Signal Sciences > Case Studies > Fastly + Betterment: Autoscaling Production Application Security in Betterment’s CI/CD Pipeline

Fastly + Betterment: Autoscaling Production Application Security in Betterment’s CI/CD Pipeline

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Event-Driven Application
Cybersecurity & Privacy - Application Security

Applicable Industries

Electrical Grids
National Security & Defense

Use Cases

Supply Chain Visibility
Tamper Detection

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Betterment is an online financial advisor with more than $14 billion in assets under management. The company supports a user base of over 380,000 customers who access its online platform. To cater to this large user base, the company spins up numerous web servers daily through its continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. The company's Engineering and Security teams were concerned about the signal-to-noise ratio and needed a solution that could automatically scale and accurately block attacks without increasing support call volume or creating more work for the teams.

The Challenge

Betterment, an online financial advisor with over $14 billion in assets under management and a user base of over 380,000 customers, needed a solution to protect customer PII and financial assets. The company spins up numerous web servers daily through its continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline, making it crucial to know if, when, and how their user accounts might be under attack. The biggest concern for Betterment’s Engineering and Security teams was the signal-to-noise ratio. They needed a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that could automatically scale and accurately block attacks without increasing support call volume or creating more work for the teams. The solution also needed to be able to block attacks without requiring ongoing signature tuning or impacting performance.

The Solution

Betterment adopted Signal Sciences to reduce the workload of its Security team by automating deployment and updates, and providing quick access to informed insights without compromising performance. To provision Signal Sciences, Betterment’s Operations team wrote a simple Ansible playbook. This ensured that any new application instance would automatically have Signal Sciences modules and agents installed as a part of its CI/CD pipeline. Signal Sciences provided robust security coverage out of the box that could block malicious requests without impacting the performance and availability of the application or increasing Betterment’s attack surface. The solution also provided easy-to-use dashboards for visibility, surfacing and reporting any detected vulnerabilities to the respective team for timely remediation. Additionally, Betterment used Power Rules to prevent attacks against their unique application logic and keep financial data safe.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Signal Sciences has resulted in a reduced workload for Betterment’s Security team by automating deployment and updates. The solution has also provided quick access to informed insights without compromising performance. The easy-to-use dashboards have improved visibility, allowing vulnerabilities to be surfaced and reported to the respective team for timely remediation. The solution has also provided robust security coverage that can block malicious requests without impacting the performance and availability of the application or increasing Betterment’s attack surface. The use of Power Rules has helped prevent attacks against their unique application logic, thereby keeping financial data safe.