Security Policy Enforcement and Behavioral Threat Detection in DevSecOps Pipelines

Purpose: The evolution of DevSecOps reflects a critical shift from traditional DevOps by embedding security seamlessly throughout the software development lifecycle. This research explores the convergence of security policy enforcement with behavioral threat detection within CI/CD pipelines, focusing on practices and tools. We discuss the limitations of legacy DevOps security approaches, including late-stage vulnerability identification and insufficient runtime protection, and highlight the rising need for behavior-based detection to counter advanced threats and insider breaches. Materials and Methods: While static analysis and Infrastructure-as-Code scanning are useful strategies for evaluating security policies, a more comprehensive approach examines both compliance-focused tools and behavioral monitoring techniques. Findings: Compliance as-code frameworks define policies that are automatically checked, yet anomaly detection within system calls, container events, and source code changes offers a dynamic perspective on threats. Previously, integration of these checks into CI/CD platforms like Jenkins and GitLab relied on manual security reviews of alerts and build checkpoints to demonstrate how security checkpoints and alerts were managed before the adoption of AI-driven automation. Through case studies such as the Solar Winds breach and practical pipeline examples, we illustrate how combined policy and behavior-based controls can enhance threat prevention. However, we also identify the significant challenges to solutions, including high false positive rates and limited cross-layer correlation capabilities. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Finally, the article looks ahead to the anticipated future of DevSecOps, emphasizing machine learning-driven behavior modelling, unified enforcement engines, and a zero-trust approach centered on identity and behavior analytics.