How do we keep build times from exploding?

Keep fast-path checks under a 5–7 minute P95 budget by focusing on high-signal rules (secrets, critical CVEs with fixes, critical IaC misconfigs). Push heavy scans (deep SAST/DAST, full license audits) to nightly jobs that create tickets. Track pipeline time as an SLO and enforce it.

What about legacy monoliths with no tests and shared prod data?

Start with read-only SBOM and image scanning to understand risk. Add secrets scanning and a dependency bot (Renovate). Introduce a data access broker and synthetic datasets before touching pipelines. Carve out a golden path service as a pilot and backport what works.

We’re under HIPAA/PCI—do we need specialized tools?

You need disciplined evidence, not vendor logos. Use SBOMs (Syft), attestations (Cosign/in-toto), policy-as-code (OPA), and strict key/secret management (Vault/KMS). Map controls to your policy matrix and export audit bundles per release.

How do we handle false positives without killing morale?

Triage findings by severity and novelty (new vs existing). Allow PR-scoped suppressions with justification and TTL. Tune rules weekly, measure accepted suppressions, and remove noisy checks. Put security engineers on monthly office hours with teams to fix root causes.

Where do we store proofs for auditors?

Store signed attestations, SBOMs, scan reports, and policy evaluation results in your artifact repository alongside images. Link them to releases via Git tags and keep a simple dashboard that exports a zip with an audit bundle on demand.

Security-compliance · Oct 3, 2025 · 9 minute read

Stop Writing Policy PDFs—Ship Guardrails in Code

If your security policy lives in Confluence, it’s already out of date. Translate rules into automated checks, proofs, and exceptions that fit the way developers actually work.

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Stop Writing Policy PDFs—Ship Guardrails in Code

Key takeaways

Implementation checklist