSecOps Operations

Objective: Apply repeatable security and operational controls to each in-scope release.

Stage	Activities
Plan	Identify changes, dependencies, security implications, and required assessments.
Prepare	Review infrastructure and pipeline changes; validate configuration, secrets, and recovery plans.
Validate	Run agreed checks, verify artifacts, and review unresolved findings.
Approve	Record release authorisation and accepted exceptions.
Deploy	Execute authorised deployment steps with traceable access and activity records.
Verify	Check application health, configuration, permissions, and relevant on-chain state.
Stabilise	Apply agreed heightened monitoring, resolve issues, and close release evidence.

Deliverables:

• Release readiness checklist.
• Security-check results and exception records.
• Deployment and approval records.
• Post-deployment verification.
• Updated risk register and operational documentation.

Phase 5: Continuous Production Operations

Objective: Sustain the security and operational readiness of managed environments between releases.

Activities:

• Operational Monitoring & Maintenance — Monitor, triage, maintain, and remediate within the agreed scope.
• Continuous Security Review — Review configuration drift, vulnerabilities, access, and key lifecycles.
• Recovery Validation — Validate backups and recovery procedures.
• Incident Preparedness — Conduct incident exercises and review operational events.
• Living Documentation Maintenance — Refresh threat models, runbooks, risk registers, and control evidence as systems change.

Deliverables:

• Periodic operational and security posture summaries.
• Maintenance and remediation records.
• Access-review and recovery-test evidence.
• Updated runbooks, risk register, and compliance evidence.

Phase 6: Transition or Service Closure

Objective: Transfer operational control without leaving unmanaged access or undocumented dependencies.

Deliverables:

• Infrastructure, pipeline, and runbook handover.
• Outstanding risks and remediation backlog.
• Transfer of agreed operational records.
• Revocation of provider access and credentials.
• Key and secret rotation where required by the transition plan.

Part 6. Compliance Enablement

The service helps customers implement, maintain, and demonstrate technical and operational controls supporting compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and PCI DSS, according to the applicable engagement scope.

It also supports CCSS requirements in the area of cryptocurrency key management.

Framework	Service Contribution
ISO 27001	Supports the customer’s Information Security Management System through access controls, asset records, secure changes, vulnerability management, logging, incident procedures, and operational evidence.
SOC 2	Supports relevant controls through documented approvals, access reviews, monitoring, change traceability, recovery testing, and evidence collection.
GDPR	Supports security of personal-data processing through access restrictions, encryption, secure configuration, logging, retention controls, and incident-handling procedures.
PCI DSS	Supports applicable cloud and delivery controls through segmentation, secure configuration, access management, vulnerability remediation, logging, and controlled changes.
CCSS — Key Management	Supports applicable cryptocurrency key-management controls through documented generation, storage, access, use, backup, recovery, rotation, and compromise-response practices.

Activities include:

• Mapping agreed controls to applicable requirements.
• Assigning control owners and evidence sources.
• Automating evidence collection where practical.
• Tracking gaps and remediation.
• Preparing technical evidence for customer compliance teams and independent assessors.

The service does not itself constitute certification, attestation, or a guarantee of compliance. Technical operations support—but do not replace—organisational governance, legal assessment, and independent evaluation.

Part 7. Key Management & CCSS Support

The methodology distinguishes between cloud encryption keys, application secrets, deployment credentials, and cryptocurrency signing keys. Each category has different authority, exposure, and recovery requirements.

For in-scope cryptocurrency keys, CCSS support focuses on:

• Key Inventory & Authority Mapping — Document each key’s purpose, ownership, and permitted use.
• Generation & Provisioning — Establish approved key-generation and provisioning procedures.
• Secure Storage & Signing — Define protected storage and signing arrangements.
• Access & Separation of Duties — Restrict access and separate operational responsibilities.
• Approval Controls — Implement multi-party approval or multisignature arrangements where appropriate.
• Backup & Recovery — Protect backups and validate recovery procedures.
• Auditability — Record key access, signing approvals, and lifecycle changes.
• Compromise Response — Define rotation, revocation, and suspected-compromise procedures.
• Operational Validation — Conduct documented key-management and recovery exercises.

Private signing keys must not be exposed in source code, build logs, artifacts, or general-purpose pipeline variables. Where signing is required, the workflow should use an approved protected signing mechanism.

Supporting CCSS key-management controls does not imply full CCSS compliance or provider custody of customer assets. Compliance scope and custody responsibilities must be explicitly agreed.

Part 8. Deliverables & Artifacts

The engagement maintains a living set of operational and security artifacts.

Artifact	Purpose
Engagement Charter & Responsibility Matrix	Define scope, authority, decision-making, and operational ownership.
Architecture & Asset Inventory	Record managed systems, dependencies, and trust boundaries.
Threat Model & Risk Register	Track evolving threats, mitigations, owners, and accepted risks.
Infrastructure & CI/CD Configurations	Maintain reviewable, version-controlled operational implementation.
Work Estimates & Delivery Backlog	Maintain the initial longer-term estimate and continuously refined upcoming tasks.
Release Evidence Package	Record checks, approvals, deployment execution, and verification.
Operational Runbooks	Support routine maintenance, incidents, recovery, and escalation.
Compliance-Control & Evidence Register	Link applicable requirements to controls, owners, and evidence.
Key-Management Documentation	Record key authority, lifecycle controls, and recovery arrangements.
Periodic Service Report	Summarise releases, operational events, risks, remediation, and improvement priorities.

Reporting frequency and retention periods are established in the engagement charter.

Part 9. Service Measurement

Success criteria are agreed during onboarding and reviewed throughout the engagement.

Measures may include:

• Coverage of agreed infrastructure and pipeline controls.
• Release adherence to approval and validation requirements.
• Remediation performance against agreed risk-based targets.
• Configuration-drift detection and resolution.
• Completion of access reviews and key-management activities.
• Backup restoration and recovery-test outcomes.
• Completeness of required release and compliance evidence.
• Operational response performance within contracted coverage.

Targets are defined for each engagement rather than assumed to be universal.

Part 10. Service Boundaries & Complementary Assessments

Managed DevSecOps does not automatically include:

• Full smart contract or application business-logic audits.
• Penetration testing or red team engagements.
• Formal compliance certification or attestation.
• Legal advice or regulatory submissions.
• Custody of cryptocurrency assets.
• Unrestricted transaction-signing or governance authority.
• Round-the-clock monitoring or incident response.

These activities require explicit scope or separate engagements.

Independent smart contract assessments, deployment reviews, penetration tests, and compliance assessments can be coordinated as complementary controls. Their findings feed into the managed remediation and release process.

Disclaimer

The Managed DevSecOps service operates within the environments, permissions, responsibilities, and coverage agreed for each engagement. Security posture and operational requirements may change as code, infrastructure, dependencies, and threats evolve.

Continuous maintenance, customer participation, timely approvals, and periodic reassessment are required to sustain the effectiveness of implemented controls.

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